Sophia Swanson, Underemployed

Sophia Swanson (Michelle Ang)

Sophia was one of the main characters in comedy-drama Underemployed, which followed a group of friends tackling their first year since graduation. In the beginning of the show she was struggling with her newfound sexuality after meeting older lawyer Lauren in the premiere, and losing her virginity to her. In the span of the first three episodes Sophia came out to her friends, who gladly accepted her, and to her parents, who ended up disowning her.

Questioning whether she could label herself a lesbian so soon Sophia decided to try and have sex with one of her best friends Miles. However, she soon realized she had no interest in sex with a man and instead ended up introducing Lauren as her girlfriend at the end of the episode. Sophia and Lauren broke up in the sixth episode after Sophia was uncomfortable with Lauren buying her expensive things all the time and ended up having sex with bartender Natalie in a bathroom. Natalie and Sophia hooked up one more time before Sophia decided that she didn’t want to date anyone.

Underemployed was cancelled after its first season.

Appearances:

• 12 episodes.

Female love interests:

• Natalie (Katherine Cunningham, lesbian, recurring 3 episodes)
• Laura (Angel M. Wainwright, lesbian, recurring 5 episodes)

Relationship story arc with a woman: Yes

No male love interests

Relationship story arc with a man: No

Male love interest after being identified as a lesbian? No

Filter Relationship Arc:

• Female (Recurring)

Storyline during sweeps? No

[1] A relationship story arc is defined as explicit, developed on screen, and lasting more than 3 episodes. It is listed as questionable or subtext if romance is only implied, mentioned instead of shown on screen, part of a dream sequence, or otherwise not explicit for the viewer.
[2] Sweeps episodes air in February, May, July and November, the periods when advertising rates are set. A character is marked as "sweeps" when there is a very limited number of episodes that address their sexuality, all air during sweeps period, and the storyline is otherwise ignore/dropped.