RITA MORENO
There are certain moments in life that still don’t feel completely real, even twenty years later.
For me, one of those moments was walking onto a soundstage at Sony Studios in Los Angeles and realizing that Rita Moreno was about to play my mother on a CBS television pilot based on my life.
And it all started because of one stand-up set in Montréal.
At the time, I was just a comic trying to get a real shot.
I had been grinding for years. Doing clubs. Traveling constantly. Trying to separate myself in an industry full of talented people all chasing the exact same dream.
Then came the Just for Laughs Festival in Montréal.
That set changed everything.
Meetings started happening almost immediately afterward.
Suddenly I was flying to Los Angeles and sitting in rooms with network executives, producers, and development people. It honestly felt like the ground underneath me had shifted overnight.
Eventually CBS moved forward with a pilot called Related by Marriage, inspired by my stand-up and my life growing up in a multicultural family.
The pilot was created by Andy Gordon and Eileen Conn, and before cameras ever rolled, there were weeks of work shaping everything behind the scenes.
We spent close to two weeks rewriting and tightening the script.
Then came:
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auditions
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casting sessions
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rehearsals
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costume fittings
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set construction
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production meetings
…and all the moving pieces that go into building a television show from scratch.
And then came the cast announcements.
Rita Moreno.
John Ratzenberger.
Christa Miller.
Julia Duffy.
Henry Goodman.
Ann Guilbert.
I remember reading those names and thinking:
“How in the world did this become my life?”
But nothing compared to the first time I actually met Rita Moreno.
The thing about Rita is that before you even process the legendary career, the EGOT status, or the history she carries with her, you immediately notice something else:
She’s incredibly warm.
Funny.
Sharp.
Present.
Curious about people.
She had this energy that could completely command a room without ever feeling intimidating.
One second she could be telling stories that reminded you she was part of Hollywood history, and the next she was laughing with the crew like she had known everyone for years.
On the show, she played Mama Luisa… my mother.
But over those weeks together, something happened that I never expected.
The line between “working with Rita Moreno” and simply spending time with another human being started to blur.
We rehearsed constantly.
We sat around between takes talking.
We went out to dinners together with the cast.
We laughed a lot.
And somewhere inside all of it were these moments where I would quietly step outside myself mentally and think:
“What is happening right now?”
Because I grew up watching people like Rita Moreno.
Then suddenly she’s standing next to my family.
Holding my son Ian in her arms.
Talking with us like we had all known each other forever.
There’s one thing people don’t fully understand about making a television pilot.
For a brief moment, it becomes its own little universe.
You spend incredibly long days together. You’re exhausted together. Nervous together. Hopeful together.
Everybody is trying to create something meaningful while also quietly wondering whether this thing is actually going to survive.
And during that time, relationships form quickly because everybody is emotionally invested in the same dream.
That’s what made the experience with Rita so special to me.
She never carried herself like someone above the process.
She treated everyone around her with kindness and respect, from actors to crew members to family visiting the set.
She made an overwhelming experience feel human.
Even now, twenty years later, it’s strange to look back at photos from that time.
Because in my mind, I was still just a stand-up comic trying to figure things out.
Yet there I was, standing inside a fully built sitcom set at Sony Studios with one of the most legendary performers in entertainment history playing my mother on national television.
The pilot ultimately didn’t get picked up.
And honestly, for a long time, I looked at that chapter as something bittersweet.
So close to becoming a series.
So close to changing life completely.
But as the years have passed, I’ve started realizing something important:
Very few people ever get to experience moments like that at all.
Very few people get to say they shared scenes, dinners, conversations, and real life with Rita Moreno.
And now, all these years later, revisiting this story has reminded me that sometimes the most meaningful parts of a journey aren’t only about whether something “made it.”
Sometimes the experience itself becomes the story.
And this one will always be one of the most unforgettable chapters of my life.
