‘One Day at a Time’ Star, EP Reunite for Amazon’s ‘Horror of Dolores Roach’

One Day at a Time star Justina Machado and showrunner Gloria Calderón Kellett are reteaming — albeit for a very different sort of project.

Amazon Studios has greenlit a series based on the Gimlet podcast The Horror of Dolores Roach. Blumhouse Television, Spotify-owned Gimlet and GloNation Studios are also producing; the half-hour series will stream on Prime Video. Aaron Mark, who wrote and directed the podcast, and Dara Resnik will serve as co-showrunners and executive producers. Calderón Kellett has also come aboard as an exec producer, along with pilot director Roxann Dawson.

Machado and Calderón Kellett are reuniting after four seasons of the critically beloved One Day at a Time (three on Netflix and one on ViacomCBS’ Pop TV). The Horror of Dolores Roach is the second project for Calderón Kellett at Prime Video; she also created and exec produced the streamer’s comedy With Love.

The series order for Dolores Roach also comes as series with Latino leads are few and far between. ABC recently premiered family drama Promised Land, and the five-episode With Love debuted in December. Netflix also canceled Gentefied in January, and On My Block, which centers Black and Latino characters, ended last year (though a spinoff is in the works).

The Horror of Dolores Roach is described as “a contemporary Sweeney Todd-inspired tale of eat or be eaten; a macabre urban legend of love, betrayal, weed, gentrification, cannibalism, and survival of the fittest.” After serving a 16-year prison sentence, the title character (Machado) returns to a gentrified Washington Heights with $200 and the clothes on her back. Her boyfriend missing, her family long gone, Dolores reunites with an old stoner buddy, Luis, who gives her room and board and lets her give massages for cash in the basement under his dilapidated storefront, Empanada Loca, the only remnant of her former life. When the promise of her newfound stability is quickly threatened, “Magic Hands Dolores” is driven to shocking extremes to survive.

Alejandro Hernandez, Kita Updike and K. Todd Freeman also star.

“After eight years living with the indomitable Dolores Roach in multiple forms, I could not be more thrilled to be bringing her to life on television with this powerhouse team,” said Mark.

“We at Amazon Studios fell in love with this story along with everyone else as the podcast captured listeners. We couldn’t be more excited and fortunate to be working with such world-class creatives to bring Dolores Roach to screen in what is sure to be a captivating series,” said Marc Resteghini, head of development at Amazon Studios.

Mark originally staged The Horror of Dolores Roach as a one-woman play starring Daphne Rubin-Vega, who reprised her role in the two-season podcast. Rubin-Vega is an executive producer of the Prime Video series along with Mark, Resnik, Calderón Kellett and Dawson; Jason Blum, Chris McCumber and Jeremy Gold of Blumhouse TV; and Spotify’s Dawn Ostroff, Mimi O’Donnell and Justin McGoldrick.