Rising Stars: Meet Adrian Manzano of Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Adrian Manzano.

Hi adrian, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’m from Queens. Both my parents are Colombian. I never went to film school, none of this came from a classroom. It came from New York’s Latino theater scene, INTAR, Teatro LATEA, Repertorio Español, standing on stage before I ever touched a camera. That’s where the real lesson landed: a story isn’t done until it’s in a room, breathing the same air as the people watching it.

Film came later, mostly because I got tired of waiting. I wrote, directed, and starred in my first feature, Sex, Love & Salsa, because bilingual stories, told honestly, in both languages, without apologizing for either, weren’t exactly lining up to get made. So I made it myself. Still basically the whole philosophy. Gran Manzana Films exists because of that, not because someone handed me a greenlight.

Comedia del Adri is the sharpest version of that instinct yet, bilingual comedy, shot in Mexico City, a cast from four different countries. Best TV Pilot and Best International Film at Comedy Film Festival, the Audience Award at FilmGate Miami, a premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre. Getting to tell our own stories, in our own languages, and laugh at ourselves instead of being laughed at, that only matters more to me with every project.

Queens kid, NYC stages, self-financed, and still building, one festival and one yes at a time.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Smooth is not the word I’d use. The honest answer is that nobody was waiting around for a bilingual comedy about a washed up comedian in Mexico City. I self-financed Comedia del Adri, which means every “yes” on that set, the cast, the crew, pulling people in from four countries, came from me calling in favors and figuring out the money as I went, not from someone writing a check because the idea was easy to sell.

Before that there were years of smaller work, festivals that didn’t call back, rooms where being bilingual read as a limitation instead of the actual point. The industry has a slot for “Latino story” and it’s usually one language, one accent, one approved version of what that means. I kept making the thing I actually wanted to make anyway, in both languages, without picking a side, and just absorbed the fact that it would take longer this way.

It’s still not smooth. I’m still the guy sending my own cold messages to programmers and acquisitions execs most nights instead of having someone do that for me. But every festival win so far has come from refusing to wait for permission, so at this point I’d be suspicious of a road that felt easy.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
What I’m known for right now is Comedia del Adri, a bilingual comedy I wrote and star in, shot in Mexico City with a cast from four countries. It won Best TV Pilot and Best International Film at Comedy Film Festival, the Audience Award at FilmGate Miami, and premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre. Before that, Sex, Love & Salsa was my first feature, also self-financed, also bilingual on purpose.

What I’m proudest of isn’t any single win, it’s that none of it compromised the bilingual part to get made. A lot of advice early on was to pick a lane, write it mostly in English with some Spanish flavor, or the reverse. I didn’t, and the work found its audience anyway. I think that’s what sets it apart: it’s not translated for anyone. It just is what it is, in both languages, at the same time.

What does success mean to you?
Success isn’t a check size or a name everyone recognizes. It’s getting to make the bilingual thing exactly as bilingual as it needs to be, and having an audience actually show up for that, not the translated-down version. Comedia del Adri winning where it’s won, premiering where it’s premiered, that’s success to me, because none of it asked me to pick a language first. If I’m still telling stories on my own terms ten years from now, slightly bigger budgets, same refusal to simplify, that’s the whole definition. Everything else is just how loud the room gets.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: manzanocomedy
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/manzano.adrian/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianmanzano/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/manzanoadrian