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SoulPancake: How Golriz Lucina Met Devon Gundry

Posted: Fri 02/10/2012 10:00 AM
Devon and Golriz may be the SoulPancake hosts you've come to know and love week after week on "Super Soul Sunday," but did you know they're married and they're expecting their first child in less than a month? Here, Golriz shares their sweet love story.

I'm still not quite sure how an Iranian-Armenian woman who grew up in France, England and New Zealand ends up in Nashville, Tennessee, but that's where my feet landed in early 2007. I had just graduated with my master's in publishing in Australia, and I was looking for work that was both creative and fulfilling. After a few months, I was hired as the marketing manager for the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. I enjoyed being involved behind the scenes of the theater world and loved the perks of getting to travel to preview all the latest Broadway shows.  

Several months after I arrived in Nashville, I was given a CD of music recorded by an artist named Devon Gundry. The name wasn't familiar to me at all, but as I listened to the music, I became an instant fan. A good friend then introduced me to Devon's parents at a Baha'i event in Nashville. I think Devon's parents felt sorry for me, being so far away from home, so they invited me to my first real American Thanksgiving. Devon likes to say that this was when I started "infiltrating" his world. Devon was living in Hollywood at the time, pursuing music and working for Web startups, but in early 2008 he moved back to his hometown of Hendersonville, Tennessee. 

Devon and I quickly became very close friends, and I learned all about the "SoulPancake" project that he was excited to be working on with Rainn Wilson. In fact, he happened to be at my house when the site first went live! As the site began gaining popularity, the need for daily content grew, and that's when Shabnam Mogharabi, an editor with a background in journalism, joined the team. I tried to help Devon and Shabnam with the site content during my weekends and after work, but it soon became evident to me that what I really wanted to be doing was working on SoulPancake full-time. In March 2009, I ended my job at the performing arts center and joined SoulPancake as the co-director of content. During the course of that next year, Devon and I worked closely on SoulPancake together, and we also became pretty smitten with each other. On a trip to Australia to visit my parents in early 2010, we decided to get engaged, and in April of that year, we were married in Nashville! 

Our work with SoulPancake never has a dull moment. We are constantly acquiring new skills and getting to flex our creative muscles. Since our wedding less than two years ago, we have grown the SoulPancake site; co-authored a New York Times best-selling book, SoulPancake: Chew on Life's Big Questions; and begun creating video content for the "Super Soul Sunday" lineup on OWN. We even made our baby announcement on location at a recent SoulPancake shoot! Some might think that it's difficult to work with your spouse, but I get to spend every day with my best friend, doing work that we're very passionate about, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Watch Golriz and Devon each week on "Super Soul Sunday" at 11/10c.
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