“ It creates an excellent sense of the Heights, as distinct a version of ‘Latinx New York neighborhood’ as Parks & Rec’s Pawnee was for small towns.”
- The BLACK LIST.
Over 100,000 Dominicans call Washington Heights their home, making them New York City’s largest minority population. But in the past decade, hundreds of local businesses have been shut down. The gentrifying Heights is turning into the Williamsburg of uptown Manhattan. There’s more places to get a Caffè Latte than a Café con Leche. The neighborhood drugstore has become a mega sized pharmacy. And as high rise luxury condos are soaring to the skies Dominicans are being displaced.
YET MICHELLE REYES HAS RETURNED HOME.
AND SHE IS HERE TO STAY.
THE STORY.
MICHELLE REYES WAS BORN TO HELP PEOPLE.
As little girl in Washington Heights, Michelle gave free counseling sessions to her stuffed animals. In her high school, girls came to her for advice when they had questions about getting into good colleges and getting out of bad relationships. When Michelle decides to pursue a career in therapy, she gets an apprenticeship with Catherine Lafontaine, the most sought after and highest-paid female therapist in the country. At first, training at Lafontaine Therapy (‘the Starbucks of Mental Health’) in a ritzy part of Connecticut is a dream scenario, but Michelle soon realizes that her patients were rich and shallow. And on the day she officially becomes a licensed therapist, one of those patients pushes her too far.
AFTER COMPLETING HER 4,000 HOURS OF SUPERVISED THERAPY, MICHELLE DROPS THE BALL AND GETS FIRED.
After an altercation with a racist patient, Michelle succeeds in getting her license, but screws up any chance she had at being offered a permanent position at Lafontaine Therapy with her mentor Catherine. Everything in Michelle’s life has led up to this moment but the moment ends up with her jobless. Now she is broke and has no other option but to return to her hometown ten years after she left.
Outlandish is a comedy that follows Michelle as she overcomes losing out on that high profile therapist position and runs her own therapy practice above a Bodega in the Heights with the help of her free spirited cousin Rachel.
THE HEIGHTS HAS CHANGED.
The series tackles the neighborhood’s gentrification while tapping into themes of female friendship, Latinx identities and surviving in a multicultural hub. It portrays immigrant communities through the lens of Michelle’s practice and life struggles as well as showcases the myriad and sometime hilarious personalities that inhabit this part of town.
BEFORE SHE CAN CALL IT HOME, MICHELLE MUST GET TO KNOW THE HEIGHTS ALL OVER AGAIN.
The TV Series.
OUTLANDISH FOLLOWS THE AWKARD TRIBULATIONS AND WILD EXPERIENCES OF MICHELLE REYES, A MODERN-DAY AFRO LATINA TRYING TO MAKE IT IN THE HEIGHTS WHILE OVERCOMING A WORKPLACE MELTDOWN.
The population of Latinos continues to rise in the United States and yet the underutilization of mental health services in Latinx families has been a growing concern in research and clinical practices. In other words: LATINOS DON’T DO THERAPY. There are various reasons this is so: availability, accessibility, lack of insurance, time, child care, transportation, cultural factors and an overall distrust that is usually followed by a ‘OYE, WHY YOU ALL UP IN MY BUSINESS.’
Viewers will be introduced to the neighborhood through the therapy couch (a.k.a. Michelle’s awkwardly wallpapered office or any other location a particular patient feels comfortable meeting at).
Spanglish
is part of the hood. Michelle’s fluidity in Spanglish gives viewers a taste of the language that is used by many second generation Latinx.
Rachel is a doer, known in the community for her sassy bluntness, constant hustle and greasing palms to get what she wants. Niño, Michelle’s childhood crush, has just taken over his father’s bodega shop and feuds with both his competitors and his customers. Both help Michelle set up her practice above Niño’s bodega.
The show’s core premise is going back home to rebuild one’s life—but reset with an Afro Latinx cast and an urban backdrop that give it new life and surprises.
OUTLANDISH PROVIDES A HILARIOUS AND INSIGHTFUL GLIMPSE INTO THE DOMINICAN AMERICAN GEN Z EXPERIENCE AND THE NUANCES OF IDENTITY.
The series is conceived as a single camera comedy to capture a vibrant, female-centered world and its off-brand relatable humor tracing Michelle’s and Rachel’s converging life paths (one of helping, the other of hustling) to weave in the complexity of peripheral characters.
MADE BY AN AWARD-WINNING TEAM OF BIPOC AND ALLIES CREATORS, OUTLANDISH WILL HOOK AN AUDIENCE INTERESTED IN FUN MEANINGFUL STORIES THAT BREAK STEREOTYPES.
The characters.
