diff --git a/django/core/urlresolvers.py b/django/core/urlresolvers.py
index 1422bf7089d..14fc2822815 100644
--- a/django/core/urlresolvers.py
+++ b/django/core/urlresolvers.py
@@ -311,6 +311,7 @@ class RegexURLResolver(LocaleRegexProvider):
         return self._app_dict[language_code]
 
     def resolve(self, path):
+        path = force_text(path)  # path may be a reverse_lazy object
         tried = []
         match = self.regex.search(path)
         if match:
diff --git a/tests/urlpatterns_reverse/tests.py b/tests/urlpatterns_reverse/tests.py
index aef0fa05147..fd0f2cd6c28 100644
--- a/tests/urlpatterns_reverse/tests.py
+++ b/tests/urlpatterns_reverse/tests.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ import unittest
 from django.conf import settings
 from django.contrib.auth.models import User
 from django.core.exceptions import ImproperlyConfigured, ViewDoesNotExist
-from django.core.urlresolvers import (reverse, resolve, get_callable,
+from django.core.urlresolvers import (reverse, reverse_lazy, resolve, get_callable,
     get_resolver, NoReverseMatch, Resolver404, ResolverMatch, RegexURLResolver,
     RegexURLPattern)
 from django.http import HttpRequest, HttpResponseRedirect, HttpResponsePermanentRedirect
@@ -219,6 +219,19 @@ class ResolverTests(unittest.TestCase):
         sub_resolver = resolver.namespace_dict['test-ns1'][1]
         self.assertIn('<RegexURLPattern list>', repr(sub_resolver))
 
+    def test_reverse_lazy_object_coercion_by_resolve(self):
+        """
+        Verifies lazy object returned by reverse_lazy is coerced to
+        text by resolve(). Previous to #21043, this would raise a TypeError.
+        """
+        urls = 'urlpatterns_reverse.named_urls'
+        proxy_url = reverse_lazy('named-url1', urlconf=urls)
+        resolver = get_resolver(urls)
+        try:
+            match = resolver.resolve(proxy_url)
+        except TypeError:
+            self.fail('Failed to coerce lazy object to text')
+
     def test_non_regex(self):
         """
         Verifies that we raise a Resolver404 if what we are resolving doesn't