Shannon Gisela: Etta's smart, has a real sense of justice on 'M.I.A.'
NEW YORK, May 7 (UPI) -- Newcomer Shannon Gisela says her M.I.A. character, Etta Tiger Jonze, is a young woman who loves her family, but feels conflicted about the way they make their living.
Premiering on Peacock Thursday, the show is set in the Florida Keys and follows Etta as she tries to avenge the deaths of her drug-running parents, played by Danay Garcia and David Denman, as well as her brothers and their wives.
"She's whip-smart. She has a huge heart. She has a real sense of justice and wants to fight for what she believes in and loves her family and she's also a bad-ass," Gisela told UPI about Etta in a recent Zoom interview.
Created by Ozark's Bill Dubuque, the show opens with Etta giving alligator-spotting boat tours through the Everglades, while the rest of her family handles the more dangerous and lucrative ventures.
"She was struggling with a sense of purpose when we meet her and, so, I relate so deeply where when I was in my early 20s, I didn't know what I wanted to major in. I had no idea. And, so, we meet her at that crossroads," Gisela explained.
"The family business means being close to the people that she loves. It means having somewhere to put her energy, somewhere to put her mind and her skill set," she added. "It was kind of this thing of excitement and it was thrilling. It had that danger element that she so clearly is attracted to."
Etta's parents try to keep Etta out of their criminal activities, partly because they don't want her to get hurt, but also because they are afraid she would be so good at it, she wouldn't even try to make pursuing a more legitimate career path.
"She has so much conviction and she's so steadfast," Gisela said.
"Leah says it: 'She's not controllable. We can't temper her.' That kind of thing is a sense of leadership, especially in an industry like that, where you kind of have full-steam ahead, you're not afraid," she added.
"She would have brought the gas. I think she would have tried to expand the business, tried to make it bigger, tried to move on up in the world and I think that they were the family that was more like, 'We just do what we do. We are not trying to be anything more than this.'"
The main reason her loved ones are killed is because Etta prevents them from crossing a reprehensible line at the behest of the powerful Miami cartel they work for.
"It's important, I think, for her, that innocence is something to be protected and I think she, in her mind, is about justifying things and if she can't justify something, she's not going to do it," Gisela said of the task Etta draws a line in the sand over.
"So, in the case of expanding the business, for her, it was this moment of: 'How can we justify THIS? We can't. We can't. We couldn't possibly.' And, so, for her, that knee-jerk [reaction] kicks in and we see what happens from there. But that moral compass is a real guiding force for her throughout the course of the season."
Gisela said she was excited to audition for the series, but didn't obsess over it once she met with its creatives.
She eventually beat out about 300 women for the role.
"I gave it all I had and I let it go and it was one of those things where I just was like, 'This is my flavor of it and it's either going to be right for the team or it's going to be someone else,'" she recalled.
"So, for me, it was really about staying present and just really committing to the page and being of service to the script and, in some ways, I fought internally with myself, but externally, I was like, 'You guys do what you got to do. I'm here if you want me, though.'"
The nine-episode action-thriller also co-stars Cary Elwes, Edward James Olmos, Brittany Adebumola, Dylan Jackson and Alberto Guerra.
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This story was originally published May 7, 2026 at 5:49 PM.