Melissa Barrera has been cast in the lead role of the Netflix drama series “Breathe.”
Variety exclusively reported that the series had been ordered at the streamer back in February. Barrera will star as Liv, a razor-sharp Manhattan attorney who finds herself profoundly out of her comfort zone when her small plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness and she must battle for survival.
Barrera got her start in acting in her native Mexico on shows like “Siempre tuya Acapulco” and “Tanto amor.” She also starred in the Netflix series “Club de Cuervos,” which as the streaming service’s first Spanish-language original.
She is best known in the U.S. for her starring role in the Starz series “Vida” from creator Tanya Saracho. That show ran for three seasons and wrapped up with its series finale last year on the premium cabler. Up next, Barrera will appear as Vanessa in the film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “In the Heights,” which is due to hit theaters and HBO Max on June 11. After that, she will appear in the reboot of the horror film franchise “Scream,” which is slated for a January 2022 release.
Barrera is repped by WME, Sugar23, Gang Tyre, and Wolf-Kasteler.
Netflix has ordered six one-hour episodes of “Breathe.” Martin Gero and Brendan Gall are co-writing and executive producing the series, with Gero executive producing under his Quinn’s House Production company. Warner Bros. Television will produce. Gero and Quinn’s House were previously under an overall deal at WBTV before he moved over to Universal Television last year.