Find more details about this panel below. This panel is part of our InFocus: Latin & Hispanic Cinema program. Please click on the links below for more information about the other virtual panels also taking place on 9/19:
To learn more about our in-person programming taking place on 9/20, please click here.
As part of the NFMLA Film Festival’s 2025 InFocus: Latin and Hispanic Cinema lineup, we invite you to join us for a virtual conversation with TV producer Sonia A. Gambaro. This discussion will explore the intricacies and nuances of developing, pitching, and producing for television. Sonia most recently concluded her role overseeing Television Development and Production at 3Pas Studios, working with Mexican powerhouse Eugenio Derbez and CEO/Producer Ben Odell, where she produced four seasons of the critically acclaimed comedy series Acapulco for Apple TV+.
Sonia A. Gambaro
Pollinate Entertainment
About Sonia:
Sonia Almanza Gambaro is a Producer, Television Executive, and Story Consultant on a mission to pollinate the world with unexpected stories. She is drawn to weird characters, comedy of all types, and multicultural examinations of the human condition (seriously). Gambaro just wrapped five years of running Television Development and Production at 3Pas Studios for Mexican powerhouse Eugenio Derbez and CEO/Producer Ben Odell, where she produced four seasons of the critically acclaimed comedy series Acapulco for AppleTV+. She has sold multiple series to Netflix, AppleTV+, ABC, CW, NBC, MAX, Onyx, and Freeform; some highlights include Ada Twist, Scientist to Netflix, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown to AppleTV+, Gina Rodriguez and Molly Breeskin, Dark Star Squadron with the Saldaña Sisters’ Cinestar to Crunchyroll, and the 2021 Netflix feature Afterlife of the Party starring Victoria Justice penned by Carrie Freedle. Through 3Pas’s previous first-look deals at 20th Television (ABC Signature) and Lionsgate, Gambaro set up dozens of projects, demonstrating herself to be an effective and talented creative producer.
In addition to founding Pollinate Entertainment, Gambaro has done hard time at Equitable Management, Madhouse Entertainment, Paradigm Talent Agency, and Televisa USA, where she worked on Chasing Life, Devious Maids, and did her penance by watching and analyzing ALL the telenovelas she had derided as a teenager (her favorite is Cuna de Lobos). Sonia previously worked in unscripted and event television as a segment producer, researcher, and production coordinator for shows on MTV, VH1, TV Land, LATV, CBS, and BRAVO. A graduate of UCLA, where she studied Italian and Spanish Literature as well as the classics, Gambaro was pleased to discover an underrated Renaissance playwright, Il Ruzzante, whose work delighted her with sexy escapades of 16th-century youth and the tragically comedic banter of the most surly plebeians imaginable, all punctuated by highfalutin fart jokes. It reminded her of her Dad. She is inspired to find these kinds of comedic works from all regions and through all eras. When she’s not overthinking story or wrangling unique personalities, Sonia Almanza Gambaro talks smack, busts chops, and tells Mom jokes effectively and persuasively in Italian, Spanish, and English.
Fun Fact: Sonia enjoyed a successful career in music as DJ Suprema, with residencies and featured gigs in Los Angeles, Mexico City, NYC, and Venice, Italy. She got her first taste of producing in 2002 while co-producing the Hip Hop tent Code of the Cutz on the 48-city VANS WARPED TOUR, where she beat-juggled performing on the Ernie Ball Stage, booking local talent in every city, and somehow didn’t crash the 30-foot tour bus she drove from Detroit to L.A. in under 72 hours when the driver went AWOL (early signs of her keen ability to keep teams focused, effective, and alive under pressure). Soon thereafter, she was chosen to produce her own segment for LATV, called Suprema Sound Exclusives, which aired two nights a week for three years and led to new stints at POWER 106 and KIIS-FM. Her parents were still not impressed, but annoyed that she’d somehow found a new way to interrupt their Telenovelas.
Sonia lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two children, and the cutest dog in the world, Oscar.
IMPORTANT DETAILS:
This panel will take place virtually over ZOOM. Ticket purchasers will receive a ZOOM link to this panel 2 hours before the published start time. If you don’t already have the ZOOM app, please make sure to download on your device before the panel start time.
If you purchase an All-Access Pass for our September Festival events prior to the date of this panel, you will also receive admission to this virtual panel, included as part of your pass.
If you are a current Annual Member of NFMLA, please email info@nfmla.org to receive a complimentary ticket to this panel. If you are not an Annual Member of NFMLA and would like to join, you can become a member here.
