If you are on a show, especially one as popular as such as the Netflix series Orange Is The New Black, one is sure to get a lot of attention. And such is the case with Samira Wiley, the actress who plays Poussey Washington in the series. But how does she handle all the media attention and fame? Well, going with what the hot actress had to say in an interview, she’s quite not used to fame.
"Walking down the street [now] is such a different thing than walking down the street two years ago," she admitted to British magazine Diva. "People come up to me all the time and they wanna hug me and kiss me and give me love and it's still something that I'm trying to get used to." Apparently, the star quit her bartending job after being too popular with her customers that her job was starting to get awkward!
Hailing from Washington D.C, she graduated from Julliard, known for their songs and theatre classes. Wiley was told about the auditions of OITNB by Marco Ramirez, a friend from Juilliard, who was also a writer for the show. After discovering that Danielle Brooks, another Juilliard friend, had won a role in the show, Wiley asked Brooks to rehearse lines with her to prepare for her audition for the role of Poussey Washington. Wiley's audition was ultimately successful as she appeared in all twelve episodes of the series' first season and was featured prominently throughout the second season. She was promoted to series regular for the third season after coming in as a fan favorite during the first two seasons.
Apart from the series, Wiley, now age 28, also appeared in an advertisement for the digital monetary service PayPal. She has also modeled for Maniac Magazine, and appeared on the cover and in an editorial for the 2014 September/October issue. Wiley was also featured on the cover of 2014 edition of OUT100 Magazine along with Sam Smith, Ellen Page, and Zachary Quinto.
In 2014, Wiley was named OUT100 Magazine's Ingenue of the Year. In February 2015, she was awarded the Human Rights Campaign's Visibility Award. In part, Samira Wiley won the 2015 Screen Actor's Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, along with numerous members of the cast of Netflix's Original Series Orange Is The New Black.
Openly gay, Wiley attributes her parent’s approval with her being a lesbian as her greatest success. She is currently in relationship with the series’ writer Lauren Morelli. Morelli was formerly married to Steve Balisone only to realize she was gay after few months of marriage. While Lauren’s relationship with Samira was not a secret on-set, Lauren’s filing for divorce caused huge fanfare and gossips in Twitter back then. Nonetheless, the two seem happy with each other, posting lovely pictures of themselves on Instagram. Wishing them all the best.