America Ferrera Talks Today’s TV Diversity: ‘Progress Gets Made in These Individual Steps’

TCA 2016: “Superstore’s” Amy was actually the first role she received that wasn’t written specifically for a Latina

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NBC’s America Ferrera comedy “Superstore” has a more diverse cast than we’re used to seeing on traditional TV, a push that competitor ABC has successfully employed with its newest sitcoms.

During Wednesday’s Television Critics Association press junket, a reporter asked all involved if purposeful diversity was a “driving concept” of the “Superstore” writing and casting process. It wasn’t, Executive Producer Justin Spritzer replied — though he’s plenty happy that it worked out this way. Ferrera, a Latina of “Ugly Betty” fame, was even more excited than he was about it.

Her first reaction when she joined the show: “Like, ‘Oh wow, they’re not casting all white people,’” the actress remembered thinking.

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