Sofia Vergara is quickly becoming a media mogul with new Latin-centric media company Raze!
This actress is becoming more of a mogul everyday. Sofia Vergara is creating a Latin centered media company called Raze and we could not be anymore excited for the Girl Boss! Although we know and love Vergara to be a hilarious actress and she is always beauty goals, many would be surprised to find out that this is not her first foray into the business world.
Alongside her longtime business partner Luis Balaguer and Emiliano Calemzuk, former president of Fox Television Studios the trio have formed Raze. This digital media company will be focused on producing “Latin-centered” content. The startup, which is launching later this year, is described as a mobile-and video-first destination that will have scripted and unscripted formats on multiple platforms. It will largely be comprised of Latin-focused news, lifestyle and beauty stories.
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“We realized the best thing to do would create a company for both traditional and digital media, and over time give the audience following all this talent one destination, said Raze CEO Emiliano Calemzuk. “We want to turn that connection from just being a sporadic, social-media-driven one to a content-driven one.
The company will work to incorporate Vergara and Balaguer’s Latin World Entertainment, which is the Hispanic talent management and entertainment-marketing firm they founded in 1994. This announcement comes at a very pivotal time, especially due to the fact that the U.S. Hispanic audience is one of the fastest growing.
“We jumped at the opportunity to work with Sofia, Luis and Emiliano to build a dynamic new media company to create and deliver premium programming to that key demographic, said UTA’s Weinstein in a prepared statement.
Due to the fact that Raze was actually formed in May 2016, they have already produced its first show called Su Nombre Era Dolores, la Jenn Que Yo Conocí which translates to Her Name was Dolores, the Jenn I Knew. This was produced in partnership with BTF and Dhana Media. This scripted series was about the late Mexican-American superstar Jenni Rivera and it aired on Univision.
The company already has additional TV shows in development. They are developing a scripted series in partnership with soccer superstar Diego Armando Maradona that will be based on his life (this is in partnership with Dhana Media and BTF, they are also creating a series on the life of Latino hip-hop star and actor Don Omar, and lastly they are creating a young adult hour-long soap which will be based on the hit Wattpad novel Mi Hermanastro (My Stepbrother). With over 22 million downloads on Wattpad we can already see this show is going to be a hit!
“The Hispanic experience in the U.S. is so broad — you can’t define it as one narrow genre, said Calemzuk, adding that Raze’s content strategy will focus on aspirational storytelling themes like creativity and hard work. “As with anything in the digital space, we want to iterate and double down on things where we find our stride.
In order to be a profitable and competitive company, they will be ad supported and have no plans for a subscription model at this time. They will also produce and sell shows to third-party distributors, and work with talent to create content for Raze as well as for YouTube, Facebook and other social platforms.
We are so excite to see the growth of this company and we definitely think it will be a great way to connect with the ever diverse Latino community!
