Jeff Valdez

Jeff Valdez (born January 31, 1956) is an American producer, writer, studio executive and entrepreneur.

Valdez has been credited with creating the category of Latino Programming in English, which is a segment of the Hispanic market that had not been addressed or targeted by the media before. Valdez has written, directed and produced TV shows and films targeting this segment within the Latino community during the last 20 years, with some of his shows having gone on to be syndicated in more than 35 countries. In 2003, Valdez founded a new nationwide English language cable channel targeting Latinos called Sí TV. The channel reached 90 million homes nationwide, and won many awards with the programming Valdez wrote, directed and produced for it. In 2007 Valdez extended his reach to the film industry and joined the board of Maya Entertainment whose focus was on Latino themed films mostly in English.

Jeff Valdez was born in Pueblo, Colorado, to a Mexican-American family with roots in New Mexico since the 1600s. His mother, Mary Garcia, and his father, Alfonso Valdez were blue collar workers, with Spanish, Mexican and Comanche blood. The youngest of 9 children, Valdez worked hard since he was 7, cleaning the local drive-in cinema every morning before going to school. Throughout his early teen years he played drums in his father's band, earning his first money and saving enough to move to Colorado Springs, Colorado to found his own band called "The Giving Tree." After some years, having liked performing live in front of an audience, Valdez became a comedian, working on the road for more than 6 years, and owning his own comedy club "The Comedy Corner" in Colorado Springs. It was then when he became a producer, and created a comedy show which aired live every Saturday on a Colorado Springs' local channel, right after "Saturday Night Live."

In 1993, Valdez moved to Los Angeles, and created the show "Comedy Compadres", for KTLA, channel 5. This show would be the first of many shows that he would create to engage the English speaking Latino community, and to develop Latino talent in front and behind the cameras. He then wrote scripts, produced and directed shows and films for Disney (My Favorite Mayan), Showtime (Latino Laugh Festival), NBC (The Valdez's), Galavisión (Cafe Ole, Funny is Funny), and Nickelodeon (The Brothers García).

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