信心, enthusiasm and ambition are key reasons that Jorge Ramirez-Martinez ’08 landed a screen writing role for the popular Netflix show “赛琳娜:系列”.”

Those attributes also were on display during his years at 正规博彩十大网站. He recalls one such moment with hearty laughs.

“There was a time when actress Jamie Lee 柯蒂斯 came to Pacific. I introduced myself and told her that I was going to be in Hollywood someday,拉米雷斯-马丁内斯说. “她看着我说，‘哦，好吧.多年以后, when I was working on the NBC series “Black List Redemption,她当时正在拍摄《正规博彩十大网站排名》,“我们俩都在派拉蒙工作室. 有一天我在停车场看到她.”

柯蒂斯, 谁曾就读于正规博彩十大网站, is the daughter of award-winning actress and iconic Pacific alumna Janet Leigh ’47. Ramirez-Martinez approached the actress and said, “I told you once when you were at Pacific that I would make it to Hollywood. 好吧，我来了.几天后, Ramirez-Martinez—wearing a Pacific sweatshirt—and 柯蒂斯 crossed paths when he was having coffee.

“I asked her if we could have a picture together. She had not been to hair or makeup so she got herself beautified. 这花了整整一分钟. She grabbed my phone and said ‘let Momma do it.“我很珍惜那张照片.” 

Ramirez-Martinez has been beating the odds his entire life. He is a first-generation college student whose family lived across from campus on Pacific Avenue. He filled out the last Community Involvement Program application his Stagg High School teacher had—and wound up being accepted into the program. 在太平洋英语学院修了三个专业, Spanish and film—led to a master’s degree in film at University of Southern California.

“When he was a freshman, he started out as a Spanish major. 他在挣扎,苏珊·吉拉尔德斯说, 西班牙语助理教授, and Ramirez-Martinez’s college advisor. “同时, he was saying I’m going to be an English major and I’m going to be a Spanish major and I’m going to be a film major. I said ‘Jorge, Jorge, get some focus.但他做到了. And he won’t let me forget what he accomplished with that triple degree. 他是个了不起的学生.”

Ramirez-Martinez’s passion for writing and films 以及之前的工作 helped him land a job on the 10-person writing team for the Netflix series on the life of 赛琳娜Quintanilla-Perez, the queen of Tejano music and an iconic Mexican-American pop star who was killed at age 23 in 1995 by the president of her fan club.

He worked on many of the nine episodes in the first season, 但他的亮点是第七集, which he co-wrote with Pamela Garcia-Rooney.

“The pressure was on us as writers for that episode. It was the love story of Selena and Chris—when they meet and fall in love. It’s a big life event in her life,拉米雷斯-马丁内斯说. “We had to really know her life inside and out. People understand it’s not like the movie about her. It’s complementary material to the movie. It was surreal watching something that I wrote showing on TV in front of millions of people.”

The second season of Selena will be available on Netflix on May 4. Ramirez-Martinez solo wrote one of the episodes.

“这一集叫做‘哦, no,’ if that tells you there will be drama involved,他笑着说.

Ramirez-Martinez lives in Los Angeles and gets home occasionally to Stockton to visit his mother and brother. Stockton, however, remains on his mind.

“I just finished a pilot for a show I’m calling “America’s 法律” and on the first page the main character comes back to Stockton to try her first case,拉米雷斯-马丁内斯说. “My writing often finds its way back to Stockton.”

Other creative projects at various stages of development—or in the idea phase—include a police show with storylines about the defunding of police departments, 以未来为背景的三部曲, 一本儿童读物和, 最终, 他的梦想是当导演.

“I want to do it all and create as many projects as possible,” he said. “I am very grateful for the role Pacific played in my life. Patti McCarthy, who was my film professor at Pacific, was such a great mentor. 帕蒂告诉我你是个作家.’ And at the time, I did not want to believe her. 但她是对的. 我对写作充满热情.”

“Some students want to write the next ‘Avengers’ movie, but Jorge wants to write about characters who are real and vulnerable,麦卡锡说, now assistant professor of film at Whittier College. (2005年至2018年，她在正规博彩十大网站任教.) “He has the ability to peel back the layers of the characters and make you understand them. He has the gift of making characters seem authentic with his words.”

“每个人都想当导演. But the first class in which I had Jorge at Pacific, I knew he was a writer. The greatest gift you can receive as a professor is to see your student succeed. 我为乔治感到骄傲.”