Writer Producer Rick Najera and Host Kurt Kelly on ActorsE Chat
California born Rick Najera started his artistic career as an actor. He is an award-winning actor-writer-director-producer with credits in film, television, theatre and Broadway. Early in his career he was inspired and mentored by Oscar-winning actress Whoopi Goldberg, Keenen Ivory Wayans and comic legend Cheech Marin. Realizing there were few roles for him to play, he took matters into his own hands and started writing his way into Hollywood, and landed his first big writing gig on In Living Color. Rick Najera is one of three Latinos in the history of Broadway to write and star in his own show. Najera made his Broadway debut in 2005 with his award-winning sketch comedy show, Latinologues (TM), the longest running and only showcase of its kind for Latinos in America. Najera penned the holiday film Nothing Like the Holidays starring Debra Messing, Alfred Molina and John Leguizamo, which won him an Alma Award. He was also honored with two WGA nominations for his writing on MADtv. Najera has been honored twice as ‘100 Most Influential Latinos in America’. In 2013, Rick Najera’s fourth book was released, ‘Almost White: Forced Confessions of a Latino in Hollywood’ garnering a press tour and five-star reviews on Amazon.com. In 2014, Najera directed the annual CBS Sketch Comedy Showcase for the ninth consecutive year. Rick Najera is a regular contributor to NPR radio and is also a professional speaker with a portfolio of keynote speeches at Harvard Law School, Wellesley College, Stanford and Google.
Rick Najera on IMDb
This episode of ActorsE Chat was co-produced by Pepper Jay Productions LLC and Live Video Inc.
ActorsE Chat is a Live Chat Show on Actors Entertainment, a channel on the Actors Podcast Network, a Pepper Jay Production.