Primos (TV Series)

''Primos'' is an American animated television series created by Natasha Kline and produced by Disney Television Animation that aired on Disney Channel from July 25, 2024 to April 27, 2025.

It was confirmed in late May and early June 2025 that the series would not be returning for a second season and had ended production.

Synopsis

The series centers around a large Mexican-American family living in the neighboring Los Angeles town of Hacienda Hills. Told through the diary of eccentric 9-year-old (later 10-year-old) Tater Ramírez-Humphrey, the series centers on her as she discovers the "it factor" that makes her special alongside her cousins, consisting of Cousin Bud, Big Nacho, Lita, Tere, Tabi, Toñita, Scooter, LotLot, Gordita, Nachito, ChaCha, and Lucita, who moved in with her for the summer as she prepares for her upcoming tenth birthday and tries to figure out her "final form".

Voice cast

Main

* Myrna Velasco as Patricia "Tater" Ramírez-Humphrey, the series' eccentric 9-year-old (later 10-year-old) protagonist with colorful braces and a lateral lisp who is trying to figure out her "final form". She cannot speak Spanish much like the rest of her family but is learning fluent French in light of a French café being established.
* Melissa Villaseñor as Eleanor "Nellie" Ramírez-Humphrey, Tater's younger but taller and more realistic, cynical, condescending, and lazy sister with red blush under her eyes.
* Michelle Ortiz as Beatriz "Bibi" Ramírez-Humphrey, Tater's cheerful and optimistic mother who is an expert artist and sculptor.
* Jim Conroy as:
** Bud Humphrey Sr., Tater's father who is skeptical of Tater's big dreams. He is an expert handyman. Like Tater, Bud is also not good at Spanish.
** Vision Tiger, a talking tiger and Tater's imaginary friend who helps her plan her visions.
* Angélica María as Margarita Beatriz "Buela" Ramírez, Tater's maternal grandmother and an expert cook who is annoyed that some of her family members have not mastered the Spanish language.
* Elizabeth Grullón as Julita "Lita" Perez, Tater's Mexican-Dominican eldest cousin and Scooter and Lucita's older sister who is bisexual, dreams of becoming a rock star, and does various odd jobs.
* Jonathan Melo as Isauro "Scooter" Perez, Lita and Lucita's Mexican- Dominican shy brother, who is shown to be good at ice-skating, playing wind instruments, and sewing.
* Rick Simon as:
** Cousin Bud Humphrey, an eco-friendly teenager and Gordita's older brother who is always barefoot. The episode "Summer of Breaking Bud" revealed that Cousin Bud used to have a capitalist side named Cousin Buck.
** Ignacio "Big Nacho" Ramírez III, a burly teenager who has a habit of roughhousing and is into weightlifting. He is also dyslexic, and has a pen pal named Carmela.
* Cristina Vee Valenzuela as:
** Teresa "Tere" Ramírez, the middle child of the acrobatic T-Sisters, who dream of being famous. She has a pink butterfly shaped birthmark on her left eye.
** Antoñia "Toñita" Ramírez, the youngest of the acrobatic T-Sisters who wants to be an archaeologist. She has two dimples on her cheeks.
* Natasha Kline as:
** Heather "Gordita" Humphrey, Cousin Bud's younger sister. As the more intelligent of Tater's cousins, she loves performing scientific experiments. Gordita considers her full name to be an alliteration.
** Isabel Christina "ChaCha" Ramírez, a wild young girl who is mostly only capable of saying her name.
* Nomi Ruiz as Tabitha "Tabi" Ramírez, the oldest of the acrobatic T-Sisters. She takes great care of her two younger sisters and has a beauty mark on the right side of her face.
* Becca Q. Co as Charlotte "LotLot" Ramírez, a creepy and macabre young girl who has a dark sense of humor. She is Filipina-Mexican American.
* Ryan Anderson Lopez as Gabriel Ignacio "Nachito" Ramírez, Big Nacho's younger brother who looks up to him. Like his brother, he has been showing symptoms of dyslexia.
* Sarah Tubert as Luz "Lucita" Perez, Tater's youngest cousin who is Mexican-Dominican. She is Lita and Scooter's younger sister. She wears cochlear implants and knows American Sign Language.

