Diego Guevara ’16 made his first appearance on TV, in Netflix\u2019s holiday-themed romantic comedy \u201cDash & Lily.\u201d The show\u2019s eight episodes dropped Nov. 10.<\/p>\n
Guevara plays Benny, the boyfriend of Lily\u2019s brother, Langston. The two try to help Lily step out of her comfort zone, says Guevara, leading her to eventually meeting Dash. The match is a pairing of opposites \u2013 Lily loves the holidays and keeps to herself; Dash is an extrovert who dislikes the holiday season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is definitely a great show to escape with,\u201d says Guevara, 26, who is originally from Central Falls<\/strong>, \u201cespecially given that this year comes with a lot of social distancing.\u201d<\/p>\n Guevara\u2019s shot at the role came in 2019, a year after he took his acting career to New York City, and it came out of the blue. His agent called him one day and told him to prepare for an audition the next afternoon. He walked in, auditioned and forgot about it \u2013 until he learned two weeks later that he was Benny.<\/p>\n \u201cI am so excited for the series as a whole,\u201d he says. \u201cBut to be portraying a gay Latino character on television is exciting. Representation matters. For people to see themselves on the screen is important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDash & Lily\u201d was filmed on location in New York City in the fall of 2019, shooting scenes on rooftops, in Central Park, and Times Square. \u201cIt was absolutely magical to get to celebrate Christmas for two whole months,\u201d Guevara says. \u201cFor anyone who loves the holidays or New York \u2013 or both \u2013 this is the show for you.\u201d<\/p>\n Guevara, who graduated from the URI Theatre program with a concentration in acting, credits his time at URI as a transformative experience. The conservatory-style program focuses on each student\u2019s needs, he says. His classes challenged him to overcome his fears, especially those with visiting professors Joe Short and Tony Estrella, both URI alumni.<\/p>\n In New York, he still keeps with him a talisman from his URI days \u2013 a tile signed by the cast of the department\u2019s 2016 mainstage production of \u201ccolumbinus,\u201d in which Guevara played Freak.<\/p>\n \u201cIt serves as a beautiful reminder of the people who I have met along my journey \u2013 the teachers, the students, my friends,\u201d he says. \u201cIt also represents hard work to me. The performance was by no means perfect, but I think of all my experiences in college, this is where I learned the most about myself and about the craft of acting.\u201d<\/p>\n After graduating, Guevara worked with Estrella \u201993 in the production of \u201cAs You Like It\u201d at the Gamm Theatre, where Estrella is artistic director. In 2017, Guevara played Sonny in Lin Manuel-Miranda\u2019s musical \u201cIn the Heights\u201d at the Wheelock Family Theatre in Boston. During the show, he met numerous actors from New York City and an agent interested in representing him.<\/p>\n \u201cI met with her in her New York office and she signed me on the spot, asking that I move to New York within two weeks,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve been here ever since \u2013 with the help of many people along the way \u2013 and I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n In New York, Guevara has continuously auditioned, landing a part in the international tour of \u201cLegally Blonde,\u201d performed in the 5th<\/sup> Avenue Theatre in Seattle, and theatrical houses on Long Island.<\/p>\n \u201cSince the pandemic hit and the city shutdown, I have not done much auditioning, but I am trying to keep up with my craft \u2013 taking classes, watching movies, letting myself experience life,\u201d he says. \u201cOnce the pandemic is under control, I will be back to auditioning and hopefully working.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Diego Guevara ’16, who graduated from the URI Theatre program with a concentration in acting, credits his time at URI as a transformative experience. The conservatory-style program focuses on each student\u2019s needs, he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1089,"featured_media":12047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1089"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12041"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12050,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12041\/revisions\/12050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}