With her film Miss Bala having played theaters earlier this year, her first (of presumably) several forays as the fedora-wearing criminal Carmen Sandiego for Netflix, and the final season of Jane the Virgin on the air, actress Gina Rodriguez is on a roll with new projects and one is set for Disney. Disney+ is the new streaming service the company is putting out later in the year and they’ve given a series greenlight for Diary of a Female President, with Rodriguez as executive producer.
The series will be a single-camera, half-hour comedy of ten episodes following a 12-year-old Cuban-American girl whose diary entries see her journey through middle school on the road to becoming the president of the United States. CBS is producing the series in conjunction with Rodriguez’s I Can and I Will Productions. Cuban-American writer Ilana Peña created the series and will be scripting the show. Peña has previously worked on The CW series, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, making this the first series she’s created.
The premise of the series sounds adorable. In the wake of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s popularity it’s great to see other shows place Latinx characters in positions of power. The high-concept premise is straight out of a Disney Channel Original Movie and should appeal to fans of the network, new and old. Rodriguez has her own past workings with Disney, lending her voice to a recent episode of Elena of Avalor. What’s great is seeing Rodriguez attach her name to so many diverse projects and slowly working her way up the ladder to major networks. Between the upcoming Jane the Virgin spinoff and this series, 2019 is coming up Rodriguez!