Eva Longoria has named Adriana Martínez Barrón as vice president of film at her UnbeliEVAble Entertainment production banner.
“We are very excited to welcome Adriana to the UnbeliEVAble team,” says Longoria. “Adriana is someone who champions the values of UnbeliEVAble Entertainment, and with our continued focus on elevating underrepresented voices and stories in the Latinx space, her experience in both development and production and meaningfully spotlighting new talent will serve as a huge asset to our team and ultimately the many stories that need to be told.”
In her new role, Martínez Barrón will oversee the company’s film development via their deal with ViacomCBS’ MTV Entertainment Group (MTVE), which was announced last fall as an initiative to give more people of color and women opportunities at directing made-for-television movies. As part of this new pact, MTVE pairs Longoria and other A-List producers with first-time BIPOC and women directors. She’s a graduate of the Peter Stark Producing Program MFA at USC and got her start in the U.S. as a development assistant for Sofia Vergara’s Latin World Entertainment. She began her career in her native Monterrey, Mexico, working her way up on set as an art and production coordinator in TV series, music videos and commercials.
Martínez Barrón was most recently at Netflix, where she oversaw Latin America content acquisitions and original series in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Spain. During her time at the streamer, she oversaw all creative aspects of a robust and varied slate of features, including the most recent season of “Luis Miguel: The Series.” Before joining Netflix, she worked as creative executive at Eugenio Derbez’s production company 3Pas Studios. She oversaw the feature “Y Como es Él” for Pantelion and the first season of “LOL: Laugh Out Loud Mexico” for Amazon.
“Joining the UnbeliEVAble team is a dream come true. To fight alongside such strong leaders like Eva to get these inspiring stories told is something I wake up and look forward to every day. UnbeliEVAble has an incredible track record of prioritizing efforts to empower women and the Latinx community. I look forward to joining this team that champions broad representation in storytelling and provides opportunities to diverse talent both in front of and behind the camera,” said Martínez Barrón.
Some of the upcoming film projects from UnbeliEVAble include the workplace comedy “24/7” for Universal Pictures in which Longoria will direct and star opposite Kerry Washington, the action-comedy “Spa Day,” which she will also direct for Sony Pictures, and “A Class Apart,” which tells the incredible true story of a group of Mexican Americans fighting for their civil rights during a landmark case that leads all the way to the Supreme Court for HBO. Its past film credits include the Emmy Award-nominated documentary “Reversing Roe” and Lionsgate’s “John Wick.”
Longoria is also set to direct Searchlight’s “Flamin’ Hot,” a biopic about the man who created the spicy Flamin’ Hot Cheetos later this year.