Jeff Valdez (born January 31, 1956) is an American producer, writer, and studio executive who created the category of Latino Programming in English. He is also recognized for co-founding SiTV (now known as Nuvo/Fuse TV) the first national cable network owned and operated by Latinos in the US according to Latino Donor Collaborative. The films and TV shows written and produced by Valdez have been syndicated in more than 40 countries. Valdez is credited as a writer, director, and creator of the family comedy '' The Brothers Garcia'' (2000-2004), as well as the creator of the Latino Laugh Festival in 1997. In 2003, Valdez founded a new nationwide English language cable channel targeting Latinos called

Sí TV NuvoTV (formerly known as Sí TV) was an American cable television, cable television network. It was launched on February 25, 2004, and catered to the Latino community with exclusively English-language programming. It ended operations on Septem ...

. In 2007 Valdez joined the board of directors of Maya Entertainment whose focus was on Latino-themed films mostly in English. Valdez founded his production company, New Cadence Productions in 2018 which has produced the HA Comedy Festival (2020) and The Brothers Garcia reboot, ''The Garcias'' (2022).

Career

In 1993, Valdez moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, and created the show "Comedy Compadres", for KTLA, channel 5. He then wrote scripts, produced and directed pilots for Disney (Play Ball), Showtime (Latino Laugh Festival), NBC (Valdez and Hacienda Heights), Galavisión (Cafe Ole, Funny is Funny), and Nickelodeon (The Brothers Garcia). In 2003, and based on the potential of this English-speaking market of the Latino population, Valdez paired with Bruce Barshop, a venture capitalist and founded

, the first Latino national channel for English-speaking Latinos in the United States. Sí TV became the leading producer of Latino themed English-language cable programming network, reaching 22 million homes in the first 3 years. Valdez became the CEO of the channel for the first 2 years, and produced the original programming of Sí TV. In 2007 Valdez was named Chairman of

Quepasa Quepasa Corporation was a US-based social media technology company catering to Latino Audiences worldwide. Quepasa owned and operated Quepasa.com, a social network, Quepasa Games (formerly Techfront), a social game development studio, and Quepas ...

Corp./Quepasa.com (NASDAQ-QPSA) a bi-lingual

social network A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

aimed at US and

Latin American Latin Americans (; ) are the citizenship, citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America). Latin American countries and their Latin American diaspora, diasporas are Metroethnicity, ...

markets. Valdez contributed to QuePasa's recovery in that period with an overall re-branding and creative vision. He also helped with a digital product called "Papacito", which increased the reach of the social network. Valdez joined Maya Entertainment as a co-chairman at the invite of producer, Moctesuma Esparza. From 2007 to 2011 Maya was the only Latino Global Film Distribution Company. The company produced, owned and distributed films and content, primarily in English for theatrical release, as well as syndication. From 2011 to 2014, Valdez headed up Max 360 Entertainment, which was a group of investors pursuing a variety of Television projects. In 2015 Valdez teamed up with financier Jeffrey Soros to develop a slate of Latino comedy films aimed at the New Mainstream Latino audience. Early in 2018, Valdez and Sol Trujillo co-founded New Cadence Productions, a U.S. television and film content creation studio, with the intention of continuing to promote Latinos and their role in the media. New Cadence Productions has since partnered with Warner Media. The studio's first project was the 2020 HA Comedy Festival, which resulted in a 1-hour comedy special streaming on HBO Max. The festival was green lit for a second year in 2021 and the 2021 HA Comedy Special will be released on HBO Max in December 2021, along with the all female comedy special “Comedy Chingonas,” which airs November 18, 2021. The 10 episode reboot of The Brothers Garcia called The Garcias was shot in the Riviera Maya, Mexico, in summer 2022 and released on HBO Max. Valdez created the HA Comedy Festival in 2020, an annual weekend long festival which features Latino comedian performances and ends with a live comedy special that airs on HBO Max. Jeff is credited with writing and producing the HA 2020 festival, and writing, producing and directing the HA 2021 festival.

Awards and recognitions

* "Top 50 People Who Matter" by

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

* "Top 50 Minorities in Cable" by Multichannel News * "50 People to Watch" by

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

* "Top 10 Players in the U.S. Hispanic Media Market" by Ad Age * "Top 50 Marketers in America" by Advertising Age * Quasar Award, for his groundbreaking Sí TV * Racial Harmony Award, from the ''Center for Ethnic Understanding'' * NHMC Impact Award (2001) * ALMA Award, from ''National Council of La Raza'' Valdez was appointed by US President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

to the Advisory Committee on the Arts of the Kennedy Center (Washington DC, 1996–2000.) He has been a member of the Museum of the Moving Image Board of Directors (New York, 2000–2006), and of The Los Angeles School For The Performing Arts Board of Advisers (2006-2008.)

Filmography

* ''HA Comedy Festival: The Art of Comedy 2020 and 2021'' * ''Without Men'' , , Feature Film , , Executive producer , , 2010 * ''Unacceptable Behavior'' , , TV series , , Executive producer , , 2006 * ''Urban Jungle 2'' , , TV series , , Executive producer, Writer , , 2005 * ''Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner'' , , TV series , , Executive producer , , 2004 * ''Across the Hall'' , , TV series , , Executive producer , , 2004 * ''The Drop'' , , TV series , , Executive producer , , 2004 * ''The Rub'' , , TV series , , Executive producer , , 2004 * ''Latino Laugh Festival: The Show'' , , TV series , , Executive producer , , 2004Latino Laugh Festival, The Show * ''Urban Jungle'' , , TV series , , Writer, executive producer , , 2004 * ''The Brothers García: Mysteries of the Maya'' , , TV movie , , Writer, director , , 2003 * ''The Brothers García'' , , TV series , , Co-Creator, Executive Producer, Writer, Director , , 2000-2004 * ''Café Ole' with Giselle Fernandez'' , , TV series , , Writer, producer , , 1997 * ''Latino Laugh Festival'' , , TV special , , Producer , , 1997, 1998, 1999 * ''Funny is Funny'' , , TV series , , Writer, Executive producer , , 1997 * ''Comedy Compadres'' , , TV series , , Writer, executive producer , , 1994 * ''Almost Live From The Comedy Corner'' , , TV Comedy Show , , Writer, producer, Director , , 1992 * ''Perry Mason: The Case of the Ruthless Reporter'' , , TV movie , , Actor , , 1991

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Valdez, Jeff American television producers Living people 1956 births