Meet Lauren Delisle | Screenwriter & Somatic Practitioner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lauren Delisle and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lauren, why did you pursue a creative career?
I’m not sure if I’d say I chose to pursue a creative career, as it was more that a creative career pursued me. Though I grew up dancing and reading poetry at open mic events, I always saw my knack for writing as a skillset that would allow me to thrive in the context of marketing or web-copy. I envisioned being a writer when I grew up, but didn’t really understand what that meant as a career field.

So, when I started school at Loyola Marymount University, I was a Communications major. At the end of that first semester, one of my professors had me hang back after class. For my thesis assignment, I had submitted a comic strip incorporating characters from one of my favorite cartoons. He asked, ‘Why the hell are you in Communications?” The next day, I was that annoying girl, knocking profusely at the door of the Screenwriting department head. And that went on for months until he was annoyed enough to let me apply for the major. By my sophomore year, I was double majoring in Screenwriting and Dance.

But even after college, when I had graduated with a degree in Screenwriting and set out to support myself, I took on a full time role in the app marketing space. I occasionally got to pitch ideas for a storytelling app they had, but a lot of my time was spent mindlessly curating Instagram content to promote a different app to tween girls. That work got tiresome really quickly, and over the next few years, as I continued to take on roles that were me trying to be a “Creative” in non-creative positions, I learned the hard way that as much as I might have wanted to be satisfied with the standard 9-5, it wasn’t allowing me to expand in the ways I needed.

I was lucky enough to be recommended for a tech crime podcast writing job by one of my mentors in the Fall of 2018 and served as an associate editor and video producer for an online med publication. Somehow, Spotify saw that in the Spring of 2020 and thought I’d fit well with their show, “Medical Murders.” And that job, as an Associate Content Writer for Spotify, was really the first moment I understood how all experiences in our lives come to have significance in the grander scheme. These seemingly disparate parts of my work background made the perfect fit for a role I didn’t even know existed until I was hired for it. It helped me trust the creative life, as one constantly ripening you for your next best adventure. Even after being laid off from that job in 2022 when the podcast industry saw contraction, I benefited from that sense of trust in the process as I went onto freelance for another two years. It’s been a winding road, but I’ve stayed in my creative field because it’s one that allows me to be the most expansive version of myself. It empowers me to imagine different worlds, draw on personal experience, and keep being the major feeler that I am. That, to me, is the biggest gift.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
In 2022, I was laid off from my job as an Associate Content Writer at Spotify in a huge round of layoffs that happened during a major contraction in the podcast space. It was interesting timing, because I had been telling my therapist for weeks if not months at that point that what I really wanted to put my creative energy into was my pilot, EV1. Though I had tried writing pilots in the past, I had never given myself the time of day to really see an idea through to something fully solid. In my early 20s, I adapted scripts for a book-to-screen company, but those were books that weren’t mine. And in my work as a podcaster, most of the stories were non-fiction. While those stories still demanded my creativity, I wanted to compose something fictive.

The layoff turned out to be a huge gift. For several months, I really put my nose to the grindstone on the script, I’d send out job applications during the first part of the day, and then devote the whole afternoon to writing the treatment, then the character breakdowns, finally the script itself. I was in the weeds mid-way through the script and was living in Denver at the time (in a brief stint away from LA). Just as I was setting out to move back to LA in a cross-country roadtrip, I walked outside Valentine’s morning 2023 to find that my car had been stolen. When it was recovered about two weeks later, it was totaled. That was its own ordeal. But when I reflected on it with my therapist, we chuckled about how my pilot centers on a protagonist who can’t bring themselves to push forward an electric car project. Meanwhile, my own car was rendered garbage. A lot of my therapist’s work has its roots in Jungian Depth Psychology, a depth psychology developed by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. Anyone who has heard of Jung knows of his passion for symbols. My dead car felt like its own symbol, rising from the unconscious and fixing itself into my reality. “Get there,” it seemed to challenge me. “Your car’s dead and you want to finish this pilot script. Are you gonna turn back or find a solution?” I made my move back to LA several months later in May 2023, coincidentally at the same time of the writer’s strike. By then, I had finished my first draft of the pilot, and I wasn’t gonna cross picket lines, so I bided my time and pitched my pilot to fellow writers for their thoughts. I showed it to some of my incredible filmmaking friends who gave feedback. And I did revisions, while juggling several contract positions that were their own crazy train.

2023 really was the year I learned to value the work I was doing in my private time. Because for as much as I had come to be proud of the podcasts I’d done in the past and the new podcasts that had since brought me on as a writer since my time at Spotify, nothing felt so good to write as EV1, the pilot that came from my own unconscious.

I’m still learning lessons as a screenwriter, and clearly it’s not like I just finished the pilot and hit a goldmine. This past year has been an entirely new process of continuing the writing, past that first pilot. I took on UCLA’S Writing for TV Professional Program where I met some seriously talented fellow writers. I finished two more pilots and a spec script of Severance. And EV1 landed a Quarterfinalist award with the Screencraft 2025 Pilot Script Competition. These are all achievements I’m enormously proud of, that wouldn’t have been able to happen had I not been supported by such loving friends, family members who call me every now and then to make sure I’m putting enough away for taxes each month, and incredible mentors like Aaron Mendelsohn, Deborah Dean Davis, and my long-time therapist, who remind me to keep writing from the place that’s honest.

