Deadline reports that Justina Machado (Six Feet Under, ER) has been cast as the lead in One Day At A Time, the upcoming Netflix remake of Norman Lear’s original sitcom that starred Bonnie Franklin from 1975-1984. The new series has a 13-episode order and will also star Academy Award winner Rita Moreno, who’s currently playing Liliana “Glamma” De La Vega on Jane The Virgin. The multi-camera reimagining of the series was written by Gloria Calderon Kellett (How I Met Your Mother) and Mike Royce (Everybody Loves Raymond), who will executive produce alongside Lear, who will apparently continue to produce television for the rest of time.
Unlike the very white original sitcom, the new One Day At A Time will center on a Cuban-American family headed up by single mother Penelope (Machado), who is navigating her post-military and post-separation life while trying to raise her daughter and son with the help of her friend/building manager Schneider and her very traditional mother (played by Moreno) who immigrated from Cuba. Penelope was once an Army medical specialist but now runs a doctor’s office, hoping to one day attend medical school.
Machado has made a career of scrubbing up, having played a nurse on Six Feet Under, a physician on ER, and a nurse on Private Practice; she played a different character entirely on Grey’s Anatomy a few years prior, defying the laws of companion series, but it’s Shonda’s world and she can do what she wants. More recently, she has appeared on Devious Maids and The Fosters. Machado will also have a regular role in the first season of the upcoming USA drama Queen Of The South.