Jordana Spiro & Josh Andrés Rivera To Star In ‘Vegas High’ HBO Max 1990s Drama Pilot

Nellie Andreeva

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EXCLUSIVE: Jordana Spiro (Ozark) and Josh Andrés Rivera (West Side Story) have been cast as leads in Vegas High, HBO Max’s coming-of-age period drama pilot from writer Sarah-Raquel Jimenez, director Gillian Robespierre and Michael Showalter’s Semi-Formal Prods. HBO Max is the studio.

Written by Jimenez and directed by Robespierre, Vegas High is inspired by Jimenez’s own experience. It is a 1990s-set coming-of-age story about Laura, a girl who’s caught between two worlds: the fast-paced lifestyle of Las Vegas and her strong Mormon faith and community.

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Spiro plays Laura’s mom, Diane. The epitome of a Mormon housewife, Diane is compassionate, complicated and funny. But as a young mother of four, she struggles with the repetitive efforts to keep her family, home and church duties up and running.

Rivera is playing Josh, Diane’s reckless, charismatic son and Laura’s brother who lives unapologetically. Inappropriate but hilarious, troubled but never a brute, Josh is mysteriously complicated with an “it” factor no one can quite explain.

The role of Laura has not been cast yet.

Jimenez and Robespierre executive produce alongside Showalter and Jordana Mollick for Semi-Formal Productions and Michael Lewen.

Spiro co-starred opposite Jason Bateman and Laura Linney on the first two seasons of Netflix’s Ozark. This marks her return to WarnerMedia, where she got her break as the lead of the TBS comedy series My Boys. Spiro also headlined Fox drama series The Mob Doctor and had roles on Blindspot, The Good Wife, and Dexter. She co-wrote and directed the film Night Comes On, which won the Innovator Award at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Spiro recently completed filming the indie Small Engine Repair and the upcoming Fox trilogy Fear Street. Spiro by ICM Partners and Principal Entertainment LA.

Shortly after graduating from college, Rivera joined the Hamilton Angelica Tour as a principal standby. He then landed the role of Chino in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming West Side Story film. He is repped by Irene Cabrera and DDO Artists Agency

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