Nearly six months after the series debuted via Latin American Netflix, Nicky Jam’s El Ganador is finally available to U.S. and Puerto Rico subscribers today. The dramatized authorized biography lays out how the reggaetón giant came to be—the good and the bad and everything else that’s shaped him.
El Ganador covers a lot: Nicky Jam’s childhood hardships in Boston, moving to Barrio Obrero in Puerto Rico at 10 years old, battling drug addiction as a young adult and onto the explosion of reggaetón in Puerto Rico and his major role in its ascent, including the early days in Los Cangris alongside Daddy Yankee.
Young Nicky Jam is played by actor Avery Rodríquez, then artist and actor Darkiel, while Jam himself assumes the job of portraying his adult years. Keep an eye out for other reggaetón industry staples—Raphy Pina, Ñengo Flow, De La Ghetto and Miky Woodz, for example—taking on other characters. Oh, and J Balvin’s in there too.
Helmed by Dominican-American director and music video producer Jessy Terrero, the 13-episode series has been applauded for its translation of the personal to the universal: There are issues within that reflect a breadth of realities that reach beyond Nicky Jam’s life alone.
As Terrero told Forbes last year: “The series story arc is one of renewal and redemption, which are timeless themes, Nickyʼs journey shows the viewer that if you follow your passion, then anything is possible.”