Whatever Happened To Lauren Graham?

Lauren Graham's life changed when she booked "Gilmore Girls." Graham went from rooming with fellow famous actor Connie Britton to starring in one of the most beloved dramedies of all time. The series, created by the brilliant Amy Sherman-Palladino, followed Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, played by Graham and Alexis Bledel, respectively, a young mother and teenage daughter as they navigated life and relationships in the charming town of Stars Hollow. "Gilmore Girls" brought Graham and her co-star mainstream fame, irrevocably connecting them with fans of the show. Unfortunately, "Gilmore Girls" was canceled in 2007, taking the smart and relatable mother-daughter duo off TV screens, much to the chagrin of its devoted audiences.

After the show's cancellation, Graham continued with her life and career, finding plenty of other work, but nothing has struck quite as poignantly as "Gilmore Girls." Here's what Lauren Graham has been up to since the series ended.

To many fans, "Gilmore Girls" still exists in the present. For Lauren Graham, however, the original run ended in 2007, and the actor had to find a new project when it finished. About a year after the hit CW show ended, it was announced that Graham was taking on a new project: Broadway. The "Bad Santa" star was cast as Adelaide in the Broadway revival of the Tony-winning musical "Guys and Dolls." The role was Graham's Broadway debut, and it was a dream-come-true for her. "Growing up, this is the life I always pictured. I wanted to live in this world," Graham said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Those who cast Graham were excited about the choice, too. "We are thrilled with the casting of Lauren as Miss Adelaide. She is the perfect combination of leading lady and natural comedienne," producer Howard Panter said in a statement, as reported by Playbill.

Graham's performance was met with mixed reviews, and she did struggle a bit with feeling inadequate among the Broadway regulars before the show premiered. However, when the curtains came up, Graham overcame her fears and relied on her work ethic. "I'm here and I'm doing it now and I'm working as hard as anybody. Life took me in a different direction, but I'm not here as a lark and I'm not whizzing in and stopping by for two weeks," Graham said in The Wall Street Journal. "I've done all kind of things in my career, but this feels like a big deal. Broadway has a mythic greatness — and an actual greatness."

It's truly a miracle for a television show to make it to air — and many actors can attest to that, including Lauren Graham. Amid her "Guys and Dolls" run, it was announced that a new series starring Graham was picked up by ABC. The series, which was originally called "Let It Go," was adapted to "The Bridget Show," and that transitioned into a TV movie from a series, leaving Graham without a steady job once her Broadway stint ended. However, she didn't stay unemployed for long: In the fall of 2009, it was announced that she had been cast in the NBC show "Parenthood" after Maura Tierney had to quit to seek cancer treatment.

The gig was a good move for Graham. "Parenthood" had a successful run, airing for six seasons and garnering an Emmy nomination during its tenure. Graham eased into her role, once again playing a single mother, and the actor rejected the notion that she shouldn't take on the character type for a second time. "When I was considering 'Gilmore Girls' [at age 32], people were like, 'You shouldn't play a mom. People will think you're too old.' And I was like, why? People are mothers at my age. And when I took 'Parenthood,' people said, 'You shouldn't play another mom.' That's like saying, oh, you're playing another woman. 'Mom' isn't an adjective or a personality; they're not all the same," Graham said in an interview with Redbook.

"Parenthood" didn't just bring the stunning Lauren Graham professional success — it brought her love, too. Graham started dating her "Parenthood" co-star Peter Krause. The two had known each other for decades; they first met in 1995 when they acted together on an episode of "Caroline in the City." As Graham said, the two connected enough at that time for Krause to ask her over to his house to play a board game, but nothing romantic came of their relationship at that time. "It's so interesting to me that there was clearly a connection there back then, but I don't think either of us was ready," Graham said of Krause in an interview with Redbook.

Though Graham, who never got married, dated other people after meeting Krause, she stayed friends with her eventual co-star. When the two were both cast on "Parenthood," the timing was right. "It's no accident that I'm in a great relationship now. I don't think there was room for it before," Graham said in an interview with Parade. What made their relationship even more unique was that Graham and Krause didn't play lovers on "Parenthood" — they played siblings. Graham, though, thought that their roles worked to the benefit of their relationship, especially while on set. "It's easier that we're playing brother and sister. We are very professional. We don't want to make anybody feel weird and we don't want to feel weird. And then we go home and share the day," Graham said.

