The Actor Who Realized She Was Actually a Writer

From studying Shakespeare to authoring a weekly sex column to directing a film about river blindness, Lacy Warner’s love of storytelling has taken many forms—and her own story has much to offer those just setting out on a creative path.

In 2007, 22-year old Lacy Warner moved to New York City to become an actor. She had been immersed in the performing arts from a young age. Life in New York, however, did not unfold as she expected. Lacy wrote about the struggles of her early years in the city in a 2014 piece for Narratively called “The Secret Life of a Fashion Week Peon” which details a terrible temp job she took on in order to make ends meet. After years of rejection in the acting world, and facing a dwindling bank account, Warner found inspiration and guidance in an unexpected place. Almost immediately after deciding she was actually meant to be a writer, those constant ‘no’s’ became a string of ‘yeses.’ 

In this interview, Lacy talks with Narratively about writing a sex column, how growing up in seven different countries has influenced her writing, and what it means to be a “story hunter.”