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.
She is starring as the voice of Betty DeVille (1991) in the Rugrats revival, replacing Kath Soucie.
Early life[]
A native of Kendall, Florida, Morales is of Cuban descent. 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.
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. 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.
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. 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. 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. Morales also appeared on Aaron Sorkin's HBO drama, The Newsroom, guest-starring as Kaylee, the girlfriend of Dev Patel’s character, Neal. In 2013, Morales joined the cast of Trophy Wife as Meg, Kate's best friend. In 2015, she joined the cast of the Fox series The Grinder. In 2017, she appeared in some episodes of the NBC series Powerless. Morales appeared as Detective Anne Garcia in the Netflix horror comedy series Santa Clarita Diet.
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. 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.
Personal life[]
On June 30, 2017, Morales stated on social media that she identifies as queer.
She clarified in an interview with SmartGirls that same day what that this meant:
- "I don’t like labeling myself, or anyone else, but if it’s easier for you to understand me, what I’m saying is that I’m queer. What queer means to me is just simply that I’m not straight. That’s all."
This means that Natalie has not clarified whether she is bisexual or lesbian and might identify as either or neither.
Quotes[]
In a 26 May 2021 interview with AV she said of Betty:
- "anyone who watched the original show may have had an inkling Betty was a member of the alphabet mafia"
- "Betty is a single mom with her own business who has twins and still has time to hang out with her friends and her community, and I think it’s just so great because examples of living your life happily and healthily as an out queer person is just such a beacon for young queer people who may not have examples of that"
- "And yeah, Betty is a fictional cartoon, but even cartoons were hugely influential for me as a kid and if I’d been watching Rugrats and seen Betty casually talking about her ex-girlfriend, I think at least a part of me would have felt like things might be okay in the future."