With a boisterous laugh, Giselle Bonilla recalls her introduction to Hollywood at the age of 12: on the set of “Freedom Writers,” the 2007 drama about at-risk high school students in Long Beach. She played a young version of Eva, one of the film’s main characters.
“I remember the first thing we shot was an initiation scene where I get the s— beat out of me,” she tells De Los, sitting at a coffee shop in Silver Lake on Sept. 11 (more on this date later). “They put this candy blood in my mouth, and I thought it was so fun.”
In retrospect, Bonilla, 31, finds great irony in how that initial foray into professional acting fictionally materialized her Mexican immigrant parents’ worst nightmare.
“We don’t come from money. They hustled all their lives and put my sister and I in private education, because they had this irrational fear that I would join a gang … then the first thing I ended up booking as an actor was getting initiated into a gang,” she says grinning.
Since that unique formative experience, Bonilla has traveled a winding path in and out of the industry, which ultimately led her to direct her first feature: the dark comedy “The Musical,” in theaters Friday.
The movie’s antihero, Doug (Will Brill), is a middle school theater teacher plotting his revenge against his ex-girlfriend Abigail (Gillian Jacobs), also a teacher — and her new boyfriend, the more charming Principal Brady (Rob Lowe).
Doug’s plan? To secretly persuade his young students to put on a musical about the horrors of 9/11 and its aftermath that’s certain to cause controversy and get the principal in trouble.
“I feel like you can be more honest with comedy,” says Bonilla about why this genre appeals to her. “You can get away with everything that you’re angry about and want to yell about. If you make them laugh first, people tend to listen.”
Left to right, back row: Alex Heller (screenwriter), Will Brill (center row) Gillian Jacobs, Giselle Bonilla (director) and Rob Lowe (on the floor) from “The Musical” at the Los Angeles Times 2026 Sundance Film Festival studio presented by Chase Sapphire in Park City, Utah on Jan. 24.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Though the actual show is only a small element of the narrative, it turned off distributors, who argued they wouldn’t be able to market a comedy that involved such a delicate subject.
Still, “The Musical” is making it to the big screen as a self-released title thanks to its executive producers, who believed in the film enough to put in more money for a release.
“I’m going to make sure people watch it regardless,” Bonilla says about being very involved in the marketing. “Even though it didn’t sell at Sundance, we still found a way, which is how we made the whole movie. It was nonstop fighting against the universe just to make a comedy.”
Less than a week before production started, Bonilla lost the actors who were originally playing Principal Brady and Abigail. As her film fell apart, she reached out to the industry contacts she had made after working as an assistant for a few years. Miraculously, the screenplay piqued Lowe’s interest. He came on board, essentially saving the project.
Will Brill and Rob Lowe star in “The Musical.”
(Blue Harbor Entertainment)
As a student at the AFI Conservatory, Bonilla had directed a short film version of “The Musical” that writer Alexander Heller, aware of her affinity for comedy, had conceived for Bonilla to direct. The core group of artists who made the short also worked on the feature.
And though she has always pushed for diversity on screen — including in her short films “Virgencita” and “Bullfighter” — for “The Musical,” Bonilla believed the adults had to be white.
“It would be way more damaging if I had pinned a brown person to be behind the staging of a musical about 9/11,” she explains. “It was very clear to me that this was a comedy about white liberalism and how people weaponize tragedy for their own agenda.”
When it came to the kids in Doug’s class, Bonilla wanted to reflect the multicultural mosaic that is the Los Angeles Unified School District. To be able to see herself in “The Musical,” Bonilla wanted a Latina girl as the child with the most ambition to succeed in the arts. That character became Lata: played in the feature by Melanie Herrera in her first acting credit.
“She’s a dancer. But she’s very precocious and has a really confident, type-A personality,” Bonilla says of the young actor. “Melanie gives Reese Witherspoon in ‘Election,’ like, ‘I will do whatever I have to do for the part,’ and I recognized that in myself as a kid.”
Filmmaker Giselle Bonilla on the set of “The Musical.”
