Tess Morris

In 2017, she joined the writing staff of Hulu's comedy-drama series Casual.

Man Up was directed by Ben Palmer, and starred Simon Pegg and Lake Bell. It was released in May 2015.

She began writing Man Up in January 2011. Her inspirations for this film were Nora Ephron, Woody Allen and Nancy Meyers. The films which inspired her the most are When Harry Met Sally, Moonstruck and As Good as it Gets. To help her build the cinematic structure, Morris read Billy Mernit's book, Writing for the Romantic Comedy. Morris finished the spec script in three months then submitted it to Big Talk Productions who optioned it.

After struggling to sell her TV spec scripts, Morris got a job as a script reader for the BFI and Film4. During this time, she co-produced a short film called Rise of the Appliances with producer Richard Holmes. Morris claims she began to miss screenwriting and, based on some of the BFI script submissions she deemed were bad, she decided she would be able to write her own feature script. After a break-up, Morris moved back in with her parents and promised them that if her feature script did not get picked up, she would find a "proper job". In 2008, she was chosen for the BFI/Skillset Think Shoot Distribute Scheme for emerging talent in the British film industry.

She attended university in South London where she completed a TV and Film degree. In 1997, while she was still in university, Morris wrote a short film titled Beer Goggles. The short was directed by David Mackenzie as part of the Lloyds Bank/Channel Four Film Challenge. Her team's film won first place and was broadcast on Channel 4.

Tessa Jo Morris (born April 1977) is a British screenwriter. She was named one of BAFTA's Breakthrough Brits of 2015 after her success writing the romantic comedy Man Up. She co-hosts the romantic-comedy focused podcast You Had Us At Hello, and currently writes on Hulu's Casual. She has been referred to as a "key voice standing up for the romantic comedy genre".