In 1994 Pedro Zamora was the first HIV-positive gay man to appear in a reality show on MTV. The audience of 'The Real World: San Francisco' identified easily with this intelligent, good-looking Latino. His presence on the show also meant that audiences in the United States and abroad had to engage with the topic of AIDS.
Pedro (2008)
In 1994, Bunim/Murray Productions made the groundbreaking decision to cast openly gay, HIV-positive Cuban-American Pedro Zamora as part of MTV’s The Real World: San Francisco. Zamora’s time in the Real World house on Lombard Street brought a face to the AIDS crisis; and U.S. President Bill Clinton credited Zamora with personalizing and humanizing those with the disease.
In BMP Films’ first scripted project, PEDRO celebrates the extraordinary life of Pedro Zamora, a young man who when he found out he was HIV positive at 17, made the courageous decision to dedicate the rest of his life to speaking out about his condition in an attempt to raise awareness about the disease in his community, even testifying before the United States Congress to argue for more explicit HIV/AIDS educational programs aimed at youth of color before auditioning for The Real World in 1993. His appearance on The Real World brought his story and his message to MTV’s youthful audience and beyond, and when Zamora’s health began to deteriorate in late 1994 (after he left the show), it became front page news nationwide, and his death at age 22 provoked a worldwide outpouring of grief.
PEDRO is a film by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland (“Quinceanera”) and was directed by Nick Oceano and written by Dustin Lance Black (“Milk”) with story by Dustin Lance Black and Paris Barclay. PEDRO stars Alex Loynaz as Pedro, Justina Machado (“Six Feet Under”) as Pedro’s sister Mily, and Hale Appleman (“Teeth”) as Pedro’s roommate from The Real World, Judd.
