Most of us know Lauren Graham for her iconic role on "Gilmore Girls."
But she's done a lot more than that over the course of her stellar career.
Let's take a look at why Lauren Graham;s transformation is seriously turning heads.
Lauren Graham was raised all over the world, as her father worked for the U.S. Agency for
International Development. She told The Wall Street Journal that she was just 3
weeks old in 1967 when she moved to Tokyo, where her mother's missionary parents lived.
"Did you learn any Japanese?"
"Well, I have been told that my first word was 'hesso.'"
"Which means?"
"Belly button."
Graham's family didn't return to the U.S. until 1972 when her parents divorced,
and Graham lived with her dad. Her parents thought this would give her "more stability,"
but instead she ended up moving again and again. By the time she was 9, she had also
lived in The Hamptons as well as an apartment in New York City, a summer home in upstate New York,
and a houseboat in the Virgin Islands. Though she and her dad finally settled in Virginia,
as a teenager, she also spent a lot of time in London where her mother sang in a band.
It wasn't exactly a conventional childhood, but Graham enjoyed it, telling NPR,
quote, "it seemed like a great adventure."
Lauren Graham had plenty of inspiration for creativity growing up. Her mother was a singer
and a painter, and her dad encouraged her obvious talent for performance.
Graham told The Wall Street Journal that she would often recite poems and
stories at dinner parties hosted by her dad, committing them to memory easily.
"The reason my memory was so sharp is that my dad read poetry and books to me every night."
While Graham was happy to give small performances at home for family and friends, she was less
comfortable on stage. But as she got older and her confidence grew, she became a theater major
at New York University. It didn't pan out. So she transferred to Barnard College, changing her major
to American literature. Graham was conflicted by the decision, telling The Wall Street Journal,
"I was like, 'Wait, I don't have enough time to do plays and musicals!'"
She couldn't forget her passion for performing,
so she returned to school to pursue a master's degree in acting at Southern
Methodist University. As she told Rookie, the reason she took so long to choose the right
field of study was that she was torn between her love of acting and her love of academics.
"I followed a bit of a snaky path and couldn't decide."
While we know Lauren Graham primarily as a TV and movie star,
she personally always pictured herself with a career on stage.
She said in an interview with her alma mater, Southern Methodist University.
"My class wanted to be theatre professionals,
mainly. We were kind of biased about what it meant to be an actor in film and television."
Her training alone is not the reason for her desire to pursue stage work, though. She explained
to Female.com that she, quote, "grew up with going to the theater" and that her father would
take her to both plays in the metro Washington, D.C., area, where they lived, along with shows on
Broadway. She also did summer stock while pursuing her master's degree, telling Entertainment Weekly,
"I got my equity card before any of my other unions — I thought I was on that path."
After graduating from Southern Methodist University in 1992,
Lauren Graham spent several years as a struggling actor. She initially did commercial
work in Brooklyn, New York, before leading to some very odd jobs indeed.
"I was hired to be the World Cup mascot, Striker."
After moving to L.A., her career was slow to take off, as she landed roles on pilots that
weren't picked up, or as a minor guest star on random TV shows. But Graham said
she took it in stride because she knew her career, quote, "was progressing."
She did land roles in those early years before getting her big break, however,
with parts on shows like "Caroline in the City" and "Townies." But that
breakthrough role eluded her for the rest of the decade. She remained optimistic,
though, telling Good Housekeeping that she focused on taking baby steps.
It's impossible to think of 2000s teen TV without the WB show "Gilmore Girls" coming to mind,
and it's even more impossible to think of "Gilmore Girls" without thinking of Lauren Graham.
On the series, Graham portrayed Lorelei Gilmore, a 30-something single mom whose fast-talking,
pop culture references, and iconic outfits ruled primetime TV for the better part of the decade.
The role proved to be a major turning point in Graham's career, though it almost never happened.
She explained to Rookie that she was warned not to play a mom,
yet she defied that advice and took on the role anyway. She said,
"It felt like what I had been looking for."
As much as Graham loved "Gilmore Girls," she didn't think that the show would last for long.
At the time, the WB network was new, after all, and Graham's career to that date had
been disappointing, with roles on swiftly canceled shows. The show defied her expectations, though,
and became a hit, running from 2000 to 2007. Graham said the success, quote,
"proves you never can tell in this business."
The bright lights of Broadway
While Lauren Graham deviated from her early career ambitions to act on the stage,
she was eventually able to achieve her Broadway goals after "Gilmore Girls" wrapped.
Graham started in the Broadway revival of "Guys and Dolls" in 2009, playing Miss Adelaide,
a dream role for the veteran performer. While she had her concerns about taking on such an
iconic character — during her Broadway debut, no less — she worked hard to do the part justice,
telling Playbill that she wanted to be sure she, quote, "could honor such an amazing role."
"Working on this, it is one of the most beautiful musicals I think, just,
ever written, it's a masterpiece, it's amazing."
Graham did just that, with The Wall Street Journal raving about her performance.
Drama critic Terry Teachout wrote,
"Not only is she a terrific singer, but she plays Adelaide with a rueful,
leggy charm that is wholly endearing."
