Orange Is the New Black writer Lauren Morelli recently divorced her husband, came out as gay, and is now officially dating OITNB star Samira Wiley, who plays Poussey on the Netflix hit show.
Morelli majored in modern dance at Marymount Manhattan College, interned at the Village Voice and wrote a few dance reviews before being hiring as a writer for OITNB. About her good fortune landing her first real job on a big hit series, Morelli told Steeltown.org, (she’s from Pittsburgh): “I went a long time without a single interview for other television jobs because my writing samples were strange and weird, but I felt they were representative of who I am as a writer.” In 2013, Morelli wrote a short play, “Rat and Roach,” about a suicidal rat and a roach who fall in love. It was produced at the New York theatre, Lesser America. The New York Theatre Review said “Rat and Roach” was “wonderful,” and “it reminds us not to overlook what might be right in front of our eyes.”