Marissa Lauren is a 20-something singer-songwriter from Redondo Beach who got a big boost this week from Lena Dunham. The creator and star of HBO's "Girls" chose Lauren to be her opening act at the Pasadena tour stop for her book, Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned."
Dunham was criticized for originally not planning to pay her opening acts, but Lauren told The Frame that hadn't bothered her. She was just excited to get in front of Dunham's fans, who she believed would respond to her music. But she was just as happy when Dunham e-mailed her to say she would get paid.
Lauren says she ekes out a living mostly doing background vocals for others. Now she's just launched an Indiegogo campaign to fund the production of her first EP so that one day maybe she'll be the star of the show.