Ana Ortiz will star in Disney+’s TV series adaption of “Love, Simon.”
The series will be based on a different character than the 2018 movie, which starred Nick Robinson, who will be named Victor (the series will feature “Love, Simon” in the title, however). Ortiz will play Victor’s mother, Isabel.
The series is from “This Is Us” executive producers and co-showrunners Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, who wrote the movie, and 20th Century Fox TV. Also executive producing are Marty Bowen and Isaac Klausner of Temple Hill and Pouya Shahbazian, as well as “Grand Hotel” showrunner Brian Tanen.
The movie, and the subsequent series, is based on Becky Albertalli’s novel “Simon vs the Home Sapiens Agenda.” The film starred Robinson as a closeted gay teen in the Atlanta suburbs. Jennifer Garner co-starred in the film as his mother.
Disney+, the company’s streaming service, will launch Nov. 12. Along with “Love, Simon,” the upcoming service will feature a slew of Marvel Studios spinoffs including “WandaVision” and “Falcon & The Winter Soldier”; a “Monsters Inc” TV sequel, “Monsters at Work” and the first-ever live-action “Star Wars” TV series, “The Mandalorian.”
Ortiz starred on Lifetime’s “Devious Maids” and is also known for her roles in “Ugly Betty” and the “Whiskey Cavalier.”
Deadline first reported the news of Ortiz’s casting.