Diane Guerrero To Star In CBS Immigration Drama From ‘Jane the Virgin’ Producers
Jane the Virgin recurring guest star Diane Guerrero has partnered with three key auspices behind the CW dramedy — executive producer/showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman, executive producer Ben Silverman and co-executive producer Paul Sciarrotta — for In the Country We Love, a drama project that has been set up at CBS.
Guerrero is attached to star in the drama, based on her memoir. Jane producer CBS TV Studios, where Urman is under an overall deal, is the studio.
Written by Sciarrotta, In the Country We Love centers on a successful corporate attorney who starts taking pro bono cases for undocumented immigrants after her past as the child of deported parents is revealed by a family emergency.
Sciarrotta, Urman and Guerrero executive produce alongside Silverman though his new company, Propagate Content.
Guerrero’s memoir In the Country We Love: My Family Divided, co-written with bestselling author Michelle Burford, chronicles Guerrero’s harrowing experience as a teenager. She was 14 when her parents were taken from their Boston home by immigration agents and deported to their native Colombia while she was at school. From then on, Guerrero, who was born in the U.S., had to rely on the kindness of family friends.
Guerrero was named a White House Ambassador for Citizenship and Naturalization in 2015 and is an outspoken advocate for common-sense, comprehensive immigration reform, having worked with Immigrant Legal Resource Center and Mi Familia Vota, a nonpartisan Latino civic engagement organization to promote citizenship and voter registration.
This is the second broadcast drama project in development for next season that touches on the hot-button issue of immigration, along with the CW’s Casa, from Warner Bros TV and Berlanti Prods.
Guerrero probably is best known for her role as Maritza Ramos on Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black. She plays Jane’s (Gina Rodriguez) best friend Lina on Jane the Virgin. Guerrero is repped by Abrams Artists Agency, Vamnation Entertainment and attorney Ryan LeVine.
Before joining Urman’s Jane the Virgin, Sciarrotta worked on her CW medical drama series Emily Owens, M.D. Both are repped by UTA.
Jane the Virgin returns for a third season on October 17.
Related stories
CBS Nabs Modern-Day Robin Hoods Drama From 'Scorpion' Team As Put Pilot
Can CBS And Viacom Investors See Eye-To-Eye On Merger Numbers?
Viacom's New Directors Will Lead Committee Weighing CBS Deal
Get more from Deadline.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
