Natalie Morales (actress)

Natalie Morales (born February 15, 1985) is an American actress. She starred in the ABC Family series The Middleman and had a main role on the first season of the USA Network series White Collar. In 2010, she appeared in the feature films Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and Going the Distance. Morales also had a starring role in the Fox comedy series The Grinder, the NBC sitcom Abby's, and a recurring role on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation. Morales appears in a recurring role in the Netflix series Dead to Me.

Natalie Morales
Morales in 2009
Born (1985-02-15) February 15, 1985
Kendall, Florida, U.S.
OccupationActress
Years active2006–present
Height5'7"

Early life

A native of Kendall, Florida, Morales is of Cuban descent.[1][2] She attended St. Agatha Catholic School and Southwest Miami Senior High School. She participated in the University of Miami's Dow Jones Minority High School Journalism Workshop.[3]

Career

Morales had a guest appearance on CSI: Miami in 2006, and played a character in Pimp My Ride that year, a video game version of the MTV television series.[4] Her first major role was in The Middleman, a sci-fi dramedy which aired on the ABC Family network for one season. She starred as Wendy Watson; the series was adapted from the comic book, The Middleman. Morales also starred in and executive produced a Web series, titled Quitters. The series was an official selection of the 3rd annual ITVFest (Independent Television Festival) in Los Angeles in August 2008.[5]

In 2009, Morales joined the cast of the USA Network television series White Collar for the first season. She portrayed Lauren Cruz, a junior FBI agent.[6] In May 2010, after her dismissal from the White Collar cast, Morales began appearing in the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, appearing as Lucy, girlfriend of Aziz Ansari's character Tom Haverford and bartender at The Snakehole Lounge.

Morales appeared in Oliver Stone's 2010 film, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, a sequel to his 1987 film Wall Street.[7] She was cast as Chelsea Handler's best friend in Are You There, Chelsea? She left the series when the cast was replaced for creative reasons.[8] Morales also appeared on Aaron Sorkin's HBO drama, The Newsroom, guest-starring as Kaylee, the girlfriend of Dev Patel’s character, Neal.[9] In 2013, Morales joined the cast of Trophy Wife as Meg, Kate's best friend.[10] In 2015, she joined the cast of the Fox series The Grinder. In 2017, she appeared in some episodes of the NBC series Powerless.[11] Morales appeared as Detective Anne Garcia in the Netflix horror comedy series Santa Clarita Diet.[12]

Morales's most recent television series is the NBC multi-camera sitcom Abby's, created by Josh Malmuth and executive produced by Parks and Recreation creator Michael Schur.[13] Her third series for the network, it premiered on March 28, 2019.

In October 2019, Morales was cast as Michelle in the second season of the Netflix black comedy series Dead to Me.[14]

Personal life

On June 30, 2017, Morales revealed on social media that she identifies as queer.[15]

Filmography
Film
Year Title Role Notes
2010 The Time Machine Natalie Short film
2010 Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps Churchill Schwartz Trader (Laura)
2010 Going the Distance Brandy
2011 6 Month Rule Sophie
2012 Freeloaders Red Dot Girl
2014 Rio 2 Newscaster (voice)
2017 Battle of the Sexes Rosie Casals
2018 Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Miss Calleros (voice)
2019 Stuber Nicole Manning
2021 The Little Things[16] Detective Jamie Estrada
2021 Happily Patricia Post-production
Television
Year Title Role Notes
2006 CSI: Miami Anya Boa Vista Episode: "Darkroom"
2008 Quitters Natalie Web series
2008 The Middleman Wendy Watson Main role, 12 episodes
2009 Boldly Going Nowhere Ruby TV movie
2009 Rockville CA Isabel Web series, episode: "Shoegazed"
2009–2010 White Collar Lauren Cruz Main role, 9 episodes
2010 The Subpranos Beatrice Ramirez Web series, episode: "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves"
2010–2015 Parks and Recreation Lucy Recurring role, 12 episodes
2011 The Cape Kia Episode: "The Lich (Part 1)"
2012 The Newsroom Kaylee 2 episodes
2012–2013 90210 Ashley Howard 5 episodes
2013–2014 Trophy Wife Meg Gomez Main role, 14 episodes
2014–2015 Girls Clementine 3 episodes
2015–2016 The Grinder Claire Lacoste Main role, 21 episodes
2017 Grace and Frankie Melissa Episode: "The Musical"
2017 Powerless Green Fury 2 episodes
2017 Crashing Stephanie Episode: "The Baptism"
2017 Imaginary Mary Rebecca Episode: "In a World Where Worlds Collide"
2017 Making History Mona Episode: "The Duel"
2017–2019 Santa Clarita Diet Anne Garcia 11 episodes
2017–2018 BoJack Horseman Yolanda Buenaventura (voice)
Mindy Buenaventura (voice)		 4 episodes
1 episode
2018 Alex, Inc. Serena Bans Episode: "The Rube Goldberg Contraption"
2018 Room 104 Jess Episode: "A Nightmare"
2018 Dream Corp, LLC Patient 6 Episode: "Woomba"
2019 Abby's Abby Main role, 10 episodes
2019 Sunnyside Celeste Episode: "Pants Full of Sandwiches"
2019 Harley Quinn Lois Lane (voice) Episode: "Finding Mr. Right"
2020 Dead to Me Michelle Gutierrez Recurring role
2020 Solar Opposites Mrs. Perez (voice) Episode: "The P.A.T.R.I.C.I.A. Device"
2021 Mr. Mayor Susan Karp Episode: "Respect in the Workplace"
Video games
Year Title Role Notes
2006 Pimp My Ride Aiyan Video game

References
  1. Hernandez, Lee (March 25, 2010). "'White Collar' Fires Natalie Morales, 'Parks and Recreation' Hires Her!". Latina. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
  2. "From Kidnap Victim to Kicking Butt". Miami Herald. June 23, 2008. p. 8a.
  3. "Miami Montage". Archived from the original on 2011-07-19.
  4. "Slice of SciFi Interview With "The Middleman" Star Natalie Morales".
  5. "Independent Television Festival 2008 : Quitters". Archived from the original on April 21, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2011.
  6. Andreeva, Nellie (September 8, 2009). "Actress joins USA crime series". Reuters. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
  7. "Who's that Girl? Natalie Morales Goes from TV to "Wall Street"".
  8. Ausiello, Michael (July 3, 2011). "Exclusive: Chelsea Handler's New NBC Sitcom Cuts Three Castmembers in Overhaul". TVLine. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
  9. "White Collar Alum Joins Sorkin Show, X Factor Finale Beats The Voice and More!". TVLine. July 3, 2011. Retrieved January 28, 2012.
  10. "'White Collar' Alum Joins ABC Comedy Pilot 'Trophy Wife'". The Hollywood Reporter. November 26, 2012. Retrieved September 20, 2013.
  11. Gerding, Stephen (February 2, 2017). "NBC’s Powerless Adds Justice League Member to Cast". CBR.com.
  12. Reiher, Andrea (February 9, 2017). "Deputy Anne brings the heat to Santa Clarita Diet". AV Club. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
  13. Andreeva, Nellie (May 8, 2018). "'Abby's' & "I Feel Bad' Comedies Picked Up To Series By NBC". Deadline. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
  14. Otterson, Joe (October 17, 2019). "'Dead to Me' Season 2 Casts Natalie Morales (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  15. "Natalie Morales would like you to know nothing about her, except for one thing…". Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls. June 30, 2017. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
  16. Natalie Morales Boards Denzel Washington-Rami Malek Crime Thriller ‘Little Things’
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