'Orange Is the New Black' Writer Lauren Morelli On Her Relationship With Samira Wiley And ‘Tales of the City’
TV AND FILM
'Orange Is the New Black' Writer Lauren Morelli On Her Relationship With Samira Wiley And ‘Tales of the City’
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Have you ever heard about Lauren Morelli? This young woman rose to stardom after the release of ‘Orange Is the New Black’ but she is also well-known for coming out. Today, Lauren Morelli is a famous American TV screenwriter, developing Netflix’s ‘Tales of the City,’ a spinoff of the Channel 4 1994 series of the same name. Here is what we know about Lauren Morelli, her career and personal life.
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Early life of Lauren Morelli
The popular screenwriter grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The girl graduated from Winchester Thurston School and then she studied dance at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City. Her dance career ended suddenly because of back injury
Career in the film industry
Morelli didn’t know what to do after the end of her dance career. However, the talented girl found a new passion as she was inspired to start writing. Lauren began with short stories until she ended up in her first professional writing position as she became a screenwriter on ‘Orange Is the New Black.’ That was her first real success: Lauren was made "lead writer" for two episodes of the first season
She has also worked as a playwright: her short play ‘Roach & Rat’ that was featured in Lesser America’s production of ‘Just Right Just Now’ in New York.
Samira Wiley and Lauren Morelli’s love story
Samira Wiley and Lauren Morelli both worked on the popular Netflix show ‘Orange Is the New Black’ but they didn’t start to date during that period.
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The couple met on set in 2012 and at that moment, write and producer Lauren Morelli was married, moreover, she was married to a man. In her interview with Martha Stewart, Samira Wiley said:
I tried to be around her as much as I could.
And obviously this strategy worked like a charm. Samira and Lauren developed a close friendship. They weren’t afraid to discuss personal and sensitive topics. The pair even talked about Lauren’s sexuality, according to an interview with Pink News.
However, they didn’t make their relationship public until two years later. Lauren and Samira announced their engagement after Lauren divorced her then-husband. It was a difficult period for Lauren. The writer and producer wrote about that time:
I was nervous about the first love scene I’d written for Alex (Laura Prepon) and Piper (Taylor Schilling). I’d loved writing it, loved watching a tenderness emerge in their relationship where passion always seemed to be the ruling principle, but by that time, I was so deep in my own self-doubt that I constantly felt like a fraud. I was sure it was bleeding into my writing. How could it not? I was married to a man, but I wasn’t straight.
She added:
I am a real perfectionist and I’m also a rule-follower, so I like to check boxes. I did this before I proposed to Samira; I had this narrative in my brain that we should be together for three years before I proposed. I just picked it out of the air. It’s a defensive place that would allow me some modicum of safety.
Lauren Morelli’s wedding
The couple wed in March 2017 in a touching and beautiful ceremony and now they try to spend every second with each other. However, it is usually difficult. Samira once confessed:
We don’t get to spend that much time together, we’re always traveling, so it’s really special when we are together to be able to take the time and look in each other’s eyes.
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Samira Wiley admitted that it was love at first sight. She was stunned by the OITNB screenwriter since first reading her works. In her interview, Samira said:
I love how talented she is, that is the first thing I fell in love with before I even met her. Before I even saw her face, I was able to read one of her scripts and I was like, ‘Who is this?’ So, yeah.
Lauren Morelli on ‘Tales of the City’
Lauren Morelli came out as a lesbian while writing ‘Orange Is the New Black.” Her next work was connected with adapting the queer series ‘Tales of the City.’ The original and now classic miniseries were based on novels, written by Armistead Maupin. The show appeared on PBS in 1994. Then several series followed on the Showtime network. And Lauren Morelli had a chance to work on a new reboot. What does she say about ‘Tales of the City?’
In an interview, she admits that it was her priority to make the show more diverse, and more inclusive of LGBTQ experiences. She said:
We really wanted to expand the world and make sure that it felt like the world that we live in, right? A lot of the cast members are racially much more diverse than previous seasons. And our ideas of ourselves, as the queer community, continue to expand, which I think is really interesting and important to talk about … and there are a lot of trans characters on the show now, and it felt really wonderful to get to tell some stories that might not have been told before.
Lauren Morelli is so young, but she has already accomplished a lot in her life. She is a great writer and happy wife. So what can be better?