We Speak NYC is an Emmy Award-winning series that depicts the lives of working class immigrants who come from all over the world to make New York City their home. It's created by the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs and The City University of New York with the purpose of helping adult immigrants for whom English is a second language to improve their English by watching the series and also to learn about their rights to City and community services.
We Speak NYC episodes address issues of relevance to adult immigrants, such as navigating the school system, advocating for healthcare solutions and finding free or low-cost health insurance, responding to domestic violence, getting help with stress and anxiety, learning about and asserting your worker rights, getting free immigration legal help, accessing social services, preparing for a career, and many other important topics. Previously known as We Are New York, its purpose is to help adult immigrants, for whom English is a second language, to improve their understanding of English by watching the series, and also to learn about their rights to city and community services.
In May 2018, the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs launched the second season of We Speak NYC.
Cast and characters
Season 1
Regular cast
Arturo Castro as Jorge
Jennica Carmona as Carmen
Irma Estella La Guerre as Rosa
Alberto Vazquez as Fernando
Sándor Técsy as Sasha
Mahadeo Shivraj as Rishi
Angel Garcia Clemente as Juan
Vincent D'Arbouze as Pierre
Alexander Flores as Diego
Kenneth Maharaj as Abdul
Bones Rodriguez as Mario
Antonia Rey as Mrs. Medina
Shirine Babb as Efie
Season 2
Regular cast
Arunima Roy as Shumi
Tien-Li Wu as Ms. Wu
Brianna Fernandez as Gabriela
Arisael Rivera as César
Savannah Renée Rodriguez as Xio
Ariel Pacheco as Rolando
Barbara Eliodorio as Claudia
David Serero as Omar
Besanya Santiago as Silvia
Jose Martinez as Luis
Jane Gendelman as Mrs. Belkina
Sonam Wangdue as Sonam
Pedro Fontaine as Gidel
Sumant Gupta as Osman
Simone Xi as Lian
Robert Garcia Cabrera as Martin
Soto Silva as Rafaela
Julissa Roman as Alicia
Episodes
Series overview
Season 1 (2009) We Speak NYC previously known as We Are New York (WANY) is an Emmy Award-winning educational television series produced by the NYC Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs and The City University of New York in 2009. The 10-episode comedic drama is based on true-to-life stories of immigrants making their way in New York City. Each episode provides useful information on essential City services and shows how people working across ethnic lines can access resources and solve common problems.
Immigrants learning English have found the show especially helpful because the production values (e.g., actors speaking clearly and slowly directly into the camera; repetition of key vocabulary; subtitles in six languages: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, English, Russian and Spanish etc., make the content accessible in ways unlike any other English-language TV show. Viewers want to watch the show because they can understand the English, the storyline is filled with topics that are relevant to their everyday lives, and the cast reflects the demographics of the city's immigrant population. The working class immigrant heroes of We Speak NYC contend with asthma and diabetes; they find ways to support their children's education and prevent teenagers from dropping out; and they figure out the banking system.
Season 2 (2018-2022) We Speak NYCs second season features important issues facing New Yorkers, including mental health, workers’ rights, senior care, food help, immigrant rights, work search and early childhood education. Stories in season 2 weaves into a description of the services and resources available from the city. It's all part of empowering New Yorkers to advocate for their needs and thereby making NYC "the fairest big city in the country".