Gina Rodriguez Getting Ready to Welcome First Child While Launching New Show

Gina Rodriguez, the Golden Globe Award-winning actress, is preparing for the birth of her first child and also her upcoming TV comedy “Not Dead Yet” premiering February 8th. Known for her leading role as Jane Villanueva in The CW satirical romantic dramedy series Jane the Virgin, Gina has just a few weeks to go before the birth of her first child with husband Joe LoCicero. Gina Rodriguez is already showing us she’s ready to be a working mom while doubling as a star and executive producer on the ABC comedy.

In an exclusive with People, the 38-year old actress shares how she is handling her pregnancy while also launching a brand new show. "That's what life is," she tells People, "It's everything, everywhere, all at once, right? I love that movie, but also the title is just so apropos to life itself."

"It's all the things. It's all the things, all at once. And I'm just trying to let go," she continues. "At some times, successfully letting go. At other times, gripping too hard." Instead of being thrown off by life's ups and downs, Rodriguez tries to savor them: "When you sit in it, it feels like you're alive. I enjoy that feeling."

In fact, ‘Not Dead Yet’ is actually about embracing change. In the upcoming series Gina plays Nell Serrano - a woman who returns home to California after a breakup, only to find herself working at an old job that challenges her in unexpected ways and changes her life. She goes on to express how playing the character makes her feel.

“I really love playing this character that is flawed but trying so hard and wanting so badly to fix or to feel better or to just be happy after this,” she explained. “You’ll end up seeing over the course of the series why — what she went through, what sent her off on this new journey. I really just love that.” Rodriguez says that it's been "a phenomenal experience making this television show, but also pretty monumental in my existence."

When describing the series as a whole, Rodriguez says she believes "it's about self-reflection, and it's about growth, and it's about friendship, and it's about the power of self-healing." But she also teases that Not Dead Yet is sure to put viewers through a mix of emotions - "It makes you laugh, and it makes you cry. Everybody is on their own experience, but they're all trying to help each other," she continues. "I just think right now, I want to watch this kind of television that helps me escape, but at the same time helps me reflect in a way that's going to make me excited by the end of it. It's going to keep me hopeful. I've just been in that space, for years now, to be honest."

With Rodriguez being a part of this series it allowed her to reflect on how she's living her own life, being mindful and appreciating what's right in front of her. She expressed her thoughts on Instagram, “I have been on one of the most incredible journeys for the past 6 months bringing NOT DEAD YET to life. The cast is outstanding, the guest stars are out of this world, the writing is funny, sweet, hopeful, heartbreaking and everything that is life and I couldn’t be more excited than to share my other baby.”

"This has been something I've been working on for years, but obviously because of the pandemic as well, is just really appreciating everything that is and not what I want it to be," she shares. "Really accepting the story that life is unfolding in front of me versus the story I want or the story I think it should be or the story I think it should be telling. That's how I think I've been living life to the fullest."