Gina Rodriguez, who appeared in the hip-hop drama Filly Brown, played the lead role in a romantic comedy called Sleeping with the Fishes.

Sleeping with the Fishes is a comedic film that focuses on the Latin American experience, following a Brooklyn family in a Latino/Jewish household. Rodriguez's character, Alexa Fish, is at the center of an overprotective, and perhaps, over-opinionated family, and finds herself falling in love with someone of a different background, Dominic Sebastiani (played by Steve Strait).

The film written and directed by Nicole Gomez Fisher reflects on her own mixed heritage, and it is loosely based on her own life. The mother-daughter struggles in the film, mixed race complexities, as well as the deep connection between family members mirror her experiences.

"There's so much of that side we don't see in Hollywood being half Jewish we grew up with Christmas trees but had Jewish ornaments and my father would dress up as a Hasidic Santa Claus it was a joke but it made us more comfortable," Fisher told Latino Review.

Fisher came to choose Rodriguez for the role because she found her to be similar to herself in nature, both having a "dorky fun quality," also both women come from Latino and Jewish backgrounds.

"Having Jewish ancestors myself it was so interesting to play a Latina Jew and we don't see that very often," Rodriguez explained. "My grandfather is a French Jew and my sister and her kids are fully Jewish."

Ana Ortiz also stars in the film, playing the role of Kayla Fish. And, the Tony Award-winning actress Priscilla Lopez plays the role of Rodriguez's mother, Alexis Fish. Sleeping with the Fishes premiered at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival on Oct. 11.