Powerful stories of the Hispanic experience have long been depicted on television dramas and telenovelas. In the early days of television, Rita Moreno received acclaim for her work in dramatic anthology series including Fireside Theatre and Climax! In the decades since, the genre has made bold cultural statements, such as Wilson Cruz’s history-making LGBTQ role on My So-Called Life, and Jimmy Smits’s portrayal of the first Hispanic U.S. President on The West Wing. Telenovelas including Rebelde, El Clon, and Rubí have been among the most popular series in the history of Spanish-language TV, and others such as Yo Soy Betty, la Fea and La Reina del Sur have also been adapted into popular English-language versions and have become hits in the U.S.

• José Ferrer repeats his Tony-winning role of Cyrano de Bergerac on a 1949 episode of Philco Television Playhouse, one year before he won the Oscar for the same part.   
• Repeating the role he had played previously in several films, Leo Carrillo stars as sidekick Pancho on the syndicated The Cisco Kid from 1950–56, making him one of television’s first Hispanic series regulars, although his performance was criticized by many for being a caricatured stereotype.   
• One of a handful of Latinas to receive fairly steady employment on television during the 1950s and ‘60s, Miriam Colon acts on such major series as Playhouse 90, Goodyear Playhouse, Peter Gunn, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Dr. Kildare, The Defenders, The Fugitive, and, most notably, the medium’s longest-running western, Gunsmoke, where she played no less than seven different characters.  

• In 1961, when he was just twenty-one years old, Martin Sheen receives his first television role, playing a gang leader named “Packy Girard” on an episode of Route 66. Born Ramón Estevez, he created his stage name by combining those of casting director James Dale Martin and televangelist Fulton J. Sheen. 

• Albert Paulsen becomes the first Hispanic actor to win an Emmy Award, for a 1963 episode of the NBC anthology series Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre.

• Launched in April of 1965, Brazil’s Globo becomes the largest commercial TV network in Latin America, and the second largest in the world, bested only by ABC in America.   

• Playing “Miguel,” Jaime Sanchez becomes the first Latino cast member of Sesame Street in 1970. The following year, Emilio Delgado and Sonia Manzano joined the company, as Luis and Maria.  

• Henry Darrow becomes the first Hispanic actor on television to play the legendary masked hero Zorro, when the animated series The Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour premiered in 1980.    

• In 1990, A Martinez becomes the first Hispanic actor to win the Daytime Emmy Award for Lead Actor in a Dramatic Series, for playing “Cruz Castillo” on Santa Barbara.  

• In January 2002, PBS premieres American Family, the first television drama to air on American broadcast television featuring a predominantly Hispanic cast.   
• Future Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda makes his television acting debut as a bellman, interacting briefly with star James Gandolfini, on a 2007 episode of The Sopranos
• In 2007, Cisneros Media debuts Querido Profe (Dear Teacher, the very first telenovela produced exclusively for mobile devices.
• In addition to playing Sheriff Alex Romero on A&E’s longest-running scripted dramatic series, Bates Motel, Nestor Carbonell makes his debut behind the camera, directing three episodes of the show. 
• Eva Longoria makes her television debut in 2000 playing a flight attendant on one of the last episodes of the original Beverly Hills, 90210. Two years later she received her first ALMA (American Latino Media Arts) Award, for her role as Isabella Braña Williams on The Young and the Restless.
• Edward James Olmos is one of the five nominees for the Directors Guild Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television in 2007, for his work on the HBO film Walkout.
• A pair of acclaimed Telemundo telenovelas, Más Sabe el Diablo and ¿Dónde Está Elisa? are honored with GLAAD Awards in 2009. The former featured both a transgender and a gay character among its leads, and the latter followed the secret intimate relationship between two gay men.

• Zulay Henao reprises her role of Esperanza from Tyler Perry's 2014 film The Single Moms Club in the OWN television adaptation of If Loving You Is Wrong.  
• Brazilian television history is made when Rede Globo’s popular telenovela Amor à Vida ends in 2014 with a much-anticipated kiss between its two main characters, Félix and Niko.  
• Actor Carlos Valdes stars as Cisco Ramon in multiple “Arrowverse” series including Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and Freedom Fighters: The Ray since 2014.  
• Adan Canto portrays a real-life politician, Colombian Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, in the series Narcos, before portraying a fictitious one, Vice President Aaron Shore, on Designated Survivor.    
• When the ‘60s series Lost in Space is revamped for Netflix in 2018, the role of “Don West” is now played by Argentina-born actor Ignacio Serricchio, who had just starred as prison infiltrator “Lazaro Mendoza” on El Recluso.  
• In 2019, two gay characters from the Televisa telenovela Mi marido tiene más familia, Aristóteles and Cuauhtémoc (Temo), are so popular that they are featured in their own spinoff, entitled El Corazon Nunca Se Equivoca.

• Love, Victor, Hulu’s 2020 adaptation of the critically acclaimed film Love, Simon, directed by Greg Berlanti, reimagines the main character as a gay Hispanic teen (Michael Cimino) coming to terms with his sexuality.   
• Telemundo’s 2020 series 100 Días Para Enamorarnos is widely acknowledged for its LGBTQ+ inclusion and representation as one character, Ale Rivera (Macarena García), begins to understand and embrace his gender identity.  
• In 2020, during its third and final season, Starz drama Vida celebrates its Hispanic heritage with gender-bending double “queerceañera” for Marcos, who is costumed in a glamorous teal dress.  

• In July 2021, the Televisa telenovela Vencer el pasado, starring Angelique Boyer, Sebastián Rulli, and Erika Buenfil, premieres, dealing with the very relevant issue of social media abuse and bullying.