Tanya Saracho Working on Series About Mexican Star of the Wild Wild West

Mexican American screenwriter and showrunner, Tanya Saracho will continue to put Latinas in the industry at the forefront now that her development deal with Universal Content Productions (UCP)—a division of Universal Studio Group—has been extended, Deadline reported. The Vida series creator will work on a number of projects from cable to streaming platforms as a result of this deal. She, alongside queer Latina and former writer and producer on Vida Jenniffer Gomez, are set to co-create and produce a series entitled The Wild Wild. The show, currently in development, centers on the lives of famous American sharpshooter Annie Oakley and Mexican star Señorita Rosalie from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.

“I get to keep making stories at what has been my creative home since 2020, with the lovely people who’ve held my hand through the process. Here’s hoping one (or more) of these stories I’ve been crafting make it to your screen,” Saracho wrote in an Instagram post sharing the news.

Saracho has made strides for Latinx and queer representation in Hollywood as well as in the theater space. As a playwright, she made her mark in theater when she co-founded Teatro Luna along with Coya Paz in the year 2000, an all-female Latina group—Chicago’s first and only. The ensemble resulted from seeing Latinas being “undervalued and underrepresented not only on the Chicago stage, but beyond”. Along her career, Saracho has racked up quite the writing credits including episodes of the HBO series Looking, ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder and the Eva Longoria-produced Devious Maids.

She received critical acclaim as showrunner of the STARZ series Vida, which starred Melissa Barrera (Scream VI, In the Heights) and Mishel Prada (The Continental) and ran for three seasons. The series was groundbreaking in its portrayal of queer Latinas as well addressing the gentrification in Los Angeles, assimilation, and traditional family dynamics within the Latinx community. Featuring an all-Latinx cast topped with an all-Latinx writers’ room, Vida remains one of the most prominent examples of authentic storytelling and Latinx representation. Saracho is contributing to more Latinx creators having their moment to shine with her media company Ojalá, working to amplify Latinx voices and stories. A previous collaboration with UCP, brought along the Ojalá Ignition Lab, a workshop that helped writers develop their scripts with insight from creators in the industry.

“I am grateful to continue my relationship with UCP and be able to keep crafting the stories that matter most to me – brown, queer narratives which are still missing from the landscape and are so important to tell, and which UCP has proven a commitment to nurturing,” she said in a statement.