‘Ugly Betty’ Cast Reunites & Looks Back on Series, 20 Years Later

It’s been 20 years since the premiere of ABC’s Ugly Betty, the comedy/drama about a smart, earnest, braces-wearing, Mexican American young woman from Queens, Betty Suarez (America Ferrera), who gets a job at a snobby fashion magazine, Mode. Betty (mostly) maintains her kind heart in the cutthroat workplace, and eventually her families at home and work change each other’s lives for the (mostly) better.

Now audiences will get a chance to revisit the series, adapted by the late Silvio Horta from a Colombian telenovela, or watch it for the first time, with all four fabulous seasons streaming on Hulu. To mark the occasion, TV Insider sat down with the cast to reminisce about their most hilarious and heartfelt moments. Watch the video for the full conversation – and expect some tears — below.

“We are all family and we do stay in touch even if we don’t all see each other all the time. When we’re all together, it literally feels like zero time is has passed,” Ferrera told us when the actors gathered in Los Angeles for a celebratory reunion brunch. “It’s just one of those things — like your best friend — we could go months, maybe even years, but when you’re back together, there’s no distance. It’s been that way since day one of us being together. Twenty years into our relationships and all that magic and that chemistry and how much we just love each other as human beings.”

 

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The group had recently attended the wedding of Hacks star Mark Indelicato, who on Ugly Betty played Ferrera’s nephew Justin Suarez. His coming-out episode was one of the show’s many groundbreaking storylines. The blend of heart, along with sharply observed social satire, and soapy twists made Ugly Betty stand out in the television landscape. Ferrera was the first Latina to win an Emmy in the category of lead actress in a comedy series.

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Watch the video to hear from him and the rest of the Suarez fam: Ana Ortiz (Devious Maids) as Betty’s sis, Hilda, and Tony Plana as her father, Ignacio. On the Mode side are Vanessa Williams as deliciously evil creative director Wilhelmina Slater, Michael Urie (Shrinking) as her devoted assistant Marc St. James; Becki Newton (The Lincoln Lawyer), as mean-girl receptionist Amanda; and Eric Mabius (Signed, Sealed, Delivered) as the scion of the Meade family, who owned the magazine.