Eva Longoria

Once Eva Longoria became famous for starring in the TV show Desperate Housewives, she also became overwhelmed with pleas for her charitable support. “I was getting, like, 1,000 requests a week for, you know, dolphins in Japan and AIDS in Africa and sex trafficking in Thailand,” she says. “All of that is important to fix, right? But I learned quickly, I couldn’t do everything. And I wanted to stand for something.” A mentor pushed her to define where she wanted to make the most impact, and she realized it was in helping the Latina community. She didn’t want to just highlight the barriers women like her have faced; instead, she wanted to zero in on the ways they overcame. “How do we repeat success?” she says.

Entertainment was the obvious place to start. On the set, Longoria spent her free time interviewing the producers, directors, cinematographers, and screenwriters about their jobs. She wanted to learn how things were made so she could repeat them on her own terms. She launched her production company, Unbelievable Entertainment, in 2005, where she has been intentional about creating fresh projects and hiring new talent that widens representation for marginalized communities in front of and behind the camera. about the Mexican-American janitor who invented the popular Cheetos flavor.