(Peter McCollough)
An L.A. native raised in North Hollywood, Bonilla started doing improv at a young age encouraged by her father, Art Bonilla, who grew up in Tijuana and has worked as an actor in the U.S. for over 40 years.
Her mother, originally from Sinaloa, does workers’ compensation insurance, which provided a stable income and allowed her partner to pursue acting.
“It was tough seeing him struggle and not have any agency over work,” Bonilla says of her father. “He’s such a great actor and he’s really funny, but he’s always getting cast in these very small bit parts as a gardener or an immigrant crossing on the border.”
Unsurprisingly, when Bonilla began auditioning for roles as a teenager, similarly one-dimensional and stereotypical characters from a “troubling perspective” came her way.
“They always make the main character in those stories a white person,” she says. “And then we’re painted as these puppies that just keep getting beat up. I didn’t want to contribute to that.”
Bonilla’s interest in being on the other side of the camera solidified after playing an illiterate South Central high school student in the Byron Allen sitcom “Mr. Box Office.” She attended Pasadena City College, where she studied film production, then used the residuals from the show to help pay for her tuition at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Attending film school on the East Coast was, as she puts it, a necessary experience, because she grew up rather sheltered.
“I’m a first-gen Mexican American woman and I was supposed to live at home until I get married,” she explains; but it also exposed her to the concept of impostor syndrome.
“I always had this impostor syndrome at NYU, because that was where I first really confronted wealthy people,” she explains. “I had never been in a predominantly white institution before. And that was really eye-opening.”
It was only when COVID restrictions were lifted that Bonilla decided to apply to the AFI Conservatory, where she regained her confidence and met her now close collaborators.
She has, however, never forgotten her biggest and earliest supporters. Since she started directing, Bonilla has cast her father in many of her short films. And in “The Musical,” you can see both of her parents in the audience during the culminating school show.
“My dad is the one that yells at Rob Lowe at the end in slow motion. He’s pissed that I cut his line, but it was a union film, and we couldn’t afford to give my dad a line,” she says. “But he will be the first one to tell you that he’s not an extra. He did a ‘cameo!’”
“The Musical” director Gisella Bonilla poses at the Los Angeles Times 2026 Sundance Film Festival studio presented by Chase Sapphire in Park City, Utah, on Jan. 24.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Bonilla’s next project takes inspiration from her memories attending a Catholic school run by nuns in Sun Valley, where a teacher was discovered to be a pedophile. She describes it as “an erotic thriller told from the perspective of virgins.”
Once again, she’ll tackle an unsavory topic and figure out how to bring it to fruition; then distribute it come what may, because she refuses to be boxed in by the industry’s expectations.
“Identity stories are very important. If someone wants to do that, they should be able to do that,” Bonilla says. “But I don’t think our opportunity as Latinos should be limited to painting ourselves as victims against the supremacists.”
EXCLUSIVE EastEnders’ Denise Fox actress Diane Parish has told the Mirror how she’s been kept out of the loop with what happens in the big flashforward episode yet to air
16:55, 10 Sep 2026Updated 17:00, 10 Sep 2026
EastEnders cast members are completely in the dark about the events of the upcoming New Year’s Day episode(Image: BBC)
EastEnders cast members are completely in the dark about the events of the upcoming New Year’s Day episode.
In January, fans saw the events that were set to take place on January 1 2027, in a flashforward episode. From a kidnapping twist and a wedding day, to mystery links between characters, there were big things teased.
With it being a year into the future, not a lot was explained. Since then new twists have aired that have teased some of the events about to take place, while there’s still so much more to be explained.
In the episode, we knew that Denise was in it but she wasn’t actually shown onscreen. Now we know this is because the soap did not want to give away Denise’s cancer storyline, which is currently unfolding.
But despite new hints at what is ahead, the cast are still very much in the dark like viewers are. Speaking exclusively to the Mirror, Denise actress Diane Parish confessed she didn’t know anything about the looming special episode.
She said: “I absolutely have no idea what’s going to happen! I keep watching things on TV, little bits of our show and they take me by completely surprise, I have no idea what’s going on!”
