Nestor Carbonell has joined the cast of ABC pilot The Smart One.
The Ringer actor will portray a wealthy real estate developer who is the ex-boyfriend of Portia de Rossi's character Jude.
According to TVLine, Carbonell will initially appear in the show as a guest star. While his contract is believed to have an option to make his character a series regular, he has put the show in second position to Ringer, which will take priority if it is renewed by The CW.
The Smart One is a single-camera comedy which follows de Rossi's character Judith 'Jude' Swann as she starts work for her less intelligent sister Candy Swann Cooper, played by Watchmen and Inferno star Malin Akerman.
The show includes de Rossi's wife Ellen DeGeneres on its team of executive producers and the pilot script has been written by Donald Todd (Ugly Betty, Samantha Who?, Hart of Dixie).
Jean Smart will play Jude and Candy's mother on The Smart One, while David Arquette has been cast as Candy's husband.
Kate (they/she) is a freelance writer, editor, digital editorial trainer and data technician who first joined Digital Spy as an overnight freelance sub-editor in January 2011, after studying a postgraduate diploma in journalism at Salford University while working part-time as a social researcher.
In July 2013, Kate joined the DS staff team as chief sub-editor and following six years as the site's managing editor, their role expanded to incorporate Hearst UK's entertainment portfolio (including Digital Spy and its sibling titles Best and Inside Soap) between late 2024 and early 2026.
Kate has worked as a writer and editor since 2006, with bylines syndicated across the Hearst network and at organisations including Metro. They started their career as a TV production runner for the BBC and contributed to various music websites, blogs and zines while based in Manchester.
During her time at DS, Kate has previously been a freelance sub-editor and chief sub-editor.
Kate's team at Digital Spy were proudly nominated in the Best Subbing/Production Team category at the BSME Talent Awards 2022. Over the years, she has contributed to coverage of many, many Prime Days and Black Friday/Cyber Monday, and was part of the team that launched the DS weekly TV newsletter in November 2019 – followed by the Top of the Shops e-commerce newsletter in May 2024.
Kate's screen passions include Taskmaster (their biggest career regret remains turning down the opportunity to visit the house), nature documentaries, and live sport (up there with the greatest of all soap operas although if asked to choose, it's Corrie… every time).
Her highlights while working at DS have included interviewing Stevie Nicks on the red carpet for her documentary In Your Dreams, sitting at a press roundtable with Formula 1 commentary icon Murray Walker, watching a life-sized LEGO car being driven around Silverstone, writing an album-by-album retrospective of Lady Gaga's genre-defying career for Living Legends, and raising awareness of receiving and understanding a late-in-life ADHD diagnosis through the lens of Bianca and Freddie's EastEnders storyline.
Upon remembering to log off the internet, Kate enjoys live theatre, dance and comedy, appreciating nature, baking (badly), tending a recently-rented allotment (equally badly) and pampering one very spoiled rescue cat named Jolene.
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