Michelle Reyes wants to start fresh,
and focus on helping people who usually don't have access to professional therapy. She's always been an overachiever and good at problem-solving, except when it comes to her problems. She tends to be kind of a loner and socially awkward. An ambitious go-getter, Michelle puts her professional success ahead of her happiness, maybe because deep down, she believes that by solving her patients' problems, she will sort out her own.
Where in the Heights is
RACHEL SANTIAGO ?
She is currently a member of the Washington Heights city council, a position she took mostly because it gets her a lot of hook-ups in the neighborhood. Rachel has always been the life of the party. But her problem is that she sometimes can't tell when the party is over. She likes to tell people she puts the ‘fun’ in insufficient funds. Street smart with a short attention span, she regrets never leaving the Heights to pursue a career like Michelle did. She was briefly engaged and now is all about having ‘experiences instead of relationships.’ Needs some professional guidance that she is hoping Michelle can provide... with a family discount of course. In return, she will try to make Michelle's emotional flag fly.
They call him NIÑO cuz he still got a lot of growing up to do.
Niño owns the local bodega he inherited from his father. He has always been a fun loving and cheerful guy but is nervous about becoming the cranky and hot tempered bodega owner his father used to be. Hates all the gentrified businesses taking over the neighborhood. Pleads with his customers to support Latino owned businesses. When he sees Michelle for the first time since they were kids, he immediately goes back to feeling like that young boy who had the biggest crush on her. But Niño will keep this secret to himself because he doesn't want to ruin the friendship. Plus he has a tendency to bottle up his emotions.
Adrian
Recent high school graduate, he is the first member of his family to go to college. Still unsure of what he wants to major in, Adrian is on a mission to find out what he is passionate about. Every episode he will find a new interest, and then move on to the next thing. Proves to be a horrible secretary but Michelle takes a liking to him because she remembers being his age with her whole life ahead of her. Intelligent but has many clueless moments in the office.
Washington Heights
WASHINGTON HEIGHTS is a neighborhood in the northern portion of Manhattan aka WAYYY Uptown. At its highest point, you could throw a rock and it would land in the Bronx. It used to be a place that people who got priced out of everywhere else in Manhattan would move to because the rents were still reasonable. But to the Latino Community, specifically Dominicans, Washington Heights has become its core community and political base. The migration of Dominicans into this section of the city has resulted in the culturally vibrant and bachata blasting neighborhood it has become today. OUTLANDISH showcases this neighborhood through social relations and locations every time Michelle visits a new patient at their apartment, their job, an authentic Latino food restaurant, or any one of its many parks. I mean, you couldn’t recreate this in Vancouver. The Heights is a big part of what makes Michelle appreciate where she came from and who she is.
The Episodes.
Ep1. The pilot.
After losing out on a high profile therapist position, Dominican American counselor Michelle Reyes heads home to WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, where she sets up a neighborhood therapy office above a bodega and brings her special skills to the people who know and love her best.
Ep2. PR in the PR parade.
Rachel thinks Michelle should get a float for the Puerto Rican Day parade to attract more patients. Niño protests his rival grocery store's float for pandering to Latinos even though they are not Latinx owned.
Ep3. Gang related.
Michelle has a patient who wants to end his gang member lifestyle but doesn’t know how. Niño helps Michelle get a face to face meeting with the gang leader so she can try to convince him to let her patient ‘out of his gang membership.’
Ep4. A reggaeton of problems.
The manager of a popular all-female reggaeton band on the verge of breaking up asks Michelle to meet with them and convince them to stay together. When Rachel finds out her favorite reggaeton band are Michelle’s new patients, she hounds Michelle to introduce them to her. Michelle's assistant Adrian becomes an honorary roadie for the band and gets addicted to the rock star type lifestyle.
Ep5. Social therapy.
Rachel finds out her ex is getting married and wants to have a girl’s night out to distract her from the news. We see how socially awkward Michelle can be when she tries to meet men in bars. To compete with the new hipster business in the Heights, Niño makes some modern additions to his bodega.
Ep6. Speed counseling.
Rachel surprises Michelle by holding a special "SPEED THERAPY" night for all her fellow community board members.
Ep7. Therapy meets tragedy.
An elderly local business owner beloved by the neighborhood passes away and Michelle tries to help the community mourn by helping them develop some healthy coping strategies. She is challenged by a local life coach who has his own methods of dealing with grief that clash with Michelle's.
Ep8. A couple of problems.
Michelle does her first couples counseling session with a loud and animated husband and wife on the verge of divorce. This makes Michelle ask herself what she wants in a relationship. Just when it seems like Michelle might be having more of a romantic connection with Niño, she ends up getting asked out to dinner by the life coach she was recently feuding with.
Ep9. Catherine the Great.
Catherine has changed her mind and wants to offer Michelle a full time position at her practice. Michelle is torn between going back to Catherine and her one time dream job or staying in the Heights where she has built her own practice from scratch and developed close relationships to the people that live there.
end of season 1.
