Marvin Lemus on Reconnecting with His Childlike Curiosity for the Craft
For Marvin Lemus, comedy has been a lifelong obsession. Raised on ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’, Judd Apatow movies and Comedy Central programming “back when it was all stand-up comedy”, character-driven humour with heart lit him up and piqued his interest in the craft. This spark of early wonder would go on to spawn an all-consuming passion for storytelling.
Coming up in tandem with the YouTube boom, Marvin was inspired by the prospect of capturing a similar type of comedy, intimacy, and human experience to his heroes, in bite-sized ways. He would go on to become a well-established writer and director of funny viral shorts for favoured YouTube comedy channels like Funny or Die – the perfect platform for his creative ideas.
This was the early days of YouTube, Marvin reminds me, “In those days, the algorithms did not prioritise long form the way they do now. You’ve got to have a 15-minute video now for it to be really pushed in the algo, right? Back then, it was more like Instagram Reels: tight and fast, and short and sweet. That's where I learned my craft, by learning how to be efficient with my storytelling.”
It was also during this time that the young filmmaker debuted his first festival short, which made it onto multiplatform media company MACRO’s radar with a little help from long-time collaborator and executive producer, Aaliyah Williams. What came next proved to be a defining chapter in Marvin’s career.
In His Dramedy Era
Over the next few years, Marvin moved away from reactive, trending comedy shorts, to explore narrative storytelling. Charles King, head of MACRO, gave the greenlight to finance a digital series of 10-minute episodes, investing $100,000 USD in the project. “I had never had that kind of budget before, so I was like, ‘holy shit, I’m gonna shoot for the moon!’,” he recalls, reflecting on the beginning of collaboration with MACRO and co-writer Linda Yvette Chavez, which brought a career-defining brainchild to life.
Originally a web series, ‘Gentefied’ (pronounced ‘Gente’, the Spanish word for ‘people’) epitomised Marvin’s desire to fuse his own brand of heartfelt comedy with the real-life experiences of Latin Americans – but not the kind of Latin Americans the US market had come to know.
“When it comes to Latin stories, we don't get to do big, crazy fun comedies,” he points out. “Usually, we are put in a box and attached to some sort of trauma: the border story, immigration issues, or being in poverty. The hood is always presented as colourless and drab, but Mexican communities are so colourful. My mum, she'll paint every wall a different colour – it's just kind of how we are. So, I was really excited to make a show that I wish I could have seen growing up.”
‘Gentefied’ was the perfect opportunity to show the wider market this vibrant, multidimensional side of the Mexican-American community. As a first-generation Mexican and Guatemalan-American, Marvin wanted to touch on themes he knew every immigrant would relate to: generational divides, the challenges of cultural assimilation, and the impact of growing economic pressures. It was a huge hit, revered for its authentic portrayal of Latin experiences. After Netflix bought the rights to the show, ‘Gentefied’ was nominated for a Peabody Award in 2021, as well as achieving a 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Despite this success, however, the show concluded after two seasons, leading Marvin to reconnect with his childlike curiosity for the craft as he pondered his next project. As it turned out, that inner child decided he was ready to be silly again.
Reclaiming His Comedy Chops
By this point, in addition to the dual title of writer/director, Marvin could now add co-creator, co-showrunner, and executive producer to his list of credits. Following the conclusion of ‘Gentefied’, which dealt with “class, race, politics and gentrification”, he was ready to make a return to cold hard comedy. So, when he received Matt Lopez’s script about a family-friendly road trip comedy, it felt like perfect timing.
Based on the legendary children’s book by Judith Viorst, which Marvin tells me he “loved so much” growing up, the movie rights for ‘Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Road Trip’ had been bought by Disney and would feature an all-star cast including Eva Longoria, Jesse Garcia, and Cheech Marin. Not bad for a first feature film.
Upon reading the script, Marvin was thrilled to learn this was not the average family movie. “It's a freaking action movie. We had stunts, we destroyed multiple vehicles, and we even built a river for this one sequence!” he says excitedly. “I was excited to blend all my experiences and embrace silly comedy again. There were funny ideas that I needed to get out of me, and this film meant I could get my ‘Fast and the Furious’ on, too!”
As he puts it, this project allowed him the opportunity to channel all his filmmaking experiences into a story with a universal message of dealing with identity. Sure, the family happens to be Mexican-American, and the movie definitely benefited from Marvin’s seasoned expertise in authentic bicultural storytelling, but, he emphasises, it’s really not about that. “It’s about a family figuring out how to connect, how to show up, and how to take this little kid’s anxiety seriously. It’s not a ‘Latin movie’ or a ‘Latin family comedy’ – it’s just an action packed family comedy. Getting to make a big, fun Disney movie that just happens to have a lot of Latin faces in it, it was so exciting.
“I'd never done a feature before and I don't have kids, but I love Pixar movies. So, I figured, let me go make a fun movie that anybody, at any age will like. This movie is for the kid in all of us.”
Back to Where It All Began
Having made a name for himself in the film, TV and short-form spaces, Marvin is presently looking forward to translating his unique brand of authentic humour and heart into more branded content and commercial filmmaking. “I will always love short form; I miss it and I look to it because being able to create or elicit any sort of emotional reaction within 30 seconds or a minute, to me, feels like magic,” he admits. “You don't always need two hours to capture a slice of life, or a little piece of humanity.”
Right now, Marvin is keen to unlearn a few things, strip it back, and reinstate his original creative approach. “I'm in a place where I'm actually trying to go back to how I was working in the early days of my career, which was not waiting for permission. ‘Gentefied’ happened because I just kept generating new ideas and shooting them. Opportunities would then present themselves, but I wasn't waiting for them.”
Armed with his DSLR and accompanied by a few friends, Marvin remembers finding joy in the simple process of figuring out how to make an idea work. In an attempt to rediscover his first thrill of discovery, he is rewatching the films that inspired him as a child. “I'm going back and watching ‘The Goonies’, The 40-Year-Old Virgin’, ‘Superbad’, because I want to tell those kinds of stories. I’m thinking about ways to blend these sorts of stories with my community. ‘How can I bring my community alive in the same way those films struck to the core of universal humanity?’, because those stories were not just American stories, they were felt worldwide. That is the superpower of filmmaking, and I want to bring my community to the world, so they can see them as the humans they are.”
Marvin appreciates that having production company Invisible Collective on side is a massive benefit, given his current creative and commercial objectives, and he is excited to continue collaborating with the like-minded team on more projects in 2025 and beyond. “Invisible truly understands the importance of using filmmaking to amplify important work and tell authentic stories – the team cares about representation as much as I do.”
Asked about how the role of representation looks today, Marvin reflects with honesty and conviction. “People might question whether or not representation matters anymore. But, if it did not matter, people wouldn't be calling immigrants villains and criminals, every chance they get. I think the best way to combat that is by pushing as many genuine narratives about immigrants, our communities, and our faces, in positive ways and in positive lights. That is something I will always be passionate about, and I’m glad to be able to talk openly with Invisible about it.”
To learn more about the talented filmmakers on Invisible Collective’s roster, click here.
To read more from April Summers, click here.