Diane also spoke about her cancer storyline, calling it “challenging” and confessing she had “struggled”. Diane told us: “It’s very challenging. I think it’s the most challenging storyline I’ve done both as my character or generally as an actress, but it’s really important.
“Sometimes there have been moments I’ve struggled [emotionally]. But I’ve got the blessing of working with people I know really well, I’ve known for years, and Tameka [Empson] and Scott [Maslen] keep it light and keep it fun when we’re working.
“But there are difficult moments because you’re immersed in it. If I was doing a one-off television drama or a film I’d have finished by now, but I’ve got to play this out in real time because we’re on your television every night.”
“I see it as a story of hope, a story about family, and it’s not just an easy story.” Diane praised the storyline though, as she talked of the feedback she had had from viewers.
Diane said: “”The wave of support I’ve got from the public, it’s touched so many lives and in particular highlighting cancer of this type for black people has been really important because statistically the survival rates are lower. That’s due to a number of reasons, including access to treatment and donors, and because people don’t put themselves on the register, making it very difficult without stem cells.
“So what has happened is, people are talking about it which is no small thing, so whether or not I’m having a hard time, it’s my job.”
EastEnders fans believe that Nicola Mitchell’s storyline involving her estranged family, with some claiming that her son Harry may not actually be Teddy’s son
Fans have predicted a dark twist for Nicola Mitchell(Image: BBC)
EastEnders fans have predicted a “horrible” twist for Nicola Mitchell. In recent days, we have seen Nicola reunite with her estranged family, sisters Gemma and Jodie, as well as her mum, Rose.
While this is the first time we’ve seen Nicola’s family all together, viewers have previously been informed that she has a strained relationship with them and has distanced herself from them after growing up.
And they are also aware that Nicola was no fan of her dad and instantly shudders whenever he is mentioned. Only recently, she opened up about the abuse she endured at the hands of her dad, who died after drink driving following an argument, when she told him to leave the house during an abusive moment.
But this week, Nicola’s sister, Gemma Hawkins, stated that Harry Mitchell was the double of his grandad, Nicola’s father, leaving her enraged. “No, he’s not, he’s nothing like him,” she fumed before storming out. Harry is the son of Nicola and Teddy Mitchell, who is currently behind bars for the murder of Okie, which he lied about to protect Harry, who was suffering from addiction issues.
And in tonight’s episode, viewers saw Nicola locked in the back of a van with her mum, and it’s fair to say that this didn’t go down too well. Well, Rose asked Nicola if it had been worth “severing ties,” she replied: “I didn’t have a choice, did I? Actually, yeah, I think so, I’ve built myself a life, and I’m doing just fine without you in it.”
An enraged Rose commented: “Sounds like it, Teddy in prison for killing a drug dealer, Barney the product of a roll around with your personal trainer, oh yeah, Gemma told me all about it, what’s next? Living with a man fast approaching as many wives as Henry the 8th. And poor Harry, an addict.”
Nicola, clearly angered by her mother, hit back, explaining that the last time they spent “extended time” together was Christmas in 2009, when she was subjected to “sly digs, constantly needling,” and Rose “trying to get a reaction.”
But fans now believe that Nicola’s relationship with her mum could be down to a horrible twist. Despite viewers being told that Teddy is Harry’s dad, they now believe Nicola’s own father could be the dad of her eldest son.
Nicola has spoken openly about her dad being abusive after consuming alcohol, often leaving her fearing for the worst when he would return home.
One fan said: “I actually think it’s the start of something really dark. I instantly noticed just how much Harry looked like Nicola, and then I thought… Is it going to be some really horrible story that ends up revealing she was abused by her dad?”
They continued: “And that her mother couldn’t deal with that, and that’s why there’s been this great big falling out? Wouldn’t put it past them to do something like that. Kind of a new spin on the Kat/Zoe/Uncle Harry thing, I guess.”
Another said: “Harry is defo Nicola’s Son/ brother. He’s a product of her Dad.” While a third went on to write: “It was explained why Nicola hates her dad because she caught him beating her mum, and wishing him dead, her mum has held his death against her all these years.”
