You’ve never seen Sofía Vergara like this. In the new drama series Griselda, the veteran comedian (Modern Family) is La Jefa (“The Boss”) through and through. Vergara stars as the eponymous Griselda Blanco and also serves as an executive producer on the project, streaming now. 

With six hour-long episodes, Griselda was created by Eric Newman (Painkiller) and Andrés Baiz — who directs every episode — reuniting the team behind Narcos and Narcos: Mexico. Newman, Doug Miro, Ingrid Escajeda, and Carlo Bernard serve as co-creators and executive produced the series alongside Baiz, Vergara, and Luis Balaguer with Latin World Entertainment. Escajeda and Miro are the series’ co-showrunners.

“From the earliest days of my research for what became Narcos, [Griselda] leapt out at me as a fascinating character,” Newman tells Tudum. “I have always endeavored to humanize complicated people, many of whom have been considered evil, and Griselda offered both the greatest challenge and opportunity.”

Who was Griselda Blanco?

The series is inspired by Griselda Blanco, a savvy and ambitious Colombian businesswoman who rose from obscurity to become “The Godmother” of the underworld. 

Griselda tells the story of a devoted mother who created one of the most profitable cartels in history. As the series dramatizes, her lethal blend of unsuspected savagery and charm helped her to  navigate between the worlds of underground business and family.

“There has never been a woman who came close to achieving the power, wealth, and respect that Griselda did. And no trafficker, woman or man, ever elicited the same level of fear,” says Newman. “Griselda is a rise-and-fall story like none we have ever seen before. It’s thrilling, emotional, funny, scary, and tragic. Griselda is an antihero of the highest order and a series of contradictions at odds with herself.”

Despite the notorious character being quite different from anyone Vergara has played before, Newman adds that he wasn’t surprised the actor could pull it off. “She’s a force of nature, and there is no doubt in my mind that whatever she sets her mind to, she can accomplish,” says Newman. “She was perfect for the role –– not only because she, like Griselda, is a single mother who came to America from Colombia with nothing and built an empire –– but because it was unexpected of her to do [so]. Sofía has been thought of one way –– a beautiful and brilliant comedic actress –– and she is so much more than that.” 

Where can I watch the Griselda trailer?

Up top! Vergara fully transforms into the ruthless La Jefa, and she doesn’t hold back when it comes to her family and empire. As the trailer shows, the suave scenery of ’70s and ’80s Miami comes to life amidst the city’s heated drug war led by Griselda herself.

Baiz tells Tudum, “Miami in the ’70s and ’80s gave us an opportunity to really be cheeky and have fun with the world-building. The music, the architecture, the wardrobe, the set designs really inspired me to create a unique tone, which is a bit surreal, joyful, sexy, but also transgressive and unconventional.”

Can I see photos of Sofía Vergara in Griselda?

Sí, claro. Covet her business acumen (and ’70s fashion) in these first look photos right here.

How did they make Sofía Vergara look like Griselda?

Vergara is nearly unrecognizable as Griselda, thanks to her incredible hair and makeup team. In the “Becoming Griselda” video above, Baiz explains that Vergara’s physical transformation was one of the toughest aspects of the show. “What we decided was that she had to be different than Sofía, but we shouldn’t imitate Griselda Blanco,” he says.

Newman agrees that matching Blanco’s hair and makeup shouldn’t come at the expense of Vergara’s performance: “She sat in makeup every day for hours! She was in every scene.” Not only did she wear five different wigs for the time jumps from the ’70s into the ’80s, she also wore prosthetic eyebrow covers and false eyebrows glued on top. She wore a prosthetic nose and a plate of teeth that were slightly bucked and yellowed out because she smokes throughout the series, too. “It’s no longer the actor,” says Newman. “No one ever saw her on set as Sofía by the time she left her makeup trailer. She was Griselda.”

How is Griselda related to Narcos?

Through the creative team, that’s for sure. As mentioned up top, Griselda is co-created by Narcos and Narcos: Mexico showrunner Newman, who comes to the title alongside Narcos director Baiz, who directs all six episodes. Baiz credits the amount of storytelling experience he gained on Narcos for helping him grow as a director. It also allowed him to arrive on set having already built a rapport with the people he’d be working with on Griselda. 

Newman sees Griselda as the “evolutionary descendant” of Narcos in the sense that the team was able to easily find a cadence after six seasons of working together previously — and run Griselda like a well-oiled machine. “That rhythm was essential in doing Griselda, because we had an actor doing something she’d never done before and taking incredible risks,” says Newman. Not to mention that Narcos and Griselda are both bilingual series with Latin American actors jumping back and forth between speaking Spanish and English.

While Griselda might not have been as famous as Narcos kingpin Pablo Escobar, “even he was scared of her at the time,” said Vergara. So as an executive producer, Vergara felt it made absolute sense to join forces with the team behind Narcos because of their ability to find the humanity within a complicated subject. “They really understand this world and its history, and audiences respond to and trust their vision,” she said. “That’s what I wanted for Griselda.” Adds Newman, “Something we try to do in Narcos, and with Griselda as well, is to understand that dynamic of: Who do people who can’t go to the cops go to? And what holds these things together, these places, these neighborhoods, these organizations?” 

Griselda also spotlights both Griselda’s and Miami Police Department officer June Hawkins’ (Juliana Aidén Martinez) struggles to rise in male-dominated worlds, as they’re each relentlessly hazed in their attempts to prove their worth. Newman sees that mirror between law enforcement and drug trafficking as another through line between the different series. In Narcos, it’s also “hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys,” he says. “They have a lot in common. More than either of them would care to admit.”

Can I see Karol G in Griselda?

Yes! Check out the trailer, photos, and character posters above for your first glimpse of the Colombian star. 

What’s the Griselda release date?

Griselda is streaming now only on Netflix.

Additional reporting by Drew Tewksbury.