Lauren Graham has remained busy throughout her entire career, including with non-acting projects. In 2014, Graham ventured into a new world and published her first novel, "Someday, Someday, Maybe," a book about a young woman living in New York City with dreams of becoming an actor. The novel got good reviews and landed Graham on The New York Times Best Sellers list. Though she found success with her book, Graham did acknowledge that the process wasn't easy. "I don't know why I don't pick up knitting or watercolors, but I wanted to write a book. There were times and days when it was fun and exhilarating and a lot of days where it was really hard," Graham said to The Christian Science Monitor.

In the book, the main character was struggling to realize her showbiz dreams, which is something Graham could relate to. "I was more interested in (the) waiting, auditioning ... and that feeling when you're on the outside of something looking in. So many people in general and young actors specifically spend so much time there, and many people never get beyond that, I just thought that's what I wanted to focus on," Graham said of the story. In Graham's real career at the time, though, she was finding plenty of success. Her novel was published during the "Parenthood" era, and Graham was finding work on other projects, too: "A Merry Friggin' Christmas" and "Web Therapy" were among Graham's credits the year she released "Someday, Someday, Maybe."

2016 brought about a treat for "Gilmore Girls" fans: the beloved show's reboot, "Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life," dropped on Netflix. The series had four movie-length episodes and included many of the original show's stars. The stunning Alexis Bledel, Scott Patterson, Kelly Bishop, Keiko Agena, Matt Czuchry, and more all starred in the project, and Lauren Graham, of course, reprised her iconic role of Lorelai Gilmore. And as meaningful as the project was for fans, it was perhaps more meaningful for the "Gilmore Girls" cast. "Walking onto that set really felt like something. It felt like a lot of time had passed and it felt like we were just there. It felt amazing," Graham said in an interview with TV Line at the time of filming.

The revival series was met with positive reviews and favorable viewership numbers. The filming and release process went by quickly, and Graham was emotional about finishing the series again. "It's really wonderful and a little bittersweet," Graham said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. "It was such an incredible, joyous rush to do it ... So it's been hard, actually, since then to look at other material and imagine that it will meet that bar." And if the chance came again for Graham to play Lorelai, she'd jump at it. "I always say yes because it's the best part I ever had, and I love doing it," Graham said on an episode of "The Tonight Show" after being asked, nearly 10 years after the reboot, if she'd ever take on the role again. "It was the perfect material at the perfect time with the perfect writer, and it just means so much to me."

Lauren Graham has proven herself capable of taking on anything she wants to do creatively. In 2016, her memoir "Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls" was published. Graham shared that she had been asked to write a memoir in the past, but she felt as though she hadn't lived enough yet. However, one major step in her career signaled that she was ready. "When 'Gilmore Girls' came around again, I was looking back at where I was when I got on the show, who I was before that, and how all these things happened in between that I could not have predicted ... I thought it could be interesting to keep a diary of what 'Gilmore Girls' was like the second time and to compare that to what it was like the first time," Graham said to Good Reads.

The following year, Graham tackled screenwriting for the first time. In 2017, it was announced that Graham had written the script for the screen adaptation of the book "The Royal We" by Heather Cooks and Jessica Morgan, and she was slated to write and produce the screen adaptation of the novel "Windfall," which was written by Graham's own book editor, Jennifer E. Smith. "I'm interested in romantic comedies, I feel they're not as present as they used to be. 'Windfall' had this giant 'what if?' aspect to it and has a love story where you're not sure what's going to happen. I thought all that would make a real sweet film," Graham said of her projects in an interview with Long Island Press. Unfortunately for Graham, neither project was fully realized.

