Gabriel Iglesias has actually had a very successful career in the entertainment industry. He has hosted a number of stand-up comedy specials, given scene-stealing performances in the movies Magic Mike and Narcos, and voiced characters in blockbuster animated movies like Coco and UglyDolls. However, his life might have been extremely different if he had taken a different path.
Iglesias reinvents himself as a history teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School in the play, seeking to serve his students to the best of his ability while dealing with a callous and ostensibly incompetent administrative staff.
Iglesias attended Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California, which just so happens to be his alma mater. The comic, of course, have any actual teaching experience.
While Mr. Iglesias isn’t an exaggerated representation of his life, like Pete Holmes’ character in Crashing or Ramy Youssef’s character in Hulu’s Ramy, he did want Mr. Iglesias to look and feel accurate and for the stories to seem authentic.
Is Mr. Iglesias based on a true story?
No, Mr. Iglesias, his new Netflix series, is not based on a true story, but as the comic revealed in a behind-the-scenes video, he once had a childhood goal of being a teacher.
The project thus explores what could have happened if the well-known “fluffy” comedian had used his skills to teach in a classroom as opposed to making people laugh onstage, acting as a sort of other reality for Iglesias.
