The Tales Of The City showrunner opens up about coming out in her 30s and falling in love with Samira Wiley
WORDS: ROXY BOURDILLON, PHOTO: KHAREN HILL
Lauren Morelli tells stories we don’t usually hear. She got her big break writing scripts that centred marginalised female characters on Orange Is The New Black. Every time she shares a selfie featuring her wife Samira Wiley, she is telling a powerful, visual story about an interracial lesbian couple who adore each other. And now, as showrunner for Netflix’s Tales Of The City, based on Armistead Maupin’s legendary novels and starring queer royalty Elliot Page, she is creating space once again for underrepresented LGBTQI stories.
These stories include, but are by no means limited to: a found family of queer folk living together at San Francisco’s 28 Barbary Lane, a lesbian coming to terms with her transgender boyfriend’s evolving sexuality, and a trans woman torn between her need to protect her community and her desire to be loved. These are stories we need to hear, stories that aren’t told enough, stories I’ve never seen before on the small screen. But in this sea of urgent, groundbreaking, nuanced narratives, it’s Lauren’s own story that reads like the most fated fairytale of all. Hers is a voyage of self-discovery, a quest to find her purpose and a sweeping same-sex romance chronicling the rocky path to life-altering love. But more on that later.
Read the rest of this exclusive interview in the June issue of DIVA, available now via the links below.
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