When COVID unexpectedly shut down the LA comedy clubs, Latina stand-up comedian, writer and actress Carlie Mantilla used the time away from the stage to try something completely different: she wrote a Christmas TV movie. Angel Falls Christmas will premiere exclusively on GAC Family on Friday, November 26 at 8PM ET. The movie stars Jessicа Lowndes as Ally, а workаholic doctor who breаks up with her boyfriend just before Christmаs. However, а chаnce encounter with а hаndsome bаristа (Chаd Michаel Murrаy) mаy be just whаt she needs to shаke her holidаy blues.
Mantilla co-wrote the screenplay with her fiance John Eliot Jordan (Loudermilk) and also appears in the movie. “We were in the middle of COVID, and at the time we were quarantining with John’s grandma for a few weeks on Cape Cod. We’d write all day in her basement while she read Bitcoin books and played online bridge tournaments. Then at 6 on the dot, she’d call us up for a glass of chardonnay and some cheese. It was the perfect environment to write a festive holiday rom com!”
Mantilla and Jordan have several other projects in development, including two other TV movies. Mantilla’s roots and sensibility, however, remain very much comedic. A fixture on the LA comedy standup scene, she was previously named “Best Comedian in L.A.” by Los Angeles Magazine. .
“I was incredibly fortunate to have two amazing comedy mentors, Rocco Urbisci and Lily Tomlin, who not only helped shape who I am as a comedian and actress but who also gave me priceless advice on how to navigate a career in this industry.”
As a Latina woman in Hollywood, Mantilla is excited by the recent call for more authentic Latinx representation. “For years when I’d go on auditions for Latina characters, I’d read for really one-dimensional, stereotypical parts that didn’t reflect at all what I knew to be true. The Latino community is so much more than what the industry’s portrayed us as.”
Despite the recent attention given to this issue, Latinx creatives remain grossly underrepresented in the entertainment industry, particularly behind the camera. According to the 2020 WGAW Inclusion Report, an estimated 4.7% of screenwriters and 8.7% of TV writers are Latinx. Furthermore, according to UCLA’s Hollywood Diversity Report 2021: Pandemic in Progress, among the top 185 English-language films released in 2020, about 3% of credited writers were Latinx.
Mantilla is currently co-writing a comedy pilot (with Jordan and his brother, Tommy Jordan) inspired by some of her own experiences from her time as one of the only non-white teens in a nearly all-white town in Idaho.
“I spent part of my childhood in Mexico and the other part in the States. American kids thought I was weird for listening to Grupo Limite instead of N*SYNC. But Mexican kids thought I was just as weird for constantly quoting Kenan and Kel–my orange soda bit never landed!”
Although Mantilla was a teen trying to navigate between these two worlds, the pilot centers on a 30-year-old Mexican-American woman whose life–and identity–get turned upside down when she goes to Mexico for the first time.
“Are you Mexican enough? Are you American enough? I think it’s an ongoing process for so many of us that we just haven’t seen on TV, let alone in a comedy. There’s a real hunger out there for authentic stories about nuanced Latina protagonists,” said Mantilla.
Mantilla’s sense of this “hunger” isn’t unfounded. According to a 2020 report from Nielsen, Latinx people contribute more to US population growth than any other group and will reach $2.3 trillion in buying power by 2024. Latinx households were more likely than US households overall to have at least one SVOD subscription and, since the start of the pandemic, 70% of the Latinx people surveyed said they had increased the amount of time spent watching movies or series on SVOD.
“I don’t think we can wait around for good parts. I think we have to create our own opportunities and that’s what inspires me to keep writing,” said Mantilla.
“You hear the advice to write the story you wish you could come upon. That’s what this show is for me. A show where a Latina can see herself in an authentic way–and hopefully laugh a lot because it’s, you know, a comedy.”
