“To be in the hands of the Godfather of contemporary comedy television is a dream”: Ignacio Diaz-Silverio and fellow cast on Primo

Award-winning writer Shea Serrano unmasks his talent in the world of television with this new eight-episode comedy-drama series, Primo. Teaming up with producer Michael Schur (The Office, Parks and Recreation, The Good Place), and an incredibly talented cast of established and new actors, he brings to the screen a semi-autobiographical story about family, romance, friendship and morality. 

The fantastic script is peppered with humour, centring on a 16-year-old called Rafa (Ignacio Diaz-Silverio) who, being raised by his mother Drea (Vidal) and five uncles, begins to feel the pull of the outside world and the choices he must make for his future. Through the lens of this coming-of-age drama, he finds himself stretched in different directions by his well-intentioned family, who are overtly vocal about the paths they think he should follow. 

The Upcoming had the pleasure of speaking to Vidal and Diaz-Silverio about playing mother and son and building their relationship on-screen, the importance of family and how that plays out in the series, plus some of their favourite moments from filming. Diaz-Silverio also touched on he felt taking on such a central character in the show.

Johnny Rey Diaz, Jonathan Medina and Efrain Villa chatted about their contrasting characters in the series and how the different episodes shaped the paths that they were on. They also spoke about some of the more memorable moments on set and some of the key themes that stood out in the story.

Serrano and executive producer Mike Shur about their collaboration on the show, as well as the choice they both made to shoot it using a single camera and the intended result of that decision. They also talked about the casting process and the filming that took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

We spoke to Henri Esteve and Carlos Santos about their roles as the interfering uncles, what drew them to the project and what the audition process was like. They also told us about some of the highlights from the series and how the brilliant writing from Serrano jumped off the page but still left space for them to improvise some of their scene work.

Ezelle Alblas

Primo is released on Amazon Freevee on 19^th May 2023.

Watch the trailer for Primo here: