February 11, 2025 • 25 mins
In this episode, comedian, actor, and writer, Danielle Perez joins Diosa and Mala to discuss her Catholic schoolgirl upbringing, representation for disabled Latinas, and advice to her younger self.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Amiga. You have to watch this new show. It's with
this Afro Latina in a wheelchair and her name is
Danielle Betez.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's so good.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
We have to watch it together.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Oh boy, see, I'm coming over.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Senora, Yora, Senora, Senora, Senora, Senora, Senora, Senora, Hi Senora.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Welcome to Senora.
Speaker 5 (00:31):
Sex Ed.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Senora sex Said is not your mommy sex Talk. This
show is la platica like you've never heard it before.
With each episode, we're breaking the stigma and silence around
sex and sexuality in LATINX communities.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Latinas have been hyper sexualized in popular culture, but notoriously
denied sex education. This podcast is an intergenerational conversation between
Latinas from gen X to gens, covering everything from puberty
and body image to representation in film, television, and music.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Just a reminder that in this show, a Senora is
a woman with a lot of life experiences and stories
to share. Maybe she's in her thirties, maybe she's in
her forties or fifties or older. Maybe she's trans, maybe
she sits.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
We are your hosts and producers, Viosa and Mala.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
You might recognize us from our flagship podcast Lokatra Radio.
Since twenty sixteen, we've covered all kinds of topics, ranging
from politics, to mental health, current events, and of course sex.
We still have so much to learn, though, and we
hope you listen to each episode with the Senoras and Senoritas.
In Your Life, Chapter twenty five, The Diva de.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Luxe, Los Angeles raised actor and stand up comedian Danielle
Berees doesn't play the Hollywood age shame game.
Speaker 6 (01:59):
True, You've never really cared that much about my age,
but just like working in entertainment, like I literally had
a meeting where they were like, what would make you,
you know different, or you know, like why would why
should we kind of choose you to like be this
pop culture person? And I was like, well, you know,
it's like I'm, you know, thirty five, Like I've lived
a life, and the horror of this like in person's face,
(02:22):
like it was like they couldn't get me out of
that room fast enough.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I was like, oh my god, it's true.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Like so many of us, Danielle saw the HBO series
Sex and the City as a blueprint for living wild
and free in your twenties and thirties.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
I had no idea what I was doing in my twenties.
Speaker 6 (02:41):
I mean, same could probably be said for my thirties,
but yeah, I think your twenties you're definitely just in
the throes of like wanting to be an adult and
technically being an adult. But like I think for me,
definitely it was very informal, like sex in the city
and like running around and like just being out and
just like doing so much instead of really like doing
(03:03):
what I thought I was supposed to be doing as
an adult, but not really actually the real adult stuff like.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
What are bills? What are tuxes?
Speaker 6 (03:14):
My twenties were definitely my wild ears, but also my
thirties were definitely old.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
I'm forty and barely feel like I.
Speaker 6 (03:23):
Think most of my friends would be like, yeah, Danielle's
not really an.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Adult still just.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Really baby adult vibes over here.
Speaker 6 (03:32):
You don't have that pressure of like it's like to me,
like jen x is or gen Z is so far
away from like who I am, Like it is like
an e lol thing of like I guess I'll dress
like gen Z today, but it's just it's almost a
joke because it's like I'm an adult woman, Like I'm
not fooling anyone. So just liking the thing I like
(03:54):
is fine for me. It doesn't matter anymore. I'm not
in high school.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
When it was time for Yell to learn about puberty,
her changing body, and masturbation, her mother brought home an
educational VHS.
Speaker 6 (04:08):
She got like a VHS from the library that was
like very much like your body, yourself kind of energy.
It was like very much in that do you remember
that like book? Like everybody poops. It's like very much
of that vibe, like our PBS vibes. And so it
(04:29):
had like you know, preteen like boys and girls talking
about the changes in their bodies and then like someone
explaining what all that was.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
So we were watching it and.
Speaker 6 (04:42):
They got to like a section about masturbation, and my
mom's like you do that, and I was.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Like, no, I don't. I was like, oh my god,
not my mom cauching me. Not my mom knowing fully
why I stole stole her for.
Speaker 6 (05:01):
Oh my god, magic Wand I was fuck Masoldier, how
to just like hidden in my room like eleven, I
don't even know why. I was like hmm, that I
should use that, like I have no idea. The ha
(05:22):
Tachi magic wand with the fucking chord. It was I
don't know what it was, but something innate internal inside
me was like.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
You should you should grab that. You should actually that
would be good.
Speaker 6 (05:37):
And it's like I didn't really know what I was doing,
but I knew that, like I'm touching my private parts.
Like you're not supposed to be doing that in public.
You know, it's not really something you share with people.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
So when my mom, like kolok He had it, I
was like, oh my god, this is mortifying, this is
I'm dead.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
They just really denied it. What else could I do.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
A fellow Catholic school girl, Danielle, graduated from Saint Andrew's
and also Immaculate Heart, an all girls high school.
Speaker 6 (06:15):
I went to Catholic like middle school, grade school, shout
out Saint Andrews, and so they did the thing where
I don't know if they actually separated the boys and
the girls, but like it was very basic, like this
is like the female body. Every month they meant straight,
(06:35):
you know what I mean, Like this is the male body.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
These are what the parts are called.
Speaker 6 (06:39):
Like it just was very I went to Immaculate Heart
High School, but we didn't have like a dedicated sex ed.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
We hope you're enjoying this conversation. Stay tuned, there's more to.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Come, and we're back. We hope you enjoyed the break
and are ready to listen to the rest. At most
Catholic schools, any type of sex education is taught in
religion class. This was true for Danielle during her time
(07:13):
at Immaculate Heart, and the lessons were notoriously brutal.
Speaker 6 (07:18):
We learned about sex in religion too, which every year
we had to take religion into religion to.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Truly unhinged.
Speaker 6 (07:29):
So I guess the like year before one of the
girls in my class, her older sister was like a
year ahead, and she had taken religion to and came
home crying, bawling because apparently the teacher had shown an abortion,
but it was like a late term abortion, so they
like literally show the like pulling out of like the
(07:52):
you know, different parts of the fetus, like not just
like a DNC, not just sucking it out, but like
dismembering of and it's like they didn't ask for signatures
or anything from the parents.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
And so this girl was terrified.
Speaker 6 (08:07):
Shock jock jock, And so by the time we were
in religion too. We had to like sign a form,
but like my parents don't care.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
They don't read anything so that the school gives them.
Speaker 6 (08:16):
So I do remember I was in class watching the video,
but I don't think I was really paying attention. But yeah,
it was very much you ready to be a mom.
It's like, take care of this egg for a week,
and I like broke my egg very quickly. And so
because I broke the egg, I had to like write
a paper. So I like wrote it on miscarriage.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Yeah, I guess she like gave you a choice of
like what to write it on, and I was like,
I'll just write it on miscarriages.
Speaker 6 (08:42):
My parents got divorced when I was very young, but
I lived with my dad for high school because it
was just like easier for me to get to high
school for my dad's house.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
And he had a girlfriend growing up.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Danielle's father's girlfriend help the belief that tampon use threatened
a young woman's virginity.
Speaker 6 (09:01):
She saw that I had tampons in my bathroom, and
so my dad tells to sees like, well, Gloria went
to the bathroom and she saw that you had tampons,
and she said that only married women use tampons, And
I said, Dad, using a tampon doesn't not make me
(09:23):
a virgin. I was like, Gloria, can mind your own business.
I was like, yeah, but you're still gonna get me
tampons at Costco so I'm not using pads, Like what
are you talking about?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
It's just so like dismissive of it.
Speaker 6 (09:37):
But it was so like it was so funny, like
even hearing that coded language of like only married women
and it's like, what in what world?
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Like this is you guys are like, oh, grow up?
You know.
Speaker 6 (09:50):
I went to like a Catholic all girls high school,
Like where am I really gonna date? I mean, yeah,
there's a boys school to go to the dances. But
it's like we're talking about a time when you had
a phone in the kitchen. I didn't have my own line,
barely had a padrar when I got my driver's license,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Like there was only kind of so much that I
could really do dating.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Wise, an LA girl. Through and through. The arts and
entertainment have been a constant in Danielle's life.
Speaker 6 (10:21):
I always wanted to act like I was a big
entertainer when I was a kid, like I did ballet
and tap and jazz, and I was always in the
school plays and everything like that. But I think also like, yeah,
it being like an industry town and kind of like
being at least aware enough about that, knowing like, okay,
(10:44):
you know, there are kids that really take it seriously
because it's actual job, right, like the kids on TV,
Like that's it's not just they do it on the
weekends or something.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
I think also too, it's like the schools I was
going to.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
Like it wasn't like I was going to like a
professional academy of art, Like I was doing plays at
like schools where it's like, okay, every year we send
the kids out and they do the plane.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
That's fine. But even in that.
Speaker 6 (11:07):
It's like it's kind of hard because it's like, I know,
I was very enthusiastic as a child. Was I super talented?
I don't know, but I do know that on TV,
I didn't see people that look like me, and I
hadn't acquired my disability yet, but I was, you know,
so I was like, you know, able bodied, but I
was still like an Afro latina, and so it's like,
(11:28):
I know, I didn't really see me on TV. And
so if I'm already clocking that, I feel like the
adults who can make decisions aren't in charge.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
They're also seeing that.
Speaker 6 (11:39):
So when they're casting like the ingenu or the lead,
maybe they're not seeing someone that looks like me, even
though I'm like super enthusiastic, do you know what I mean?
So it's like I don't know, like I don't know
how much of that is, Like it's just like the
system we're in and how much of it is Like, no, Danil,
you actually were very intelligent and sucked. Certain people are
encouraged more and it's like, what, I'm going to go
(12:03):
to acting school to be the nanny, you know, or
the housekeeper because that's all I was seeing on TV.
And it's not like we didn't know people pursuing the
arts because like my mom she had gone to Boston
Museum School for ceramics, so she like, you know, that's
fine art. But my sister was always considered more the
artistic one because she like had more of a predisposition
(12:25):
towards fine art as well, like drawing and painting.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Danielle always made it a point to take performing arts classes. However,
it wasn't until she acquired her disability that she started
to really dive into acting and stand up comedy on
a professional level.
Speaker 6 (12:43):
I enjoy performing, so in college, like I always made
sure to take like one creative class. Like my first
class of college was ballet, and so I'm like in
ballet class, stretching and my tights and my leotard, and
this guy comes up to me. He's like, are you
a dance major. I was like, oh my god, no,
but I'm so flattered. He's like, it's okay, you can
sit with us.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
I was like, oh my god. Still one of my
best friends to this day shut out.
Speaker 6 (13:11):
One Carlo Stella Rosa, and I took like singing class
and stuff like that. So it's like I was, you know,
but it was always like, oh, it's.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Fun, and I just like it.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
But I lost my legs when I was twenty and
I moved back to Los Angeles, and I just had no.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Clue what I was doing.
Speaker 6 (13:27):
Like I was just you know, being in your twenties
and being that party girl at three sixty.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Bumping that non stop and well into my thirties.
Speaker 6 (13:40):
But what happened was, yeah, I just I had no
idea what I was doing and I was trying to
figure it out.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
And my best friend, Madison.
Speaker 6 (13:48):
Shepherd, she had gone to Locks with my sister for
theater and she had gone to school in London and
had come back to LA and was like, I really
want to do like shakespeare Black Box, like LA is
a movie in filmtown, Babe.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
I No, that was a.
Speaker 6 (14:03):
Weird choice, but you're here, you're doing it. And her
roommate was also an actor, but he was also doing
stand up, and so we went to one of his shows.
He had like a Bringer show at the store and
we went and I was like, oh my god, this
man is so unfunny, like if he is on stage
at the comedy store doing stand up. I was like, Madison,
you and I can do stand up.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
I texted her. I was like, girl, how do we
do stand up?
Speaker 6 (14:26):
Like this is crazy, like this ding Dong can do it?
And she was like, oh yeah, okay, no, let's do it.
And so we went and open mic and we did it,
and I fell in love with it.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
I was like, oh my god, this is the best
thing in the world. I love it.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
When the pandemic hit, Danielle began to assess the stand
up comedy landscape and how important social media had become
to making it as a comic with the pandemic.
Speaker 6 (14:55):
I think that just like exasperated everything. Well, it's like,
how else am I gonna get any one to see
me do anything?
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Because everyone's at home.
Speaker 6 (15:04):
I'll just put it out and then we realize it
kind of didn't matter, and then it was like, how
many followers do you have? And that's what's going to
allow you to headline? Like I know so many people
that have the late night sets, have the half hour
from Comedy Central, have all the things you were supposed
to have, and it's like they have a hard time
headlining clubs because they don't have the followers, they don't
(15:25):
have the social media following, and so that's been really
I think the interesting thing just seeing especially like younger
comics really feel comfortable putting their stuff out there where
it's like I get it, you want views and you
want to build that following, but like, maybe don't put
(15:45):
out unfunny clips.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
At this point in Danielle's career, she has worked on
some pretty incredible projects, from Russian Doll to Spider Man
into the Spider Verse. She credits her participation in a
c Showcase for pointing the spotlight on her.
Speaker 6 (16:03):
Right before the pandemic, I had done CBS Showcase, which
was amazing. Like it was, it was really wonderful and
beneficial because I got to participate in like a live
sketch comedy showcase, very much like in the vein of
Saturday Night Live.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
And it was a five hundred seat theater.
Speaker 6 (16:23):
We had like five shows all sold out, and so
we got to perform and write our own comedic sketches
like and be seen by casting directors, agents, managers, executives,
development exacts all of that. So it was like if
you just look at a head shot right, like, I'm
a stand up I do stand up. But if you
(16:46):
just see like someone who's trying to pursue acting and
all you see is a headshot, you have all these
preconceived ideas of like what kind of characters they can
play and who they are. But because of stand Up,
I tell you who I am, and because of Showcase,
I got to like showcase a character that was like
different than what you would expect from me physically. I
(17:07):
think that just like kind of broadened the awareness of like, oh,
this is like an interesting, dynamic person that we've maybe
never seen before. And so even though the pandemic like happened,
like I was like pretty much right after Showcase, like,
I was able to audition for the show called Special
on Netflix and I booked it. I was like the
(17:28):
first one a book out of Showcase. It was crazy.
I got the phone call, I was crying.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
I was like, oh my god. But then the pandemic happened.
Speaker 6 (17:36):
It was like everything I've worked for has turned to
ash and that was I was devastating. That was mentally
exhausting and very very hard. But I think what it
allowed me to do is that building up to Showcase,
I had spent about like four months really diving into acting,
(18:00):
learning how to act, like you know, writing sketches and
rehearsing and blocking and.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Doing all of that. And I didn't want to lose
that muscle.
Speaker 6 (18:07):
And so I was able to audition and like book
and get staffed in a writer's room.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
We'll be taking a quick break. Don't miss us.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
Thanks for sticking around. We are back in the writer's room.
Danielle's comedic chops and her identity came together to craft
sketches that put her voice and talent at the Forefront
as a disabled Afro Latina.
Speaker 6 (18:36):
There were two sketches that I was kind of they
were deciding between, like which to put me in. They
were both so funny and so good. But the sketch
that we ultimately ended up doing, I was really excited
to do it because it was like a parody of
like Hustlers. So you know, you remember the Hustler's movie
j Lo, but basically like I come in, like Jlo's
(19:02):
doing a really bad job with the girls at the
club and I have to come in there and I
have to show them how to work the poll and
it's very silly sketch Usher comes out at the end
and stuff like that. But I just thought it was
important to do something where it's like, Okay, I'm a fat,
disabled like apple Latina in a wheelchair. I want to
(19:23):
be seen as someone who can be sexy right like
or hot or you know, even if it's comedy, it's
still like, oh wow, we're seeing her being really powerful,
We're seeing her in charge. We're seeing her kind of
running the sketch and the joke and the game and
not really being the butt of it.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
And so.
Speaker 6 (19:43):
I was really happy about that because it's like that
was the first introduction. A lot of casting directors like
got of me, and so I just think that that
it's important. I think that's like part of what I
love doing stand up and I know that stand up
is like stand up is the only reason I have
been able to like act and write. It's because people
(20:07):
when they see my stand up, they're getting a perspective
they haven't heard before. You know, they may have these
ideas of what I may speak on or what my
life is about. But then I get to open up
my mouth and actually share it, and you.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
Got to you gotta just deal with it.
Speaker 6 (20:24):
I really love playing characters that are high status and sexy,
like that's always really fun. I was really lucky I
got to, like audition for recurring guest star on Lopez
versus Lopez when it first when they were auditioning like
their original cast. And like the fact that literally I
(20:48):
got to audition for a character that the description was
like hot, you know what I mean. Like that felt
so validating to me, where it was like, oh, she's hot,
like that's a fact, Like they on someone who's hot
and they're saying, oh, Danielle, we want you to read
for this like that felt so good and felt really
validating for like the fact that I fought for doing
(21:08):
that sketch, and just like the work that I've been
putting out to really expand what those things look like.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
In her lived experience. Sex, love, romance, and disability are
inextricably tied together.
Speaker 6 (21:25):
They're really intertwined because I'm disabled, So it's just like
a core part of my identity, right, just like being
like Afri Latina being queer, like I just like I am.
I lost my feet when I was twenty, so it's
like I don't really have like a large like well
to pull from of like dating experiences prior to being disabled.
(21:48):
But also like dating twenty years ago is just not
how dating works at all today, you know.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
So it's just very different.
Speaker 6 (21:58):
I think dating is exhausting. Wow, real novel take. Dating
is exhausting. I think is something I've realized. I think
I've known it for a while, but I think I'm
just like like better about vocalizing it. Is like I'm
not really like I don't want kids and I'm not
(22:19):
interested in marriage, Like marriage is not a goal for me.
I know for a lot of people, marriage is a goal,
and so I think because of those two things, I'm
less pressed about dating, Like I would like romance and
would like a leve a, you know what I mean.
But I don't see that as like a super like
(22:40):
defining or important part of my journey, if that makes sense,
because I again, I don't want kids and I don't
want to get married. So it's like, you know, if
I don't want those things, and that actually takes a
lot of pressure off of this need to find a partner.
I would like a partner at some point point, perhaps,
(23:01):
you know, but it's also like to be in like
a happy, healthy relationship or cars so much work. But
I tell my younger self, I think I would have
told myself to.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Fuck with the shoes on. I like never got to
do that.
Speaker 6 (23:25):
I think comedy is one of those things. Like even
like my parents, who I think are very genuinely supportive,
I think they are very like they came to my show,
you know what I mean, Like my mom, Like, you know,
you've got to really disappoint your Latino parents if they
think doing stand.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Up comedy is a good career choice.
Speaker 4 (23:42):
What I learned from this interview with Danielle is that
there is such great power in taking your personal experiences,
your identity, your tragedy, whatever it is that you are
carrying with you in this life, and transforming it into
something positive and useful for yourself. In Danielle's case, her
identity as a disabled Afro Latina who is a wheelchair
(24:03):
user has not stopped her at all from pursuing a successful,
a highly successful career in stand up comedy and acting.
And in fact, it is those parts of her identity
that have become her calling card, her bread and butter,
and that really make her stand out in the arts
and media landscape.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Next time on Senora Sex Said, We're joined by content
creator Iris to talk about asexuality. We're also joined by
Gina Gomez of ace La to provide more insight about
asexuality and how we can be better.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
Allies nos ms Chow.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Senora Sex Said is a co production between Locator Productions
and Michael Dura Podcast Network.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
This show is executive produced by Mala Munos and diosa Fem.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Also executive produced by Jasell.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
Fances, Produced by Stephanie Franco.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Creative direction by Mala Munios, story edit by the usf M,
Music direction by Grisol Lomeli and
Speaker 4 (25:04):
Music produced by Brian Gazzo.
Amiga. You have to watch this new show. It's with
this Afro Latina in a wheelchair and her name is
Danielle Betez.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's so good.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
We have to watch it together.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Oh boy, see, I'm coming over.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Senora, Yora, Senora, Senora, Senora, Senora, Senora, Senora, Hi Senora.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Welcome to Senora.
Speaker 5 (00:31):
Sex Ed.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Senora sex Said is not your mommy sex Talk. This
show is la platica like you've never heard it before.
With each episode, we're breaking the stigma and silence around
sex and sexuality in LATINX communities.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Latinas have been hyper sexualized in popular culture, but notoriously
denied sex education. This podcast is an intergenerational conversation between
Latinas from gen X to gens, covering everything from puberty
and body image to representation in film, television, and music.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Just a reminder that in this show, a Senora is
a woman with a lot of life experiences and stories
to share. Maybe she's in her thirties, maybe she's in
her forties or fifties or older. Maybe she's trans, maybe
she sits.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
We are your hosts and producers, Viosa and Mala.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
You might recognize us from our flagship podcast Lokatra Radio.
Since twenty sixteen, we've covered all kinds of topics, ranging
from politics, to mental health, current events, and of course sex.
We still have so much to learn, though, and we
hope you listen to each episode with the Senoras and Senoritas.
In Your Life, Chapter twenty five, The Diva de.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Luxe, Los Angeles raised actor and stand up comedian Danielle
Berees doesn't play the Hollywood age shame game.
Speaker 6 (01:59):
True, You've never really cared that much about my age,
but just like working in entertainment, like I literally had
a meeting where they were like, what would make you,
you know different, or you know, like why would why
should we kind of choose you to like be this
pop culture person? And I was like, well, you know,
it's like I'm, you know, thirty five, Like I've lived
a life, and the horror of this like in person's face,
(02:22):
like it was like they couldn't get me out of
that room fast enough.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I was like, oh my god, it's true.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Like so many of us, Danielle saw the HBO series
Sex and the City as a blueprint for living wild
and free in your twenties and thirties.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
I had no idea what I was doing in my twenties.
Speaker 6 (02:41):
I mean, same could probably be said for my thirties,
but yeah, I think your twenties you're definitely just in
the throes of like wanting to be an adult and
technically being an adult. But like I think for me,
definitely it was very informal, like sex in the city
and like running around and like just being out and
just like doing so much instead of really like doing
(03:03):
what I thought I was supposed to be doing as
an adult, but not really actually the real adult stuff like.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
What are bills? What are tuxes?
Speaker 6 (03:14):
My twenties were definitely my wild ears, but also my
thirties were definitely old.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
I'm forty and barely feel like I.
Speaker 6 (03:23):
Think most of my friends would be like, yeah, Danielle's
not really an.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Adult still just.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Really baby adult vibes over here.
Speaker 6 (03:32):
You don't have that pressure of like it's like to me,
like jen x is or gen Z is so far
away from like who I am, Like it is like
an e lol thing of like I guess I'll dress
like gen Z today, but it's just it's almost a
joke because it's like I'm an adult woman, Like I'm
not fooling anyone. So just liking the thing I like
(03:54):
is fine for me. It doesn't matter anymore. I'm not
in high school.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
When it was time for Yell to learn about puberty,
her changing body, and masturbation, her mother brought home an
educational VHS.
Speaker 6 (04:08):
She got like a VHS from the library that was
like very much like your body, yourself kind of energy.
It was like very much in that do you remember
that like book? Like everybody poops. It's like very much
of that vibe, like our PBS vibes. And so it
(04:29):
had like you know, preteen like boys and girls talking
about the changes in their bodies and then like someone
explaining what all that was.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
So we were watching it and.
Speaker 6 (04:42):
They got to like a section about masturbation, and my
mom's like you do that, and I was.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Like, no, I don't. I was like, oh my god,
not my mom cauching me. Not my mom knowing fully
why I stole stole her for.
Speaker 6 (05:01):
Oh my god, magic Wand I was fuck Masoldier, how
to just like hidden in my room like eleven, I
don't even know why. I was like hmm, that I
should use that, like I have no idea. The ha
(05:22):
Tachi magic wand with the fucking chord. It was I
don't know what it was, but something innate internal inside
me was like.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
You should you should grab that. You should actually that
would be good.
Speaker 6 (05:37):
And it's like I didn't really know what I was doing,
but I knew that, like I'm touching my private parts.
Like you're not supposed to be doing that in public.
You know, it's not really something you share with people.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
So when my mom, like kolok He had it, I
was like, oh my god, this is mortifying, this is
I'm dead.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
They just really denied it. What else could I do.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
A fellow Catholic school girl, Danielle, graduated from Saint Andrew's
and also Immaculate Heart, an all girls high school.
Speaker 6 (06:15):
I went to Catholic like middle school, grade school, shout
out Saint Andrews, and so they did the thing where
I don't know if they actually separated the boys and
the girls, but like it was very basic, like this
is like the female body. Every month they meant straight,
(06:35):
you know what I mean, Like this is the male body.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
These are what the parts are called.
Speaker 6 (06:39):
Like it just was very I went to Immaculate Heart
High School, but we didn't have like a dedicated sex ed.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
We hope you're enjoying this conversation. Stay tuned, there's more to.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Come, and we're back. We hope you enjoyed the break
and are ready to listen to the rest. At most
Catholic schools, any type of sex education is taught in
religion class. This was true for Danielle during her time
(07:13):
at Immaculate Heart, and the lessons were notoriously brutal.
Speaker 6 (07:18):
We learned about sex in religion too, which every year
we had to take religion into religion to.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Truly unhinged.
Speaker 6 (07:29):
So I guess the like year before one of the
girls in my class, her older sister was like a
year ahead, and she had taken religion to and came
home crying, bawling because apparently the teacher had shown an abortion,
but it was like a late term abortion, so they
like literally show the like pulling out of like the
(07:52):
you know, different parts of the fetus, like not just
like a DNC, not just sucking it out, but like
dismembering of and it's like they didn't ask for signatures
or anything from the parents.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
And so this girl was terrified.
Speaker 6 (08:07):
Shock jock jock, And so by the time we were
in religion too. We had to like sign a form,
but like my parents don't care.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
They don't read anything so that the school gives them.
Speaker 6 (08:16):
So I do remember I was in class watching the video,
but I don't think I was really paying attention. But yeah,
it was very much you ready to be a mom.
It's like, take care of this egg for a week,
and I like broke my egg very quickly. And so
because I broke the egg, I had to like write
a paper. So I like wrote it on miscarriage.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Yeah, I guess she like gave you a choice of
like what to write it on, and I was like,
I'll just write it on miscarriages.
Speaker 6 (08:42):
My parents got divorced when I was very young, but
I lived with my dad for high school because it
was just like easier for me to get to high
school for my dad's house.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
And he had a girlfriend growing up.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Danielle's father's girlfriend help the belief that tampon use threatened
a young woman's virginity.
Speaker 6 (09:01):
She saw that I had tampons in my bathroom, and
so my dad tells to sees like, well, Gloria went
to the bathroom and she saw that you had tampons,
and she said that only married women use tampons, And
I said, Dad, using a tampon doesn't not make me
(09:23):
a virgin. I was like, Gloria, can mind your own business.
I was like, yeah, but you're still gonna get me
tampons at Costco so I'm not using pads, Like what
are you talking about?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
It's just so like dismissive of it.
Speaker 6 (09:37):
But it was so like it was so funny, like
even hearing that coded language of like only married women
and it's like, what in what world?
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Like this is you guys are like, oh, grow up?
You know.
Speaker 6 (09:50):
I went to like a Catholic all girls high school,
Like where am I really gonna date? I mean, yeah,
there's a boys school to go to the dances. But
it's like we're talking about a time when you had
a phone in the kitchen. I didn't have my own line,
barely had a padrar when I got my driver's license,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Like there was only kind of so much that I
could really do dating.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Wise, an LA girl. Through and through. The arts and
entertainment have been a constant in Danielle's life.
Speaker 6 (10:21):
I always wanted to act like I was a big
entertainer when I was a kid, like I did ballet
and tap and jazz, and I was always in the
school plays and everything like that. But I think also like, yeah,
it being like an industry town and kind of like
being at least aware enough about that, knowing like, okay,
(10:44):
you know, there are kids that really take it seriously
because it's actual job, right, like the kids on TV,
Like that's it's not just they do it on the
weekends or something.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
I think also too, it's like the schools I was
going to.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
Like it wasn't like I was going to like a
professional academy of art, Like I was doing plays at
like schools where it's like, okay, every year we send
the kids out and they do the plane.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
That's fine. But even in that.
Speaker 6 (11:07):
It's like it's kind of hard because it's like, I know,
I was very enthusiastic as a child. Was I super talented?
I don't know, but I do know that on TV,
I didn't see people that look like me, and I
hadn't acquired my disability yet, but I was, you know,
so I was like, you know, able bodied, but I
was still like an Afro latina, and so it's like,
(11:28):
I know, I didn't really see me on TV. And
so if I'm already clocking that, I feel like the
adults who can make decisions aren't in charge.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
They're also seeing that.
Speaker 6 (11:39):
So when they're casting like the ingenu or the lead,
maybe they're not seeing someone that looks like me, even
though I'm like super enthusiastic, do you know what I mean?
So it's like I don't know, like I don't know
how much of that is, Like it's just like the
system we're in and how much of it is Like, no, Danil,
you actually were very intelligent and sucked. Certain people are
encouraged more and it's like, what, I'm going to go
(12:03):
to acting school to be the nanny, you know, or
the housekeeper because that's all I was seeing on TV.
And it's not like we didn't know people pursuing the
arts because like my mom she had gone to Boston
Museum School for ceramics, so she like, you know, that's
fine art. But my sister was always considered more the
artistic one because she like had more of a predisposition
(12:25):
towards fine art as well, like drawing and painting.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Danielle always made it a point to take performing arts classes. However,
it wasn't until she acquired her disability that she started
to really dive into acting and stand up comedy on
a professional level.
Speaker 6 (12:43):
I enjoy performing, so in college, like I always made
sure to take like one creative class. Like my first
class of college was ballet, and so I'm like in
ballet class, stretching and my tights and my leotard, and
this guy comes up to me. He's like, are you
a dance major. I was like, oh my god, no,
but I'm so flattered. He's like, it's okay, you can
sit with us.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
I was like, oh my god. Still one of my
best friends to this day shut out.
Speaker 6 (13:11):
One Carlo Stella Rosa, and I took like singing class
and stuff like that. So it's like I was, you know,
but it was always like, oh, it's.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Fun, and I just like it.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
But I lost my legs when I was twenty and
I moved back to Los Angeles, and I just had no.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Clue what I was doing.
Speaker 6 (13:27):
Like I was just you know, being in your twenties
and being that party girl at three sixty.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Bumping that non stop and well into my thirties.
Speaker 6 (13:40):
But what happened was, yeah, I just I had no
idea what I was doing and I was trying to
figure it out.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
And my best friend, Madison.
Speaker 6 (13:48):
Shepherd, she had gone to Locks with my sister for
theater and she had gone to school in London and
had come back to LA and was like, I really
want to do like shakespeare Black Box, like LA is
a movie in filmtown, Babe.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
I No, that was a.
Speaker 6 (14:03):
Weird choice, but you're here, you're doing it. And her
roommate was also an actor, but he was also doing
stand up, and so we went to one of his shows.
He had like a Bringer show at the store and
we went and I was like, oh my god, this
man is so unfunny, like if he is on stage
at the comedy store doing stand up. I was like, Madison,
you and I can do stand up.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
I texted her. I was like, girl, how do we
do stand up?
Speaker 6 (14:26):
Like this is crazy, like this ding Dong can do it?
And she was like, oh yeah, okay, no, let's do it.
And so we went and open mic and we did it,
and I fell in love with it.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
I was like, oh my god, this is the best
thing in the world. I love it.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
When the pandemic hit, Danielle began to assess the stand
up comedy landscape and how important social media had become
to making it as a comic with the pandemic.
Speaker 6 (14:55):
I think that just like exasperated everything. Well, it's like,
how else am I gonna get any one to see
me do anything?
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Because everyone's at home.
Speaker 6 (15:04):
I'll just put it out and then we realize it
kind of didn't matter, and then it was like, how
many followers do you have? And that's what's going to
allow you to headline? Like I know so many people
that have the late night sets, have the half hour
from Comedy Central, have all the things you were supposed
to have, and it's like they have a hard time
headlining clubs because they don't have the followers, they don't
(15:25):
have the social media following, and so that's been really
I think the interesting thing just seeing especially like younger
comics really feel comfortable putting their stuff out there where
it's like I get it, you want views and you
want to build that following, but like, maybe don't put
(15:45):
out unfunny clips.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
At this point in Danielle's career, she has worked on
some pretty incredible projects, from Russian Doll to Spider Man
into the Spider Verse. She credits her participation in a
c Showcase for pointing the spotlight on her.
Speaker 6 (16:03):
Right before the pandemic, I had done CBS Showcase, which
was amazing. Like it was, it was really wonderful and
beneficial because I got to participate in like a live
sketch comedy showcase, very much like in the vein of
Saturday Night Live.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
And it was a five hundred seat theater.
Speaker 6 (16:23):
We had like five shows all sold out, and so
we got to perform and write our own comedic sketches
like and be seen by casting directors, agents, managers, executives,
development exacts all of that. So it was like if
you just look at a head shot right, like, I'm
a stand up I do stand up. But if you
(16:46):
just see like someone who's trying to pursue acting and
all you see is a headshot, you have all these
preconceived ideas of like what kind of characters they can
play and who they are. But because of stand Up,
I tell you who I am, and because of Showcase,
I got to like showcase a character that was like
different than what you would expect from me physically. I
(17:07):
think that just like kind of broadened the awareness of like, oh,
this is like an interesting, dynamic person that we've maybe
never seen before. And so even though the pandemic like happened,
like I was like pretty much right after Showcase, like,
I was able to audition for the show called Special
on Netflix and I booked it. I was like the
(17:28):
first one a book out of Showcase. It was crazy.
I got the phone call, I was crying.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
I was like, oh my god. But then the pandemic happened.
Speaker 6 (17:36):
It was like everything I've worked for has turned to
ash and that was I was devastating. That was mentally
exhausting and very very hard. But I think what it
allowed me to do is that building up to Showcase,
I had spent about like four months really diving into acting,
(18:00):
learning how to act, like you know, writing sketches and
rehearsing and blocking and.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Doing all of that. And I didn't want to lose
that muscle.
Speaker 6 (18:07):
And so I was able to audition and like book
and get staffed in a writer's room.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
We'll be taking a quick break. Don't miss us.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
Thanks for sticking around. We are back in the writer's room.
Danielle's comedic chops and her identity came together to craft
sketches that put her voice and talent at the Forefront
as a disabled Afro Latina.
Speaker 6 (18:36):
There were two sketches that I was kind of they
were deciding between, like which to put me in. They
were both so funny and so good. But the sketch
that we ultimately ended up doing, I was really excited
to do it because it was like a parody of
like Hustlers. So you know, you remember the Hustler's movie
j Lo, but basically like I come in, like Jlo's
(19:02):
doing a really bad job with the girls at the
club and I have to come in there and I
have to show them how to work the poll and
it's very silly sketch Usher comes out at the end
and stuff like that. But I just thought it was
important to do something where it's like, Okay, I'm a fat,
disabled like apple Latina in a wheelchair. I want to
(19:23):
be seen as someone who can be sexy right like
or hot or you know, even if it's comedy, it's
still like, oh wow, we're seeing her being really powerful,
We're seeing her in charge. We're seeing her kind of
running the sketch and the joke and the game and
not really being the butt of it.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
And so.
Speaker 6 (19:43):
I was really happy about that because it's like that
was the first introduction. A lot of casting directors like
got of me, and so I just think that that
it's important. I think that's like part of what I
love doing stand up and I know that stand up
is like stand up is the only reason I have
been able to like act and write. It's because people
(20:07):
when they see my stand up, they're getting a perspective
they haven't heard before. You know, they may have these
ideas of what I may speak on or what my
life is about. But then I get to open up
my mouth and actually share it, and you.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
Got to you gotta just deal with it.
Speaker 6 (20:24):
I really love playing characters that are high status and sexy,
like that's always really fun. I was really lucky I
got to, like audition for recurring guest star on Lopez
versus Lopez when it first when they were auditioning like
their original cast. And like the fact that literally I
(20:48):
got to audition for a character that the description was
like hot, you know what I mean. Like that felt
so validating to me, where it was like, oh, she's hot,
like that's a fact, Like they on someone who's hot
and they're saying, oh, Danielle, we want you to read
for this like that felt so good and felt really
validating for like the fact that I fought for doing
(21:08):
that sketch, and just like the work that I've been
putting out to really expand what those things look like.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
In her lived experience. Sex, love, romance, and disability are
inextricably tied together.
Speaker 6 (21:25):
They're really intertwined because I'm disabled, So it's just like
a core part of my identity, right, just like being
like Afri Latina being queer, like I just like I am.
I lost my feet when I was twenty, so it's
like I don't really have like a large like well
to pull from of like dating experiences prior to being disabled.
(21:48):
But also like dating twenty years ago is just not
how dating works at all today, you know.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
So it's just very different.
Speaker 6 (21:58):
I think dating is exhausting. Wow, real novel take. Dating
is exhausting. I think is something I've realized. I think
I've known it for a while, but I think I'm
just like like better about vocalizing it. Is like I'm
not really like I don't want kids and I'm not
(22:19):
interested in marriage, Like marriage is not a goal for me.
I know for a lot of people, marriage is a goal,
and so I think because of those two things, I'm
less pressed about dating, Like I would like romance and
would like a leve a, you know what I mean.
But I don't see that as like a super like
(22:40):
defining or important part of my journey, if that makes sense,
because I again, I don't want kids and I don't
want to get married. So it's like, you know, if
I don't want those things, and that actually takes a
lot of pressure off of this need to find a partner.
I would like a partner at some point point, perhaps,
(23:01):
you know, but it's also like to be in like
a happy, healthy relationship or cars so much work. But
I tell my younger self, I think I would have
told myself to.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Fuck with the shoes on. I like never got to
do that.
Speaker 6 (23:25):
I think comedy is one of those things. Like even
like my parents, who I think are very genuinely supportive,
I think they are very like they came to my show,
you know what I mean, Like my mom, Like, you know,
you've got to really disappoint your Latino parents if they
think doing stand.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Up comedy is a good career choice.
Speaker 4 (23:42):
What I learned from this interview with Danielle is that
there is such great power in taking your personal experiences,
your identity, your tragedy, whatever it is that you are
carrying with you in this life, and transforming it into
something positive and useful for yourself. In Danielle's case, her
identity as a disabled Afro Latina who is a wheelchair
(24:03):
user has not stopped her at all from pursuing a successful,
a highly successful career in stand up comedy and acting.
And in fact, it is those parts of her identity
that have become her calling card, her bread and butter,
and that really make her stand out in the arts
and media landscape.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Next time on Senora Sex Said, We're joined by content
creator Iris to talk about asexuality. We're also joined by
Gina Gomez of ace La to provide more insight about
asexuality and how we can be better.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
Allies nos ms Chow.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Senora Sex Said is a co production between Locator Productions
and Michael Dura Podcast Network.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
This show is executive produced by Mala Munos and diosa Fem.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Also executive produced by Jasell.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
Fances, Produced by Stephanie Franco.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Creative direction by Mala Munios, story edit by the usf M,
Music direction by Grisol Lomeli and
Speaker 4 (25:04):
Music produced by Brian Gazzo.
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