Kriti Mehrotra
Hulu’s ‘Swiped’ is a biographical drama that delves into the impressive career of tech entrepreneur Whitney Wolfe. It follows her as she navigates the ups and downs of time at Tinder before evolving into the Founder-CEO of Bumble and taking the world by storm with her female-centric vision. However, the presence of media through journalist Marta Medina is also quite significant in the original since it adds a layer of how actions and words can indeed have severe consequences.
Marta Medina Has Roots in the Experiences of a Real Reporter
From the moment we first come across Marta Medina as a Forbes writer, it’s evident she is an ambitious young woman waiting to prove her mettle and establish a name for herself. After all, when a couple of her independent pieces aren’t published by her higher-ups one after another, she approaches them to talk about it instead of just taking the rejection silently. That’s when she is given the responsibility of covering the up-and-coming world of online dating, unaware that it would turn her entire world upside down. It’s also what enables her to investigate as well as break the news about allegations of a toxic workplace culture surrounding Andrey Andreev’s online dating app empire.
Marta breaks all glass ceilings to get scoops and earn her success in the film, so it’s imperative to note that it appears as if she is inspired by a real journalist by the name of Angel Au-Yeung. From what we can tell, not every single aspect of the character’s personality or her career trajectory is likely based on her real-life counterpart, considering the movie is a drama. Yet, the latter did work for Forbes for over five years (late 2016-2022) and wrote a report titled Exclusive Investigation: Sex, Drugs, Misogyny, And Sleaze At The HQ Of Bumble’s Owner in 2019.
Angel Au-Yeung is Thriving in All Aspects of Her Life
Although born in Hong Kong, China, into a tight-knit family as the youngest of 3 girls, Angel Au-Yeung mainly grew up in California after they reportedly relocated in search of a better life. She graduated from Lowell High School in San Francisco before choosing to attend the University of California-San Diego for a Bachelor’s in Cognitive Neuroscience. It was around that time that she seemingly kick-started her career as a Researcher prior to finding her calling and moving on to enroll at Columbia University for a Master’s in Journalism. In October 2013, Angel landed the position of Associate Editor/Marketing Specialist at LinkedIn, where she served until July 2016, when she decided to shift gears into journalism.
Angel joined Forbes in New York as a Reporting Intern for four months in December 2016, and then she held the same position at the same publication again from June to October 2017. That is when she moved back to the place she calls home, San Francisco, to spread her wings as a full-fledged Forbes Reporter before ultimately being promoted to Staff Writer in August 2019. Angel worked at Forbes right until February 2022, following which she proudly joined The Wall Street Journal as a full-time Reporter — a position she maintains to this day. However, it’s imperative to note that over the years, Angel has even guest written for Columbia Journalism and other reputable publications and co-authored ‘Wonder Boy: Tony Hsieh, Zappos and the Myth of Happiness in Silicon Valley.’ The latter was on the Financial Times’ list of Best Business Books of 2023.
Coming to her personal standing, the San Francisco resident is a family-oriented woman and a travel enthusiast in every sense of the term. She is not only close to her parents and sisters, but it appears as if she is also planning to start a new chapter with the love of her life soon. After all, her long-term partner Gorjan Hrustanovic proposed to her in August 2025 during a romantic getaway to Spain, to which she gladly said “yes.” Whether it be Spain, Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Japan, Bosnia, Switzerland, Thailand, Malta, France, or Hawaii and New York, the nearly 34-year-old has been everywhere in the past few years alone.
Read More: Swiped: Is Tisha Washington Based on a Real Person?