Though Graham hasn't appeared in a Broadway show since "Guys
and Dolls," we hope she returns to the Great White Way someday!
Another fan-favorite show Lauren Graham is known for is "Parenthood." On the touching family drama,
she once again played a single mother — this time, Sarah Braverman — and one whom viewers
fell in love with just as they had with Lorelei Gilmore. Graham told Redbook that
she was warned not to play another mom, career advice that she thankfully ignored. She said,
"Mom isn't an adjective or a personality; they're not all the same."
Indeed, Graham said the experience on "Parenthood," which ran from 2010 through 20215,
was very different from "Gilmore Girls," where she often dominated scenes by powering
through a ton of dialogue. "Parenthood," on the other hand, moved at a slower pace
and was more introspective, requiring more ad-libbing than her previous show. She said,
"It's a more inner life than an outer, verbal thing. It's just:
How do you find your place in a scene?"
"Parenthood" not only brought Lauren Graham a great role,
it also brought her a long-lasting relationship with Peter Krause,
who played Sarah Braverman's brother, Adam, on the show. In real life, though,
their relationship was much different from the sibling connection they portrayed on TV.
The two stars actually first met in the '90s, and their connection was quick — though they
missed their chance at dating at the time. Graham told Good Housekeeping,
"We couldn't stop talking. Not about ourselves, but about the world and books and family."
While they remained friends over the years, they didn't actually start dating until they worked
together on the set of "Parenthood," after which things got serious pretty quickly — although the
public didn't know about the relationship for a while. Graham told Redbook that they were
homebodies, but also that she wanted to keep the relationship private for the sake of the series.
"It's important that you can buy us as brother and sister on the show."
She and Krause have been together ever since and still do their best
to keep their personal life out of the spotlight.
Graham told Good Housekeeping, "It's not a big, loud life [...] we keep it small,"
While Lauren Graham has played several memorable moms on television,
she doesn't have any biological children of her own. There are a lot of kids in her life, though,
and she's happy being what she calls the, quote, "friend-adult." She said that one of
her friends even calls her "Cool Aunt Lauren" because of her ability to bond with his kids.
The most important kid in Graham's life, however, is Roman, the son of her boyfriend,
Peter Krause, with whom she seems to have a good relationship. Graham's best parenting advice?
Listening. She explained to Mom that she's been able to get kids to open up to her by, quote,
"asking questions and then not answering for them."
Lauren Graham is a woman of many talents, and one of them is writing.
In 2013, her debut novel, "Someday, Someday, Maybe,"
became a New York Times Bestseller. She told American Profile that, while the book
centers on a young woman trying to make it as an actress in the '90s, it's not autobiographical,
though she admitted that her own experiences helped inform the novel. She explained,
"What I wanted to write about was starting out,
following a dream, not knowing if you are going to make it."
The book was considered for TV,
and Graham even wrote a pilot episode for the planned CW drama. While a network exec
praised the script as "excellent," the show sadly never got off the ground.
Graham has kept writing, though, releasing a book of essays called "Talking as Fast as I Can:
From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (and Everything in Between)" in 2016. Another book
of essays, "In Conclusion, Don't Worry About It," followed in 2018. Her essays proved to be just as
popular as her fiction, with both collections also becoming New York Times Best Sellers.
While Lauren Graham wasn't in the original "Mighty Ducks" films, which were released in the '90s,
she fit in perfectly for the 2021 Disney+ reboot of the franchise.
"The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers" centers on a young hockey player named Evan whose
mom — played by Graham — encourages him to form a new hockey team with help from Gordon Bombay,
the coach of the Mighty Ducks in the original films. Graham told Republic
World that she welcomed the show as a chance to, quote, "do a comedy and be a little goofy."
The TV series also gave Graham the opportunity to ice skate, which she had a lot of fun with.
She recalled to Collider that her agent asked her if she was just choosing her
roles based on whatever other cool stuff she would get to do as part of the job.
The answer: yes, that's part of it, as she enjoys learning new skills. She said,
"I've had such wonderful parts and now I look at maybe a little more of the whole picture."
"Gilmore Girls" fans everywhere were delighted when the show got a four-part Netflix reboot
in 2016. Considering the unsatisfying end of the original series thanks to an abrupt cancelation,
the highly-anticipated reboot was an opportunity
for the characters — and fans — to get some long-overdue closure.
Lauren Graham was excited to revisit Stars Hollow and the world of "Gilmore Girls" for
the special limited series called "Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life." In an interview with NPR,
Graham said that the series was, quote, "the best match, in terms of actor and material that
I've ever had." She added that she was surprised and excited by the chance to revisit the role.
"It was incredibly gratifying [...] something I could never have foreseen."
She's open to more "Gilmore Girls" episodes, too, if the stars ever align, and she even
has a clause in all of her contracts that will allow her to take time off from another project
if she ever has the chance to play Lorelei again. She said on SiriusXM's "EW Live,"
"I put that window into all my new jobs just in case."
While there's nothing official in the works,
Graham lives in hope of the show's return — and so do we.
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