CRE84U: Success of Julie and the Phantoms opened new doors for Latinos in Hollywood

Mexican producer and actor Jaime Aymerich has spent several years looking for stories in Latin America and Europe to take to Hollywood. Julie and the Phantoms (Netflix), which he discovered in Brazil and that recently had 13 nominations and three Emmy Awards (Original Song, Editing and Costume), is one of his major achievements as an executive producer.

It was talent agent Andy Patman who tasked Aymerich with finding a story for the producer, director, and choreographer Kenny Ortega (High School Musical, Descendants, Hocus Pocus). The search took him to Julie e os Fantasmas, originally from Brazilian director João Daniel Tikhomiroff, founder and partner of Mixer Films. The American version, directed by Ortega, script written by Dan Cross and David Hoge, who have worked on several Disney productions and a lot of experience writing for teenagers.

“We found in Brazil this format of the great director João Daniel Tikhomiroff. We evaluate the story and its ratings, because we look for successful productions with which the studios can minimize risks and because when an IP works somewhere in the world it can be translated to many places. And that is my value as an executive producer, finding stories in Latin America and Europe to take them to Hollywood,” said Aymerich, who has been in the entertainment industry for more than 30 years and has participated as an actor in several series (Weeds, Workaholics, Bosch and The Last Ship) and films such as How to be a Latin Lover and The Laundromat, directed by Steven Soderbergh and the performance of Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas.

His company CRE84U, co-founded with Emmy Nancy Cartwright (the voice of Bart Simpson), Mónica Gil Rodríguez (En Busca de Fellini, Borrego) and Carolina Aymerich (Aymerich’s wife), is devoted to the task of packaging proposals (stories, showrunners, etc.) to introduce them to the US players.

“Hollywood wants to do things with Latinos, so we fit in perfectly because we are three Latinos and one American. The Emmys that the phantoms won in July and this series open more doors for us. We have IPs from Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Switzerland. And not only audiovisual IPs but also literary works, stories that can send a message, because a movie can change someone’s life. Stories have the power to touch hearts and minds, so being a producer and an actor is a great responsibility,” said Aymerich.

He also highlighted that Latinos deserve to be represented with new stories that end once for all stereotypes.