Making A Difference: Filipino Talent Owning Character Roles in 2016

Summary by Edwin A. Santos

Saturday, December 31, 2016

 : @Edwin_A_Santos     |      : Edwin A. Santos

Talent manager Phil Brock forwarded to me (a day after his participation at our 2nd Annual FilAm Creative Actors Panel & Networking Event back on June 4th) a blog titled, Dear Manager X.  Written by actress Aina Dumlao on June 6th, she wrote about her experience with a potential manager between reps where he said, “You’re Filipino? Hmmmm (picks up her headshot and stares at it with a frown on his face). I just want to be upfront, all you’re gonna get are co-star roles.” [link].  If you look at her IMDb now, you can see she is currently recurring on CBS’ MacGyver with four episodes that aired this year and a new episode scheduled to air next year.

In a climate where prominent Asian film roles are cast with non-Asian actors, the 2015 – 2016 television season has seen an increase of Asian American roles. Most notably, Filipino American actors between principal to recurring roles seen on primetime television on a weekly basis. And, influencing cinema and the world wide web combined.  Today, we would like to highlight the following performers of Filipino descent of 2016…

Zedrick Restauro as ‘Preston’ on MTV’s “Teen Wolf”

Sheila Tejada as ‘Nurse’ on Showtime’s “Ray Donovan”

Mig Macario as ‘Bashful’ on ABC’s “Once Upon A Time”

JB Tadena as ‘Edward Torres’ on CBS’s “Hawaii Five-O”

Nico Santos as ‘Mateo’ on NBC’s “Superstore”

Tess Paras as ‘Jayma Chan’ on the CW’s “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”

Ellen D. Williams as ‘Nicole’ on FX’s “Baskets”

Joy Regullano as ‘Ruby Chan’ on the CW’s “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”

Minerva Vier as ‘Assistant’ on Showtime’s “DICE”

         Chuti Tiu as ‘Tara Ashton’ on CMT’s “Nashville”

Angela Relucio as ‘Risa Park’ on CBS’ “Code Black”

Aina Dumlao as ‘Assistant’ on ABC’s “Last Man Standing”

Lou Diamond Phillips as ‘Henry Standing Bear’ in Netflix’s “Longmire”

Aina Dumlao as “Andi Lee” on CBS’ “MacGyver”

Eugene Cordero as ‘Bass Guitarist’ on “Ghostbusters”

Jessalyn Wanlim as ‘Evie Cho’ in the BBC’s “Orphan Black”

Eugene Cordero as ‘Kai, the Hotel Manager’ on “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates”

       Sharon Leal as ‘M’gann M’orzz’ on the CW’s “Supergirl”

   Conrad Ricamora as ‘Oliver Hampton’ on ABC’s “How To Get Away With Murder”

Kimee Balmilero as ‘Dr. Noelani Cunha’ on CBS’ “Hawaii Five-O”

     Jaclyn Hernandez and Tony Garbanzos on “Filipino American Hall of Fame” web series

 Melanie Anne Padernal, Josephine Leily and Marc Fajardo on “Get Used To It” web series

  Amanda Joy as ‘Jennifer ‘Mo’ Monteloyola’ on the City’s “Second Jen”

Rodney To on Amazon’s “Wake Up, America!”

 Manny Jacinto as ‘Jianyu Li / Jason Mendoza’ on NBC’s “The Good Place”

Tamlyn Tomita as ‘Sandra Abe” on EPIX’s “Berlin Station”

                           Teo Briones as ‘Ethan McFadden’ in FOX’s “Lethal Weapon”

Joel de la Fuente as ‘Inspector Kido’ in Amazon Studios’ “The Man In High Castle”

Ginger Gonzaga as ‘Christy’ on HBO’s “Togetherness”

Martha Millan as ‘Claudelle Sosa’ and Brandon Perea as ‘French’ on Netflix’s “The OA”

Jason Rogel as ‘Sean’ on TV Land’s “Impastor”

     Hailee Steinfeld as ‘Nadine’ on “The Edge of Seventeen”

                    Vincent Rodriguez III as ‘Josh Chan’ on The CW’s “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”

Alec Mapa as ‘Lynn Johnstone’ on FOX’s “Scream Queens”

TJ Perkins on USA Network’s “WWE Raw”

Who Filipino audiences are looking forward to seeing in 2017 and thereafter?

Eugene Cordero on Kong: Skull Island, Vanessa Hudgens on Powerless on NBC, Shay Mitchell and Nia Peeples on the final season of Pretty Little Liars on FreeForm, Liza Lapira on A Little Something For Your Birthday, Deric McCabe on A Wrinkle In Time, Lexa Doig on Arrow on the CW, Dave Bautista on Guardians Of The Galaxy: Volume 2, Reggie Lee on the final season of Grimm on NBC, Melanie Anne Padernal on Bernard and Huey, Jacob Batalon and Ethan Dizon on Spiderman: Homecoming, Jason Rogel on Love By The 10th Date on Lifetime Television, Bob Morley in The 100 on the CW, Angela Relucio on Six on the History Channel, Marc Fajardo in The Leisure Seeker, Jessalyn Wanlim in CBC’s Workin’ Moms and Charlene deGuzman, Gigette Reyes and Abe Pagtama on Unlovable. As well as everyone else mentioned on our lists.

We may be missing many more.  So, if you’re Filipino and have an upcoming project in 2017, whether it is in front of the camera or behind-the-scenes, let us know!

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