Pedro Zamora's 1994 appearance on MTV reality show The Real World was a landmark media event: the first openly HIV-positive gay man on a nationwide TV series.
Fifteen years later, Zamora's reality TV appearance and short life are now the basis for a scripted MTV biopic, Pedro, airing tonight (8 ET/PT).
Zamora, who died at 22 just as Real World: San Francisco ended, was a teen when he learned he was HIV-positive, a diagnosis that led the diminutive Miami resident to become an AIDS activist and educator. His MTV fame ultimately drew the attention of President Clinton.
The former president, who has credited Zamora with humanizing the AIDS epidemic, introduces Pedro in a taped message to MTV viewers as part of a broader initiative to highlight National STD (sexually transmitted disease) Awareness Month.
Pedro, which was written by Dustin Lance Black before he won an Oscar for his 2008 screenplay for Milk, recounts Zamora's back story as a young Cuban fleeing to the USA in the 1980 Mariel boatlift, his coming out as a teen, his interactions with Real World castmates, and his declining health and death.
Zamora's role on Real World: San Francisco was memorable not only for lecturing housemates and viewers about HIV and preventative measures but also for his combative relationship with the abrasive Puck Rainey, one of the most polarizing roommates in the show's 21-year history. As recounted in Pedro, things got so testy between Zamora (portrayed by Alex Loynaz) and the politically incorrect Rainey (Matt Barr) that the roommates ultimately banned Rainey from their collective home.
Real World co-creator Jonathan Murray has been contemplating a broader film about Zamora's life for the past decade.
"We only dealt with a small part of his life on the show. But I always felt his story was incredibly powerful," says Murray, Pedro's executive producer. "He was amazingly heroic -- he wasn't the kind of guy to sit back and play victim. And he woke people up to what it was like to be a young gay man with HIV."
MTV cites estimates that 20% of Americans with the HIV virus are unaware they have it. Network programming executive Brian Graden says he hopes Pedro will raise awareness.
"The shock of awareness that our generation went through doesn't have the same resonance today," says Graden, 46. "People may have grown numb to the message of caution. So Pedro's story has a new relevance."
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