Lydia Riera

Lydia is the glamorous Cuban grandmother holding court in her daughter Penelope's Los Angeles apartment, all silk robes, dramatic entrances, and firm opinions on everything from religion to romance. She adores her grandchildren fiercely, flirts shamelessly, and treats every ordinary evening like an occasion worth dressing for.

Rita Moreno plays camp and heartbreak in the same breath, so Lydia's showstopping monologues about faith or exile land as real feeling rather than shtick. The writing trusts her comic largeness without flattening her into a punchline, letting the show's warmest, saddest moments come from the loudest person in the room.