My stories tend to center underdogs, often involve dark family drama, and draw major inspiration from my Midwestern roots as well as my appreciation of a good mystery. And if the world could know one thing about my scripts without reading them, it’s that I’m not writing with the distinct goal of selling, but of crafting something that rings true, especially for those who have gone through complex trauma, as I tend to believe most creatives have.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Los Angeles is filled with amazing spots. If I were to show a friend around, I’d be mindful about travel times and focus in on a few of my favorite parts of town, so we’re not driving all around kingdom come. Walking is a cool way to experience any city, and for as much as LA isn’t a walking city, it can be when you hone in on a specific area.

I’d start off Friday with a morning workout at Crossfit Hollywood. Though I’ve been in and out with Crossfit over the years, my mind really benefits from weight lifting (because as it happens, I am a product of my biology). Then, I’d head over to Erewhon on Beverly to pick up one of their raw cinnamon rolls and a coffee from Andante, a shop I’ve been going to for years, as I used to live in the neighborhood.

Mid-day, I might walk to Blick Art supply, to fetch on a new sketch pad to map out the sequences of my next pilot script. Or I’d head to Beverly Hills Juice, where my best friend works. Their juice and smoothies are pricy, but they’re the best in town. as a special treat every once in a while, I love their Banana Manna Shake. Maybe a shot of E3live for mental alertness.

Later on, I’d hit up El Coyote for Mexican food with my lover and catch a movie at New Beverly Cinema. Every now and then, I love to see a movie at Braindead. I’d finish off the night with a toke at The Woods on Santa Monica, in West Hollywood. (Their private cannabis lounges are a modern marvel). A quick trip to the nearby Awan gelato might make it in too if I’m craving something sweet. The Gula Jawa flavor is a must, and they’re fully dairy free.

Saturday, I’d start bright and early with a trek to Malibu. Some hiking always does the mind good. My tried and true is Escondido Falls, but I recently hiked Temescal Canyon Park and it had some great views. If it’s the summer time, I’m going for a dip at the beach. My favorite thing to do on a hot day is park by the Urth in Santa Monica and walk straight to the water. The potent healing properties of a mid-day swim should seriously be studied. I’m probably ending this day with a meal at home (because no one’s wallet needs dinner on the town three nights in a row). My favorite meal to make recently is a sushi bowl. I’d probably watch a TV show with it. Lately, my selections have been Severance, which I specked just last year, and Tokyo Vice. Honorable mentions to Curb Your Enthusiasm and Arrested Development, which are tried and trues if I’m wanting something lighter.

Sunday morning, I’m waking up bright and early to facilitate a Somatic Cacao Ceremony with my soul sister, a cacao ceremonialist, Alanna. She frequently hosts community ceremonies in her home space, but has also expanded out, facilitating at spots like Shiva Yoga (West Hollywood) and Anima Mundi (Venice) in the past year. I love leading group journeys with Alanna because she has a way of bringing others into their own authenticity and magic. If we’re collaborating, my portion of the facilitation includes movement rituals — guided somatic tapping, shape-inspired movement exploration, or mindfulness practices to help everyone drop deeper into the senses. I’ve found these practices to be especially helpful to me in my own journey navigating dissociation due to a sexual assault in my late teens that took me many years to accept as part of my living history.

Mid-day, I’d take myself on a writing date, somewhere like Harvey Easton on Beverly or Jurassic Magic on Mansfield. These are my favorite coffee shops for sure, and that’s saying a lot because I’m a seasoned coffee lover (like almost everyone else I know tbh). I’m ending the day with a solid three mile run around my neighborhood.

I dropped into the habit of running about three years back, even though I always really struggles with it. Somehow, the activity has transformed my life. I track my runs on Strava, and committing to just ten miles a week has opened me up to some of the most deeply profound revelations of my life. It’s a moving meditation. So, it makes sense that the brain clears, and magic enters. For dinner, I might get takeout from the Thai Thing or meet a friend for a bite at Cookbook Market or Gracias Madre. I find that the best restaurants are the unpretentious kind. (No one tell me Gracias Madre is pretentious, I am unwilling to change my stance on this).

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I dedicate this shoutout to Carlo Nicdao and the rest of my creative cohort in UCLA’s Writing for Television professional program. Our small group taught me to have greater faith in the mysterious process of writing, which can often involve moments of “what the f*ck is this story becoming?!”

Each week in classes, we’d provide feedback on one another’s pitches and pages, and the levity in the room, along with their devotion to finding my story with me, reawakened my hope in collaborative writing that I’d only last felt in my small-group writing classes at Loyola Marymount University.

I believe deeply in the power of education to bring us into communion with people who become deeply important to our creative journeys. I still cherish the film friends I made while attending LMU, as well as the mentors I had in professors and other faculty members.

One time, on a last second roadtrip to the Grand Canyon with a person I spent my junior year falling in love with, we stopped by this emporium (so-to-speak) of recycled paint cans and bottles expertly attached to scrap metals and other materials. We pulled over to see what it was, and the man who made it all emerged from his house. He was a little old man with a long beard and wistful glimmer in his eye. “Empty your paint cans,” he told us.

It’s a memory that comes up often for me when I think about the profound impact that school has had on my life, even though the moment itself occurred while ditching a Friday morning film class. Because it reminds me that school isn’t just about being in the environment where the materials are, but about application. Learning to get resourceful with what’s at your disposal. Anyone can access tools, in a myriad of ways. It takes inspiration and drive to put them to use. That’s the whole point of being a creative. Doing the damn thing.

Website: https://www.laurendelisle.com/

Instagram: @laurendelisle

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-delisle-513283a8

Twitter: https://x.com/whispy_tuft?lang=en

Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@flowbylo?lang=en