Natalie Morales: 10 Best Movies & TV Shows

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Movies

A collage of Natalie Morales in Abby's, Self Reliance, and Parks and Recreation

The best Natalie Morales movies and TV shows feature several big movies and even more television series in which she became a popular actor and a familiar face. Morales got her start with a television guest role on CSI: Miami, and two years later, she had a lead role in the sci-fi comedy-drama called The Middleman. This allowed her to attract a lot of attention from casting agents, and she ended up picking up guest roles on several TV shows and then signed on to star in some of TV's top shows.

Things started rolling for Morales when she picked up a main role in White Collar, and then she moved on to regular roles on hit shows like Parks and Recreation, The Newsroom, Powerless, Santa Clarita Diet, and Grey's Anatomy. While not as prolific, Morales also added some movie roles to her career, with appearances in some movies by Oliver Stone and John Lee Hancock, and even picked up some voice roles in a pair of popular animated films, showing she can do almost anything asked of her,

10 The Middleman (2008)

Natalie Morales Played Wendy Watson

After some guest roles on two TV shows, Natalie Morales got her first major role in the comic book television series The Middleman. Based on the Viper Comics series by Grillo-Marxuach and Les McClaine, Morales plays the main star, Wendy Watson, a struggling artist who is recruited by a secret agency to help battle forces of evil. She works with The Middleman (Matt Keeslar), a fixer who deals with mad scientists, invading aliens, and other supernatural threats.

The series has a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes

They also have a robot named Ida who helps them. Morales received praise for her role as Wendy, a cool-under-pressure woman with photographic memory who helps save the world more than once. The series, which aired on ABC Family, only ran for one season and 12 episodes. Compared to colorful fantasy shows like Pushing Daisies, the series has a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, receiving universal acclaim, despite very few audience ratings, flying under the radar.

9 Dead To Me (2020-2022)

Natalie Morales Played Michelle Gutierrez

In 2019, Natalie Morales took on a role in the Netflix dark comedy series Dead to Me. The series stars Christina Applegate as Jen, a recently widowed real estate agent who deals with her loss through therapy. In a support group, she soon meets Linda Cardellini as Judy, who is lying about her husband dying (her fiancé actually left her). The twist is that Jen is mourning the death of her husband in a hit-and-run accident, but what she doesn't know is that Judy was the hit-and-run driver.

Natalie Morales has only a recurring role in the series. She appears in both the second and third seasons as Michelle, Judy's new love interest and Ana's (Diana-Maria Riva) ex-girlfriend. The series lasted for three seasons and 30 episodes, receiving universal acclaim and several awards nominations. Most of the praise went to Applegate for her performance, earning three Best Actress nominations, while the show also received an Outstanding Comedy Series nomination.

8 Grey's Anatomy (2024)

Natalie Morales Played Dr. Monica Beltran

The most successful TV show Natalie Morales starred in is Grey's Anatomy. However, her role on the show came in 2024 as the recurring Dr. Monica Beltran. This was in the 20th season, which only had a limited 10-episode run thanks to the writer's strike, although, on the bright side, it did see Ellen Pompeo return to the series in a regular role after stepping back in the previous season.

Morales returned for the 21season as well, albeit still in a recurring role and not yet promoted to a regular status.

Morales enters the series in the third episode as a new pediatric surgeon, and she is immediately in the middle of the drama as she comes into conflict with Dr. Amelia Shepherd (Catherine Scorsone), although they eventually come to terms and earn respect for each other. While Pompeo was back, the season still had the lowest rating of the entire series run, at only 5.1. Morales returned for the 21season as well, albeit still in a recurring role and not yet promoted to a regular status.

7 Santa Clarita Diet (2017-2019)

Natalie Morales Played Anne Garcia

Natalie Morales joined the cast of the Netflix zombie comedy series Santa Clarita Diet as a recurring character named Anne Garcia. The series stars Drew Barrymore as Sheila Hammond, a suburban real estate agent who ends up becoming a zombie. However, she still has most of her brainpower and facilities, although she has an almost insatiable hunger for human flesh. Timothy Olyphant stars as her husband, Joel, who helps her cover up the murders and protect her from the outside world.

After Joel kills Dan with a shovel and Sheila eats him, Anne ends up becoming romantically involved with Lisa (Mary Elizabeth Ellis), Dan's widow.

Morales stars as Anne Garcia, a religious sheriff's deputy who is the partner of Dan Palmer, Sheila and Joel's neighbor. After Joel kills Dan with a shovel and Sheila eats him, Anne ends up becoming romantically involved with Lisa (Mary Elizabeth Ellis), Dan's widow. Eventually, she learns the truth and believes Sheila is a messenger from God. The series has a 78% Rotten Tomatoes score, although th third season finished with a 100% perfect rating.

6 White Collar (2009-2010)

Natalie Morales Played Lauren Cruz

After getting attention from The Middleman, Natalie Morales signed on for a main role in the hit series White Collar. The series is about a renowned con artist, forger, and third named Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer), who gets a deal from the FBI to help them bust white-collar criminals in exchange for an early release. Morales only appeared in the first season as FBI Special Agent Lauren Cruz. She briefly worked under Peter Burke (Tim DeKay) in the white-collar crime unit.

