LAUREN LONDON FINDING NEW PURPOSE AFTER LOSS

FOUR YEARS AFTER THE DEATH OF BOYFRIEND NIPSEY HUSSLE, THE ACTRESS IS BACK ONSCREEN AND FOCUSING ON THE LIGHT

- JANINE RUBENSTEIN

Lauren London hadn't planned on making a new movie, or a new friend, when producer Kenya Barris asked her to star in his Netflix rom-com You People. But the universe had plans of its own. The moment she sat down with costar Jonah Hill, her love interest in the film-about an interracial, interfaith couple and the family drama over their romance-the two clicked. "Jonah is such a cool dude," London says. "We had lunch with Kenya and another producer before we shot, and he's just so truthful and genuine. He's become a real true friend of mine. I'm a Black woman, and he's a White man, but we actually have a lot more in common than you might think." Both are L.A. natives, and like Hill and his character in the film, London, 38, has Jewish heritage (from her father, who split with her mom when she was 3). Beyond those similarities, she and Hill formed a deeper connection, she says, over "our views on life, anxiety, work and grief."