“East Los High”: How Evidence-Based Entertainment Reached Millions

East Los High ran on Hulu for five seasons (2013–2017), was nominated for six Daytime Emmy nominations — including Best Actress nods for cast members Danielle Vega and Vannessa Vasquez — and consistently ranked among the platform’s most popular original series. It was Hollywood’s first English-language show with an all-Latino cast. But East Los High wasn’t built on instinct. It was built on research.

The research that shaped the show

PMC’s formative research revealed that more than 50 percent of Latinas in the United States were becoming pregnant before age 20 — and that high school incompletion rates were climbing in tandem. The data also showed robust digital media usage among the target audience, which led to a then-unprecedented decision: build the show as a transmedia experience extending across media platforms, not just a television series.

PMC trained the East Los High writers in its evidence-based methodology. The creative team — led by Carlos Portugal and Kathleen Bedoya — translated the research into a drama that reflected the lived realities of its audience without compromising entertainment value. More than 15 leading public health organizations advised on scripts and content.

Extending the East Los High Universe

Impact

StayTeen.org’s website traffic doubled on the day East Los High launched. In the first month alone, more than 27,000 people used the Planned Parenthood “The Check” widget through the East Los High website. Ninety-eight percent of viewers who engaged with the show’s transmedia resources said they found them helpful; 76 percent shared them with friends.

Researchers Helen Wang and Arvind Singhal, writing in the American Journal of Public Health, found that viewers demonstrated high levels of narrative engagement, related content to their real-life experiences, and — critically among the target audience of Latina girls and women — the show spurred interpersonal discussions about sexual and reproductive health with friends, siblings, parents, and relatives.

The series was covered by the Los Angeles Times, NPR, Indiewire, The Hollywood Reporter, and Cosmopolitan, to name a few, and was featured on the Skoll Center for Social Impact Entertainment’s field map of leading SIE initiatives.

A model for the field

East Los High demonstrated clearly, at scale, that evidence-based entertainment designed in partnership with a nonprofit could compete commercially, reach millions, and produce measurable shifts in audience knowledge and behavior.

For PMC, East Los High followed its signature blueprint: start with rigorous formative research, collaborate with world-class creative teams who understand and respect the audience, build cross-media ecosystems that extend the narrative beyond the screen, partner with incredible organizations that connect audiences to real resources, and measure everything. That blueprint continues to shape PMC’s impact entertainment work today.