As they say, write what you know… The truth is I had a wedding dress hidden in my closet for two years. For 730 days, I imagined (and feared) what would happen if my boyfriend found it. Once we moved in together, well, it became too much, and I finally showed him the dress. He thought it was funny and we did get married – in another dress however.

Of course money was an issue for me, but the greatest challenge was finding my lead actor. After several casting sessions, I still had not found an actor who could bring to “Warren” the right amount of charm to make him a lovable loser. I needed the audience to believe that “Toni” would stay with this guy for 1½ years. Once we pushed my start date for the third time, desperation set in. On the verge of a breakdown and in the midst of a psychotic episode caused by a two-month-almost-100-auditions search for the lead, I told my producer that I was going to approach people in the street. She thought I was kidding. Two days and 50 bewildered strangers later, I found Anil Raman shopping for sweaters at the mall.