project

East Los High

format
Television Show
location
United States
One of the top five shows on hulu.com during its first season and six-time Emmy nominated East Los High was Hollywood’s first and only series with an all-Latino cast, and it drew more than one million unique visitors to Hulu’s Latino page each month. Acting together with adolescent sexual and reproductive health organizations like Stay Teen and Planned Parenthood, the show empowered viewers to engage with digital and in-person reproductive health resources.
“A hit drama with all the elements of a racy telenovela, designed to teach as much as titillate.”
– Press Coverage,
Hollywood Reporter
“Hulu is making history.”
– Press Coverage,
Huffington Post

Making a Difference

East Los High inspired teens to write their own life story. The hit Hulu show and its digital ecosystem, East Los High social media and resource-rich website,  doubled StayTeen.org’s website traffic on the day East Los High launched. An astonishing 22 percent of Planned Parenthood’s total “the check” widget visits during the first season were accessed through the East Los High website.

Entertainment That Means Something

The entertainment industry in the United States can, in fact, improve issues like teenage sexual and reproductive health if implemented correctly.
Read More

PMC produced East Los High in association with Wise Entertainment as a Hulu original series for hulu.com. The 24-episode first season aired on June 3, 2013; the second season aired on July 9, 2014; season three aired on July 15, 2015; and season four aired on July 15, 2016. The finale aired on December 1, 2017.

East Los High rose to be one of the top five shows on hulu.com during its first season and has received six Emmy nominations. Because PMC hires producers, writers, and actors from the community we’re trying to reach, East Los High was Hollywood’s first and only series with an all Latino cast. It has drawn more than one million unique visitors to Hulu’s Latino page each month and has been written about in publications like the American Journal of Public Health for its impact on issues like adolescent sexual and reproductive health. StayTeen.org’s website traffic doubled on the day East Los High launched and 22 percent of Planned Parenthood’s total “the check” widget visits during the first season were accessed through the East Los High website.

PMC built East Los High based on PMC’s approach to entertainment-education hoping to help address teen pregnancy and other health and social issues. Bill Ryerson, PMC’s President, Katie Elmore Mota, PMC’s former Vice President of Communications and Programs, and Virginia Carter, former PMC board member with an Emmy and two Peabody awards to her credit, trained the East Los High writers in PMC’s methodology. The introduction of transmedia storytelling was inspired by formative research demonstrating robust media usage by the target audience and Mota’s recent Master’s degree.

PMC produced the first season of East Los High and subsequent seasons have been licensed to Wise Entertainment for production. Wise Entertainment is a Hollywood-based production company established by Mota after East Los High’s first season.

East Los High has been covered for its notable firsts (such as the all Latino cast), its exciting drama, and its educational content in news outlets such as NPR, Los Angeles Times, and Indiewire.

Funded By

See More of Our Work

Projects