NEW YORK — Since moving here from Miami 18 months ago, Barbie Perez has suffered the indignities that befall many a struggling actor. She's gone out on auditions for leg cream commercials and worked without pay in an off-Broadway show.
But as she waited inside a crowded dressing room of a midtown theater on a recent Saturday morning, Perez had a reason to be hopeful: She had made it through the first screening of a television network casting call.
For once, the audition seemed tailor-made for the chestnut-haired 25-year-old: an open call for Spanish-speaking and bilingual actors with casting directors from NBC and Telemundo.
"I've been needing this," said Perez, whose biggest TV role so far has been a bit part on the soap opera "As the World Turns." "The fact that I have an accent when I speak English wouldn't be that big of a deal if I get to play a bilingual character."
In fact, her Cuban heritage was a bonus on this day.
Cognizant of the swelling Latino population, NBC has been scrambling to populate its prime-time shows with more Latino faces, hoping to win over more viewers from that demographic. "Heroes," one of the network's tent-pole series, added two new Spanish-speaking characters this fall. For next season, NBC is developing an English-language version of the popular Colombian telenovela "Sin Tetas No Hay Paraiso."
"We want the largest tent possible, so we're looking to draw in people that might not be normally watching English-language prime time," said Marc Hirschfeld, executive vice president of casting for NBC Universal Television.
NBC's efforts to court Latinos are similar to the attempts being made by other networks, with one exception: It has been able to turn to its sister Spanish-language network for help.
In the last year, Telemundo has emerged as a valuable farm team for parent company NBC Universal, supplying Latino talent to a variety of programs across its networks. Anchor Maria Celeste substituted on the "Today" show this summer, and half a dozen Telemundo personalities served as guest judges on an episode of Bravo's "Top Chef" in July. Telenovela star Miguel Varoni did a guest turn on "My Name Is Earl" last week, and next month, Telemundo's new late-night host, Alex Cambert, will appear on "The Tonight Show."
