HBO Max is in the works for the development of Uptown Bodega, an adult animation comedy series, as first reported by Deadline.
Written by Oz Rodriguez (Saturday Night Live) and Lemon Andersen (She’s Gotta Have It), Uptown Bodega centers on Tati Cruz who has inherited her father’s old Bodega and vows to keep the business booming in a fast-changing Nueva York with the help of her husband, three kids, and Rocky the bodega cat.
Veteran comedy showrunner Peter Murrieta, who is supervising the script, Rodriguez and 3 Arts’ Greg Walter executive produce the project, which is a co-production between HBO Max and Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, where Rodriguez is under an overall deal.
Rodriguez won an Emmy for his directing work on Saturday Night Live. He started off by directing Digital Shorts, went on to become head of the film unit, and won an Emmy for his behind-the-scenes series Creating SNL.
His extensive TV directing credits include multiple episodes, including the pilot, of AMC’s Kevin Can F***k Himself, the pilot and multiple episodes of AP Bio, as well as episodes of Last Man on Earth for Fox, Shrill for Hulu, and Mixed-Ish for ABC and NBC & Peacock’s 30 Rock reunion. On the film side, Rodriguez wrote and directed Vampires Vs. the Bronx for Universal and Broadway Video, which was released by Netflix.
Andersen is best known as co-producer on Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It for Netflix.