Lauren Graham has taken on voice acting roles before, but she really flexed her muscles in 2017 when she signed on to voice Oxana on the animated Disney show "Vampirina." Graham voiced the eponymous character's mother, lending a mature presence to a series that followed a vampire family who moved from Transylvania to Pennsylvania. James Van Der Beek, Wanda Sykes, Patti LuPone, and Laraine Newman were among the other cast members. "I just loved the message of the show, that it's not only okay to be different, it's actually really cool," Graham told Entertainment Tonight of the series. Graham stayed part of the cast for its entire run from 2017 to 2021.

As "Vampirina" was airing, Graham signed on for another project. The "Gilmore Girls" alum played Joan, the main character's boss, in "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist," a dramedy series about a young woman who can hear the thoughts — which she hears as songs — of others. Skylar Astin, Mary Steenburgen, and Peter Gallagher were among the other notable cast members. "Not everybody thinks of me as a person to put in charge of things as an actor. Like, I don't get the boss roles. That was really appealing to me, and to make something fun and off and interesting and odd. Then singing and dancing? Forget it. I thought it would be really fun — and it was," Graham told Entertainment Weekly of what appealed to her about the role. Unfortunately, the series was canceled after just two seasons.

While Lauren Graham was remaining busy with all her projects, things in her personal life weren't quite as exciting. The actor and her longtime boyfriend, Peter Krause, split in 2021. The two kept the information quiet, and the public didn't learn about the news until 2022. Later in 2022, Graham opened up about what led to her breakup. "We almost came into a relationship as people in their 40s without asking any of the questions people in their 40s should be asking. We had such a good time together that I didn't maybe ask some fundamental questions about 'What are your values and what do you envision?' and those more grown-up things. And then they just caught up with us," she told People.

Amid the breakup, Graham had lots of work to remain focused on. She published another book, a series of essays called "Have I Told You This Already?: Stories I Don't Want to Forget to Remember," and she joined Emilio Estevez and Josh Duhamel for the Disney+ project "The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers," a series based on the 1990s Disney films "The Mighty Ducks." Graham got to film two seasons of the show, and she especially enjoyed filming the second season as the first was filmed amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "Everything about this just felt like a breath of fresh air," Graham told Collider about the second season experience. "The dynamic was really electric, in terms of where we start, in opposition to each other. The kids are a little bit older, and they've all gelled with one another. There's so much fun to be had when you're building a character from a foundation that's already been set," she added.

In 2024, Lauren Graham learned that she would be receiving one of the highest honors in Tinsel Town: a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. While it may seem as though every celebrity in Hollywood has a star, that's certainly not the truth. Celebrities have to be nominated and accepted, and there are criteria they have to meet in order to be eligible. Plus, celebrities have to pay $75,000 and maintenance fees for their star, so some entertainers can't afford the honor.

Clearly Graham is able to pay for her star, and she expressed her thanks for the inclusion via Instagram. "Well, this is just beyond. I'm beyond thrilled, beyond honored, and beyond excited to celebrate this with you when the day comes," she said. Graham joined Jessica Chastain, her "Mighty Ducks" co-star Emilio Estevez, Colin Farrell, Jane Fonda (who surprisingly didn't already have a star), Fran Drescher, Bill Nye, Molly Shannon, Busta Rhymes, George Strait, Green Day, Prince (posthumously), Alan Cumming, and David Beckham, among others, as part of the Hollywood Walk of Fame Class of 2025.

2025 brought Lauren Graham back to comedy. The actor got the starring role in the series "The Z-Suite," acting alongside Nico Santos, Madison Shamoun, and others in a series that takes place in a modern New York City ad agency. Raising the stakes for Graham and her co-star, the series served as the flagship show for the streaming service Tubi, a scenario Graham had been in before. "When we did 'Gilmore Girls,' The WB [which was later replaced by The CW] was pretty new, so I thought it was cool to be part of a new platform," Graham said in an interview with The Wrap. "Back then, I don't think I understood pressure in the same way. I got to an upfront where they told us we were up against 'Friends.' I was like, 'Oh, that's the literal opposite of pressure because no one expects us to do anything numbers wise.'"

"Gilmore Girls," of course, went on to be incredibly successful, and Graham hoped the same for "The Z-Suite." "I think what we made is genuinely fun. Right now, there's not too many workplace comedies. The voice of this one is really fresh," Graham said.