Sonoro and iHeartMedia Team Up to Launch New Slate of Eight Original My Cultura Podcasts

Sonoro and iHeartMedia today announced a new deal to co-produce a slate of podcasts for My Cultura, iHeartMedia’s new podcast network dedicated to elevating Latinx voices and creators, while also sharing the Latinx experience with millions of listeners. First in the slate will be Princess of South Beach, a 36-part modern audio telenovela series available in both English and Spanish, making it widely available to bicultural and bilingual listeners around the world. The first three episodes will debut on Monday, October 4th with new episodes dropping every Monday, Wednesday and Friday following the launch. Listeners can hear the “Princess of South Beach” trailer today on iHeartRadio and everywhere podcasts are heard.

"At Sonoro, we believe Hollywood’s future leaders need to reflect the millions of Latinx and Spanish-speaking creators in the U.S. and around the world,” said Camila Victoriano, Co-Founder and Head of Partnerships at Sonoro. “Our part in that is to develop genre-defining intellectual property with Latinx characters at the center of every story. Our entire team is bilingual and bicultural and we work with talent and storytellers from over 15 countries of origin. Our hope is that the projects we develop together become a jumping off point for their careers, flipping the traditional Hollywood business model on its head and changing what content looks and sounds like globally.”

A first-of-its-kind audio experience, “Princess of South Beach” was written, directed and sound engineered in both English and Spanish, with two different casts portraying characters that will keep listeners on the edge of their seats. The new series tells the dramatic story of twin sisters, María del Carmen and Gloria Calderón, who are separated at birth and raised in remarkably different ways - one as a naive orphan in a convent, the other as a privileged supermodel and socialite living in the lap of luxury on Miami Beach.

The series celebrates much-loved tropes about the classic telenovela genre - like larger-than-life characters and sensational antics - and then flips them completely on their head. Unlike classic telenovelas, “Princess of South Beach” features nontraditional main characters facing storylines inspired by current socio-cultural issues, and unexpected plot twists. The English-language series is voiced by both well-known and new voices alike, including:

• Rachel Zegler (West Side Story, Snow White) as twins María and Gloria
• Gina Torres (Suits, Pearson) as Luisa Calderón
• Raul Esparza (Law & Order: SVU) as Esteban Calderón
• Danny Pino (Law & Order: SVU, Mayans M.C.) as Nacho Santana
• Andy Bustillos (Wedding Season, Most likely to Murder) as Raul Santana
• Ivonne Coll (Jane the Virgin, Switched at Birth, Teen Wolf) as Hermana Claudia
• X Mayo (comedian and Emmy-nominated writer for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah) as Estrella
• Sheryl Rubio (La Casa De Las Flores) will portray twins María del Carmen and Gloria Calderón in the Spanish-language cast. More details on full casts and characters can be found at www.princessofsouthbeach.com.

“The My Cultura podcast network is about elevating Latinx creators and sharing our ‘voces’ in English, Spanish and Spanglish,” said Gisselle Bances, Head of iHeartMedia’s My Cultura. “We are excited to co-produce a series with Sonoro that connects our U.S. Latinx community with a beloved genre like the telenovela that many of us grew up enjoying with our families. Our goal is to create a multi-generational audio experience while paying homage to our ‘cultura.’”

Sonoro’s new slate with My Cultura will include six additional scripted and unscripted audio-first franchises, including “The Super Secret Bestie Club,” a show about love and friendships, and “Morenita,” a show celebrating Afro-Latinidad, both set to launch later this year.

Lincoln is the exclusive sponsor of “Princess of South Beach” and a proud sponsor of the My Cultura network.