Recurring

* Cristina Milizia as "Baby" Bud Ramírez-Humphrey Jr., Tater's infant brother.
* Cheech Marin as Ignacio "Pop" Ramírez Sr., Tater's maternal grandfather and Buela's husband with a golden tooth who is often seen either napping in his chair or engaging in romance with Buela.
* Joel "The Kid Mero" Martinez as Diego Perez, Lita, Scooter and Lucita's father, Bibi and Bud's brother-in-law, and Tater's uncle with a paranoid and nervous personality.
* Mark Consuelos as Ivan Ramírez, a firefighter who is Tere, Tabi and Toñita's father, Ignacio Sr. and Buela's son, Bibi's brother, and Tater's uncle.
* Ricardo Chavira as Ignacio Ramírez Jr., Big Nacho and Nachito's father, Ignacio Sr. and Buela's son, Bibi's brother, and Tater's uncle with a dull personality.
* Gabriel Iglesias as Gustavo Ramírez, a one-armed mortician who is LotLot's father, Ignacio Sr. and Buela's son, Bibi's brother, and Tater's uncle.
* Dee Bradley Baker as:
** Chuchi, a three-legged outdoor dog that Tater befriends.
** Garage Possum, an opossum that lives in the Ramírez-Humphrey family's garage and gets caught up in the Ramírez-Humphrey family's shenanigans.
** Jean-Cluck Van Fried, a buff chicken with a featherless left wing who is owned by Buela and protects the family's chicken flock.
* Jorge Diaz as:
** Skid "The Skid" Malfeo, the obnoxious and disrespectful neighbor of the Ramírez-Humphrey family who wears a pair of white briefs with pockets and is always barefoot. His family is just as obnoxious as he is.
** La Hamaca, a being behind the hammock that makes Pop weary of it.
* Liza Koshy as Serena, a girl who becomes Tater's best friend upon her family moving to Hacienda Hills due to their mutual fandom of ''Romancimorphs'' and ''Oui, Oui Marie''.
* Maya Morales as Gwennifer Malfeo, The Skid's bratty older sister who is a Pigeon Scout and probably the ringleader of her scout troop. Unlike her family, she is less obnoxious and also harbors a secret crush on Cousin Bud.

Another recurring character is Hector, the local street vendor of different foods who never utters a word yet and is said to be fluent in Spanish and French.

Guest

* Sherry Cola as Ms. Mahoney, the librarian of Hacienda Hills Library who is familiar with sign language.
* Sarah Sherman as Carmela, Big Nacho's pen pal with braces and classic-length hair who has the same traits as him.
* Eden Riegel as:
** N.K. Scheinhorn, the writer of the ''Romancimorphs'' series.
** Caroline Malfeo, the mother of The Skid and Gwennifer.
* Silver Paul as Bootleg Vision Tiger, a deformed counterpart of Vision Tiger that Tater encountered on a menu she tried to improvise as her missing diary.
* Joe Hernandez as Blaine Himbo, an office worker who is a mutual friend of Tater and Lita.
* Blu del Barrio as Alex, Lita's co-worker at Quakey's Pizza Place who is also her enbyfriend. They are non-binary and use they/them pronouns.
* Jaime Jarrín as the Día de la Cultura Announcer
* Margo Rey as Rita Ramírez, a perfectionist mechanic who is Lita, Scooter, and Lucita's mother, Bibi's sister, and Tater's aunt.
* Fryda Wolff as Pacheco, one of Gwennifer's friends in the Pigeon Scouts
* Alex Cazares as Peña, one of Gwennifer's friends in the Pigeon Scouts.
* Felipe Esparza as a churro in Tater's fantasy
* Valeria Rodriguez as Patricia Platas, Tater's great-grandmother who she visits in a dream.
* Kyle MacLachlan as Bill, a worker at the United States Department of State.

Also in the series is Javier Ramírez, ChaCha's father, Ignacio Sr. and Buela's son, and Bibi's brother who is a biker and has no speaking role. Ivan and Gustavo's wives, named Silvia and Cherry respectively, also make non-speaking appearances in the series finale. The family tree in the same finale showed the pictures of Cousin Bud and Gordita's mother Eleanor and father Felipe.

Episodes

Shorts

''A Piece of My Mind''

These shorts primarily focus on Disney Channel characters meeting their various creators and learning how the concept of their shows were created.

''Chibi Tiny Tales''

Shortly after the series premiere, ''Primos'' joined the '' Chibi Tiny Tales'' series.

''How NOT to Draw''

''Theme Song Takeover''

As part of a promotional campaign, Disney Channel began airing the Disney Theme Song Takeover, wherein supporting characters from different shows performed the theme song to the series they were in.

''Road Trip''

A series of road trip-themed shorts. These shorts are a loose follow up to a similar series of shorts from ''Big City Greens''.

Development

On November 3, 2021, it was reported that Natasha Kline, a long-time storyboarder and character designer, is developing an animated series titled ''Primos'' for Disney Television Animation (DTVA). The series was inspired by Kline's childhood summers living with her cousins alongside her extended Mexican - American family and she wanted the lead characters to also be of Mexican-American heritage due to the lack of Mexican-American representation on television during her childhood. Meredith Roberts, a senior vice president at Disney Television Animation said the series bears the "authentic voice" of Kline and "her family's culture and values", saying the series will be aimed at kids and families. Edward Mejia, a DTVA executive, oversaw the series. Prior to being greenlit, ''Primos'' was in an intense bidding war between Disney and Netflix, with Disney ultimately winning out.

On June 15, 2022, at the 2022 Annecy International Animation Film Festival, it was announced that the show's first season would have an order of 30 episodes. Philip Cohen was announced as series producer. In March 2023, Kline told Animation Magazine that the series was inspired by an adult short she had created for an Upright Citizen's Brigade stand-up comedy show in 2017, was inspired by ''Peanuts'' and ''Calvin and Hobbes'', and said she loved working with the show's crew, praising their "intense passion, drive, and talent".

On July 8, 2024, the series' official trailer was released.

Release

''Primos'' premiered on Disney Channel on July 25, 2024, and the first nine episodes were released on Disney+ a day later. The series was originally scheduled to premiere on January 19, 2024, before being postponed to June 6, and later to its eventual premiere date. By October 28, 2024, the first nineteen episodes were available to stream on Disney+. The series ended on April 27, 2025, after one season.

Reception

Pre-release

On June 13, 2023, the series' opening sequence was released by Disney Branded Television. It received criticism on social media, largely from Mexicans and other Latin-American communities. Some criticized the show's premise by drawing similarities to that of Nickelodeon's ''The Loud House'' and, more specifically, its spin-off series ''The Casagrandes.'' Other viewers criticized the opening sequence for presenting various negative stereotypes associated with Latin-American culture, argued the names of the setting and some characters could be considered offensive, and the Spanish grammar used was incorrect. Also criticized was the use of a " Mexican filter", a technique frequently used in American media to invoke a "foreign" atmosphere in Hispanic settings.

Online complaints were further fueled when social media posts were made by Tater's voice actress, Myrna Velasco, which included a comment on Instagram where she said critics of the Spanish used in the show were " grammar nazis" and a story in which she described the Spanish language as being " forced upon Latin American people" by Spanish conquistadors. In her comment, which was later deleted, she also wrote that people can be angry at her for misspelling Spanish words or mispronouncing them, but she was a Native American and Mexican-American woman, and argued they were trying to make a "good show for kids" and said that if people are angry at the latter, then "be mad then."

In an interview on June 16, 2023, Kline said the series is based on her personal experiences of growing up with a multicultural Mexican-American family in Los Angeles in the 1990s, being bicultural, biracial, and said that the project's relatability attracted well-known individuals like Melissa Villaseñor. She also stated that Tater doesn't speak Spanish, which is why her grammar is incorrect; emphasised the importance of cousins in her life; and stated that the art style showcased the environment in L.A. She additionally hoped the series would make people proud of their roots.

Later in production, the name of the fictional town was changed from Terremoto Heights to Hacienda Hills, as the original name drew criticism for alluding to the earthquakes common in the region. The name of one of the characters was changed from Cookita to Lucita, as the former was viewed as being similar to a vulgar term in several dialects of Latin American Spanish, though in actuality it is a take off of Cuquita, which is an affectionate nickname usually for those named Refugia. As a result of online criticism, the series premiere was delayed several times, with reports this was done to make edits to already-completed episodes. Changes were made to emphasize that the show is set in Los Angeles and not in Latin America.

Prior to the show's release, Tara Bennett of Cartoon Brew described the series as a "perfect summer show for kids and families" and argued that it captures the fun of attempting to "co-exist inside a large extended family" for an entire summer. Victoria Davis of Animation World Network interviewed Kline, who was glad to get feedback from the series, calling it an "amazing experience" to hear people's thoughts, saying it was "initially painful" but said that later responses honed her empathy, made her realize that the series could mean "so much to so many, in many different ways", and argued it gave her "strength to keep going."

Post-release

Tony Betti of ''Laughing Place'' gave ''Primos'' a grade of 4 out of 5 and complimented the show's humor and heartfelt storytelling, particularly the standout character Nellie, who brings a ''Big City Greens''-style comedic charm. Betti found that while the first episode begins with a well-paced introduction, it quickly shifts into chaotic family dynamics that might feel overwhelming but later settles into smaller, more engaging adventures. He stated that the series successfully balances authenticity and diversity, capturing the creator's personal experiences growing up in a Mexican-American family. Fernanda Camargo of ''Common Sense Media'' rated ''Primos'' 3 out of 5 stars and praised its focus on family dynamics and the protagonist, Tater, who has big dreams but struggles to find her place within a crowded household. Camargo found that while the show includes bickering, teasing, and bathroom humor, it remains lighthearted and suitable for tweens. She stated that Tater's biracial background and her lack of interest in learning Spanish add a notable cultural aspect to the story. Camargo appreciated the show's themes of family joy, learning from mistakes, and the positive message about sharing and understanding, but noted the presence of stereotypes.

Accolades

Notes

References

External links

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2020s American animated comedy television series
2020s American animated television series
2020s American LGBTQ-related animated television series
2024 American television series debuts
2025 American television series endings
American children's animated adventure television series
American children's animated comedy television series
American children's animated musical television series
American English-language television shows
Disney Channel original programming
Disney controversies
Hispanic and Latino American television
Animated television series about families
Animated television series about children
Animated television series set in Los Angeles
Race-related controversies in animation
Race-related controversies in television
Television series by Disney Television Animation
Television series about vacationing