With a big question mark hanging over the current US business model, Eva Longoria and Cris Abrego are pushing ahead with a new strategy at Hyphenate Media Group – one that seeks to set its own rules and nurture the next generation of Latino creators.

Eva Longoria, left, and Cris Abrego

If there’s one clear takeaway from Hyphenate Media Group’s mission statement, it’s that the company was born at a time when producing traditional shows in the traditional way is no longer a sustainable business model.

Actor, director and producer Eva Longoria, along with producer and Banijay Americas chairman Cris Abrego, both Americans with Latin roots, launched their venture in October 2023. It was a time when Hollywood boulevards were still crowded with striking actors (just weeks after writers had done the same), major studios were laying off thousands of employees, YouTube was starting to be taken seriously as an emerging rival and the entire industry was grappling with a looming question mark about what was coming next.

Given this context, it’s no surprise that adjectives like ‘agile,’ ‘flexible’ and ‘disciplined’ come up when describing Hyphenate’s modus operandi. Equally expected is that the company places its bets on talent – arguably the only constant in an industry increasingly threatened by machines.

Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds

But perhaps more surprising is the Banijay-backed venture’s decision to focus on the relatively rare breed of creatives known as multi-hyphenates – multifaceted individuals, as they define themselves.

“I’m an actress, producer, director, philanthropist, entrepreneur. Cris and I saw that our industry in Hollywood wasn’t built to serve that ambition. It’s an industry that makes you stay in your lane. If you’re an actor, just go and act. If you’re a producer, keep doing that,” says Longoria, Hyphenate’s chief creative officer. “We wanted to create a system and a business model that broke the mould and services the ambitions of these multi-hyphenates.”

This concept materialised as a holding company comprising a studio, led by Jada Miranda, president of TV, dedicated to developing original scripted and unscripted content; and an acquisitions arm designed to partner with creators who share a DIY mindset and a desire to push back against an industry that Longoria bemoans as “so slow.”

Its first partner in this second pillar was actor, writer, producer and director Gloria Calderón Kellett, whose company, GloNation Studios, received a strategic investment from Hyphenate, announced in October 2024.

At the time, Calderón Kellett had an overall deal with Amazon Studios, where she wrote, produced and directed the romcom With Love, following a similar agreement with Sony Pictures Television, where she was showrunner on Netflix’s One Day at a Time.

Gloria Calderón Kellett

“In the States, writers go from show to show and, while you’re on the show, you’re doing great but, once it ends, you’re waiting, and it’s feast or famine. That was my life for 15 years, and I’ve been on tons of shows. So, as a writer, what you crave is an overall deal,” says Calderón Kellett. “But what you don’t realise is that when you sign an overall deal, they sort of own you. For the time you’re on it, they own your brain.”

Though she clarifies that Amazon was “lovely” and “backed up the money truck,” the inability to work on more than one project at a time and the lack of freedom to collaborate elsewhere made her receptive to Hyphenate’s approach.

As a result, GloNation now has 23 projects in various stages of development. Calderón Kellett says she oversees the entire slate, which includes multiple titles exploring the life of Cuban salsa legend Celia Cruz, whose exclusive rights were acquired with producer Uncontained Media in a deal brokered by Hyphenate.

Abrego, CEO of Hyphenate, says there are “definitely more” creators the company plans to partner with, but these are “long conversations,” as the goal is to forge strong ties and build enduring relationships with partners.

“This is a long play. We’re even trying to create new vernacular in terms of what this is, because we’re not using the old playbook. If you’re using the same playbook today, you’re done. Being nimble is one of our top priorities: having maximum flexibility, exploring new ways to close deals and making those deals creative,” he says.

“The world has changed so much that we miss the old days of five years ago. We want Hyphenate to be a studio built for the future; for the future audience and the future business.”

That’s probably why Hyphenate’s slate isn’t limited to projects. One of the company’s objectives is to build a pipeline of Latino talent who will become the next generation of showrunners and creators.

“We want to build 80 Gloria companies. We want to create 20 more Eva Longorias. I can’t direct everything!” says Longoria. “If you look at the landscape of female Latino directors, we’re always working. They’re all taken because they’re such a diamond. We need to give opportunities for people to build up their resumés and get their next job.”

Mexican-American singer Selena Quintanilla, who was murdered by her fan club president

Aware that replicating the unique skills and intuition of Longoria or Calderón Kellett may be a daunting task, the company is focused on teaching and replicating working models. Karla Pita Loor, chief strategy officer at Hyphenate, explains: “The reality is you can’t scale a person, but you can scale a business, a passion, an idea, a work ethic. That’s scalable, and that’s what we’re doing.”

While the studio focuses on producing content in both English and Spanish, its ambitions know no borders. “We’re partnered with Banijay, who are amazing partners,” says Longoria. “Their global reach gives Hyphenate what it needs to service its ambitions. We’ve produced in Mexico, in Spain, in the US, all over the world. Cris and I thought, let’s create something that disrupts the industry and becomes a home for hyphenates like us.”

In original content, Hyphenate has already produced CNN’s travel and food show Eva Longoria: Searching for Spain, a spin-off from Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico, previously produced by Raw TV. Longoria teases that they’re working on “hopefully” adapting the franchise for France.

Other projects include a docuseries about Mexican-American singer Selena Quintanilla, who was murdered in 1995 by her fan club president, and bilingual docuseries Bienvenidos a Necaxa, focusing on Mexican football team Club Necaxa. Similar to the hit series Welcome to Wrexham, about Welsh club Wrexham AFC, it’s coproduced by Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, who, along with Longoria, are the club’s main shareholders. Bienvenidos a Necaxa has already been greenlit by FX for the US and Disney+ for Latin America.

Hyphenate’s slate spans scripted series, films and unscripted content, and the firm is open to other formats, including podcasts and even plays. According to Longoria, the company’s vision boils down to being “talent-driven, IP-driven and purpose-driven.”

For this reason, the Desperate Housewives star believes a possible return of the hit ABC series doesn’t fit today’s market. “Every project should answer ‘what are we saying?’ and ‘why now?’ There’s no ‘why now?’ for that series,” says Longoria of the show that catapulted her to fame.

“Today, a lot of reboots happen because it’s like, ‘Reboot! It’s a good title.’ But I’ve talked to [Desperate Housewives creator] Marc Cherry a thousand times and… we fully mined those characters because we were on air for a decade doing 24 episodes a year – not six. That’s a lot of story that you burn through. I want a show that speaks to something that’s truly in the zeitgeist.”

Abrego, however, interjects with a laugh: “For the record, if Desperate Housewives comes back, we’d love to produce it.”

Longoria, Abrego, Pita Loor, and Calderón Kellett participated in a panel at C21’s Content London event in December.