The Cast.
Darlene Demorizi.
A stand-up comedian, actress, and host/producer for several VICE franchises including Dee on the Street, Blunt Reviews and Smokeables. A second-generation Dominican-American from the Bronx, Dee embarked on her career by using her Instagram page as a platform to post skits and rants to her followers. These sketches satirized everything from her personal experiences as a twenty-something millenial in the dating world, to embarrassing predicaments in every day scenarios. She quickly accumulated a following of over 128,000 people. She starred in a leading role for the 2019 HBO Latino Film Fest Closer, De Lo Mio. You can find Dee perform her stand up sets throughout the New York Comedy Scene and has performed at the Comedy Cellar's Village Underground, The Stand and several other venues.
Ian Lara.
One of the hottest rising comics in New York City, every night you can catch him performing in some of the best shows in New York, or he's on the road at a club or college near you. He was the host of the “OUT OF TUNE” music app gameshow, featured in “Variety” and “Cosmopolitan”. Last year he taped a set for “Comedy Central Stand up Featuring” which has garnered over 10 million views. He made an appearance on this season of “NBC’s Bring the Funny” and made his late-night debut on the 'Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon'. This year he was a regular player on ‘This week at the Comedy Cellar’ on Comedy Central and You can catch his short special streaming on all HBO platforms fall 2020.
The Filmmakers
Oz Rodriguez. Producer / Director
Emmy Award winning Producer, Director, and Editor known for his work at Saturday Night Live. Oz started his career directing as part of the comedic duo Matt & Oz working for Funny or Die. Oz since has directed TV episodes of The Last Man on Earth, Detroiters, Shrill, Mixed-Ish, as well as the pilot episodes of A.P. Bio and Sunnyside. Oz produced and directed Creating Saturday Night Live which earned him 3 Emmy nominations and 1 win. Oz also directed the Netflix comedy special Michael Che Matters and Brother Nature, his debut film. Oz's second feature, Vampire Vs. The Bronx is due Fall 2020 on Netflix.
Wendy Muniz. Producer
Creative producer, scriptwriter, visual artist, and educator. A Dominican immigrant and first-generation student, she obtained a PhD in Latin American Cultures from Columbia University and is the cofounder of Zero Chill. Her work as a producer has received the support of Ibermedia, DGCine (Dominican Republic), CNCINE (Ecuador), IMCINE (Mexico), and the Tribeca Film Institute, traveling worldwide from BAFICI, Dok Leipzig, and Montréal World Cinema to Colcata IFF, Sao Paulo, and Zlín. She is a graduate of the EAVE Producers Workshop and an Andrew W. Mellon fellowship alumni for her work as a researcher and educator.
Guillermo Zouain. Producer
A Dominican-American producer, director, and editor. He received an MFA in film directing from the ESCAC and is cofounder at Zero Chill. When not producing, Guillermo regularly creates content for Complex, Uninterrupted, the United Negro College Fund, and the National Literacy Project. His films have traveled worldwide through sales agents like M-Appeal and distributors that include Amazon. He also enjoys working as a creative producer for emerging Caribbean indie music bands.
Marissa Rodriguez. Producer
Starting her career as a costume designer & stylist, Marissa explored her love for telling stories through wardrobe. Marissa has designed for short films, features, network television, and commercials (SNL, Nickelodeon, L'Oreal, Coach, & The Walt Disney Company). After working as a producer and film director for various fashion films, Marissa decided to switch full time to production, graduating from the UCLA Producers Program. Her first feature film as a producer, Off the Road (2020) by José Permar, premiered this year at Visions du Réel, where it won the Jury's Interreligious Award. She is co-founder of Zero Chill, the Brooklyn-based production company.
Jaime Fernandez. Head Writer
Jaime Fernandez is the co-founder and hear writer of the comedy troupe Room 28, who were featured on NBC’s 2019 comedy competition series ‘BRING THE FUNNY’ and were also the first comedy troupe that were attached to Broadway Video’s online comedy channel ‘Mas Mejor.’
Amanda Alcántara. Writer
Dominican-American writer and journalist. She is the author of “Chula” (2019). Her work has been featured on the anthology “Latinas: Struggles & Protests in 21st Century USA,” the upcoming poetry anthology "LatiNext" and several media publications like NPR's Latino USA, Remezcla, The San Francisco Chronicles, and others. In 2017, she obtained an MA from NYU in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. She also is co-founder and previous editor of La Galería Magazine.
Zero Chill is a Brooklyn-based production company that focuses on blending arthouse and commercial films, multi-platform and television content, by up-and-coming BIPOC directors, with an emphasis on creatively risky stories about individuals who redefine themselves and transform society along the way.