Cruz was moved to his team in the second episode ("Threads") of the first season and was there until she left the team after the 14th episode ("Out of the Box"). She played a big role, as she was fascinated by Neal and actually wrote her thesis about him for her classes at Quantico. She left the series after the first season. The first season had a 96% Rotten Tomatoes rating. White Collar is also in talks to return for a new sequel that is supposed to pick up after the events of the season 6 finale.

5 No Hard Feelings (2023)

Natalie Morales Played Sara

In 2023, Natalie Morales took on a role in a movie that became one of the year's most surprising hits. No Hard Feelings stars Jennifer Lawrence as Maddie Barker, a 32-year-old Uber driver whose car is repossessed. In danger of having their family home repossessed, she takes a job by two parents who want her to date and have sex with their 19-year-old son to help him break out of his shell before he heads off to college at Princeton University. She agrees but finds the job harder than she expected.

Morales makes sure the character works with a grounded performance.

Natalie Morales stars in the movie as Sara, one of Maddie's close friends in Montauk, who might have to leave with Jim (Scott McCarthur) because of high housing costs there. In the film, Sara and Jim are mostly the voice of reason, as Maddie is still trying to discover what she really wants in life. Morales makes sure the character works with a grounded performance. The film was a pretty solid box office success, but it also earned Lawrence a Golden Globes nomination for Brest Actress.

4 The Morning Show (2023)

Natalie Morales Played Kate Danton

In 2023, Natalie Morales joined the cast of The Morning Show on Apple TV+. While the series had a lot of guests over its three-season run so far, Morales nabbed a recurring role in the third season as Kate Danton. The series follows the characters and culture at a morning talk show after a top male host is forced out following sexual misconduct allegations. Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon take on the lead roles, while the cast is an all-star group of actors.

The series will be back for a fourth season, and it is unclear if Morales will return at this time.

Morales stars as Kate, a friend of UBA news president Stella (Greta Lee), who was suspected of being a whistleblower trying to ruin a merger. The series has been a monster success for Apple TV+, with 27 Primetime Emmy nominations, 10 SAG Award nominations, and nine Golden Globes nominations. Jennifer Aniston won an Emmy for her performance. The series will be back for a fourth season, and it is unclear if Morales will return at this time.

3 The Newsroom (2012)

Natalie Morales Played Kaylee

In 2012, Natalie Morales got a chance to appear in the HBO political drama series The Newsroom. Created by Aaron Sorkin, the series takes place on a fictional news network that wants to create a news show that tells the truth in the face of corporate and commercial obstacles. Jeff Daniels played the lead role in the series, a news anchor named Will who leads the news program. As for Morales, she only appeared in a few episodes of the first season as a supporting cast member named Kaylee.

She ended up written out of the show after the first season and never appeared in the series again.

Morales plays Neal's (Dev Patel) girlfriend and someone whose dad died on 9/11. In the first season, she appeared in "I'll Try to Fix You" and "5/1" and was mostly there as a companion to Neal during two major events. She ended up written out of the show after the first season and never appeared in the series again. Critics were lukewarm on the series, but it won Daniels a Primetime Emmy Award while earning Jane Fonda a nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress.

2 Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (2018)

Natalie Morales Played Miss Calleros

Natalie Morales has appeared in several animated voice roles. She had one-shot appearances in BoJack Horseman, made two appearances in Harley Quinn, and voiced a role in the 2024 animated movie Thelma the Unicorn. However, the biggest animated release she appeared in was the 2018 movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. At the time of its release, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse was considered one of the best Spider-Man movies ever released and introduced the movie world to Miles Morales.

In the film, Miles Morales becomes Spider-Man after the death of his world's Peter Parker, only to learn the world is much bigger than he ever believed when he finds other spider-heroes from the multiverse. Natalie Morales voices a character known as Ms. Calleros, a teacher at Miles' Brooklyn Visions Academy. She was the teacher who assigned Miles to write a personal essay about himself, the essay that played into Miles' final monologue in the movie. The Best Animated Feature winner has a 97% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

1 Parks And Recreation (2010-2015)

Natalie Morales Played Lucy

In 2010, Natalie Morales picked up a recurring role in one of the most popular sitcoms on television at the time. She played the character Lucy in Parks and Recreation, an NBC series about the employees working for the Parks Department of the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. The cast was a huge list of incredible names, including Amy Poehler, Rassida Jones, Nick Offerman, and Chris Pratt. Natalie Morales joined the cast in season 2 and was a recurring cast member in the third and seventh seasons.

Natalie Morales played Lucy Santo Domingo, the on-again, off-again girlfriend of Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari). By the end of the series, she remained with Tom, giving both of them a happy ending. Parks and Recreation started off with a rough 68% Rotten Tomatoes score, but the third season was the first to hit 100% fresh, and it remained acclaimed to its end. The series was nominated for 16 Primetime Emmy Awards and won one Golden Globe and one Peabody Award during its run.

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