EXCLUSIVE: John Ortiz (American Fiction) has been upped to series regular in the second season of the Apple TV+ series Bad Monkey, from executive producer Bill Lawrence and starring and executive produced by Vince Vaughn.
Based on Carl Hiaasen’s New York Times bestselling novel of the same name, Season 1 of Bad Monkey follows Andrew Yancy (Vaughn), who has been bounced from the Miami Police Department and is now a health inspector in the Keys. But after stumbling upon a case that begins with a human arm fished up by tourists, he realizes that if he can prove murder, he’ll be back in. He just needs to get past a trove of Floridian oddballs and one bad monkey.
Season 2 will be based on a new original story. Ortiz will reprise his role as Rogelio, a police detective and Yancy’s best friend, alongside Vaughn. For his work on the series, Ortiz received an Imagen Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy. John Malkovich was also cast as a series regular for the new season as Spencer, the head of a major South Florida criminal organization.
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Hailing from Warner Bros. Television, Bad Monkey is developed by executive producer and showrunner Bill Lawrence through his Doozer Productions. Jeff Ingold, Matt Tarses, Vaughn, Liza Katzer and Adam Sztykiel are also executive producers.
The complete first season of the series is now available to stream globally on Apple TV+.
Ortiz is a revered actor and director who paved the way for Latino actors in Hollywood today. He co-founded, alongside Phillip Seymour Hoffman, The LAByrinth Theater Company, whose membership includes an elite group of talent. They include Sam Rockwell, Ethan Hawke, Pedro Pascal, Michael Shannon, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Judy Reyes, David Zayas, Liza Colon-Zayas, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Ana Ortiz, Marlene Forte, and Bobby Cannavale, among others.
He will next be seen in Brian Duffield’s upcoming feature Whalefall for 20th Century Studios. Notable film credits also include the Academy Award-nominated MGM feature film American Fiction, the Netflix limited series The Madness opposite Colman Domingo, Nobody 2 with Bob Odenkirk, The Mothership opposite Halle Berry, and the feature film The Fallout, which premiered at SXSW.
His TV credits include the leading role on the ABC series Promised Land, Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Netflix’s Messiah, HBO’s Togetherness, Fox’s Rake, and HBO’s Luck opposite Dustin Hoffman.
On the theater front, Ortiz recently directed Halfway Bitches Go Straight To Heaven at The Atlantic Theater, for which he received multiple nominations. He is repped by Gersh, Principal Entertainment LA, and Schreck Rose Dapello.