In this episode, we spoke with one of the most influential Latinos in media. Peter Murrieta grew up in Arizona and made it big in Hollywood. Murrieta has produced and written for hit shows such as Disney’s “Wizards of Waverly Place,” “Mr. Iglesias” on Netflix, “Lopez” and many others. Murrieta joined “Horizonte” to talk about his successful career, his advocacy for more Latino representation in Hollywood and his role as Deputy Director and Professor of Practice at ASU’s Sidney Poitier New American Film School.
Murrieta is a Tucson native, attending the University of Arizona where he studied creative writing. When Murrieta was in college, his goal was to become a high school English teacher. He said that was the only thing he wanted to do. When a professor gave Murrieta a bad grade on a paper he wrote but said it was the funniest thing she had ever read, she suggested Murrieta try comedy writing and told him about a comedy group on campus.
“That’s really the beginning of it,” Murrieta said. “From there, I did that for a while, and then Second City Theater came to Tucson and did a touring company show, and that’s when I realized ‘Oh my gosh, you can make your living at this?’ So I got my stuff together and moved to Chicago.”
Murrieta helped bring Latino representation to Hollywood through shows like “Wizards of Waverly Place” and “Mr. Iglesias.” He also influenced the careers of people like Selena Gomez and George Lopez.
Murrieta’s first show, “Greetings from Tucson,” was the first chance he had to tell his exact story on the television screen.
“Coming out of that, I had a real feeling of how good it would be to continue to try to advocate for Mexican Americans and Latinos in front of and behind the camera,” Murrieta said. “We’ve had two or three [Mexican American and Latino] people on the staff of ‘Greetings from Tucson,’ and that felt so good, compared to usually where there’s like one person in the room like that. From there, it’s just been that mission, that mission to figure out how to get people where they need to be to succeed.”
When Murrieta was recognized as one of 2024’s Influential Latinos in Media, he brought a few of his students with him to network and mingle with other award winners because he felt that was important.
“They’re the future,” Murrieta said. “I don’t make that statement to mean I’m the past; I think I’m the present, but I make that because if we don’t hold the door open, then we’re just kind of lining our own pockets.”
To learn more about Murrieta and hear more about his career, join his Substack newsletter.
In this segment:
