Univision and Story House Alums Launch Production Banner Dubbed Immigrant

By Anna Marie de la Fuente

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Former Story House Entertainment CEO Camila Jiménez-Villa and Silvana Aguirre, creator and showrunner of “El Chapo,” have joined forces to launch a production company dubbed the Immigrant.

Based in Los Angeles and Miami, Immigrant will develop and produce premium content in the U.S., Latin America and Spain. The shingle will focus on multicultural stories and talent in the United States, while sourcing stories with international appeal from Latin America and Spain.

New company has up to seven English-language and Spanish-language scripted projects in development, including a co-production with Italian production house Wildside (“The Young Pope”, “My Brilliant Friend”) to be helmed by Argentine award-winning writer-director Lucia Puenzo (“The German Doctor”). Aguirre’s new series, of which details are still under wraps, will enter production in late 2019 in Mexico.

Immigrant will primarily focus on developing scripted and unscripted content for television, but will also produce a few select film projects in the U.S.

Company joins a growing list of production startup ventures as the demand for premium content expands into the Spanish-language arena. That’s prompted the launch of a number of Hispanic boutique production companies.

Jiménez-Villa spearheaded Univision and Fusion Media Group’s five-show output deal with Netflix, which included the production of the scripted Spanish language drama series, “Tijuana” and docu-series “Murder Mountain” and “Who Killed Malcolm X.”

“We believe that audiences are increasingly craving content that pushes the limits of their cultural comfort zones. We see this thesis being confirmed across markets, demographics and mediums,” said Jiménez-Villa.

“By elevating and working with the best creative voices across geographies, the Immigrant is well positioned to take full advantage of this cultural shift,” she added.

Aguirre, an award-winning director and writer, was Creative Director of Development at Univision and UniMas before writing and showrunning the Netflix hit, “El Chapo.” “El Chapo,” which Jiménez-Villa executive produced, wrapped its third season on Netflix last year.

“Our mission is to tell stories that take audiences beyond their physical and emotional spaces in ways that make them feel intrinsically interconnected while celebrating their uniqueness,” said Aguirre.

(Pictured: Silvana Aguirre and Camila Jiménez-Villa)