Sweeping romance is a major feature in film—and sometimes that energy carries off-screen, too. So many celebrity couples past and present have fun, adorable, quirky, and random stories about meeting their significant others. Whether they were IRL enemies-to-lovers, childhood pen pals, or (in one case) the creator of a "Missed Connections" post on Craigslist, these love stories are hard to beat. If you're in need of a dose of romance, look no further.
Aaron and Lauren Paul
It's a Coachella couple! Aaron Paul and Lauren Parsekian became friends at the music festival in 2010 and fell in love at the same festival the following yer. At their first date—in Las Vegas, naturally—they decided they were going to get married (the church ended up being closed). The two did end up tying the knot, in 2022.
Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert
Despite having grown up together, Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert didn't recognize each other when they reconnected. In the lobby of a theater, Stephen looked at her and immediately thought, Her. That's your wife. You're going to marry her. He saw her again in the food line and worked up the courage to turn around to talk to her.
Cara Delevingne and Minke
Cara Delevingne and Minke (real name Leah Mason) actually went to boarding school when the two were kids. Delevingne admits to having had a crush on her then-classmate; the two met again in 2022 at a concert and began dating (the feeling was mutual, turns out!).
Hilarie Burton Morgan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Sometimes your best friends really do know what's best for you! Hilarie Burton and Jeffrey Dean Morgan got set up on a blind date because they had mutual friends—specifically, actor Jensen Ackles and his wife Danneel. They'd met Hilarie and Jeffrey through One Tree Hill and Supernatural, respectively, and set them up way back in 2009—the couple married in 2019.
Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield
What happens when you have such chemistry with your on-screen love interest and you're both single? A multi-year relationship, if you're Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield—the pair met when they were cast as Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man in 2010. They broke up in 2017 but remained close pals.
Matt and Luciana Damon
Matt Damon was shooting a movie in Miami, FL, when the cast and crew made their way to a bar. Luciana Barroso was working there and, in her words, he came and hid behind the bar to avoid aggressive fans. She laughed and put him to work: "He had trained as a bartender for a film years before, so he started making drinks. And he made me a ton of money in tips that night, because of course everyone wanted to go and see him!"
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds
While technically Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds got to know each other on the set of The Green Lantern, the two were in relationships at the time. When both became single, they ended up on a double date...with other people. According to Lively and Reynolds, their chemistry was obvious to everyone—maybe less awesome for their original date partners, but fortuitous for them!
Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes
When they were cast as lovers for the film The Place Beyond the Pines, chemistry happened IRL for Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes. While the couple (who married in 2022) were extremely private about their relationship, Mendes once joked, "There's only one Ryan, so I pretty much stopped acting after that."
Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander
Like many on this list, Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander have not really discussed their union. They played a couple on The Light Between Oceans but even before that, they met on the dance floor of the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival—and danced together without saying a word. Foreshadowing!
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
While the ensuing relationship would be...tumultuous, let's say, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton had a fascinating first series of meetings. They first saw each other at a party (Taylor wasn't impressed), and then were cast as lovers in Cleopatra. Their real-life animosity evaporated quickly, according to Furious Love: "In their first deep kiss, in Cleopatra’s boudoir…They repeated the scene several times, their kiss lasting longer with each take."
Joanna Newsom and Andy Samberg
In a cute meeting that is mildly not safe for work, Joanna Newsom and Andy Samberg met backstage via their mutual friend Fred Armisen after Samberg performed "Just 2 Guyz" with Lonely Island. Newsom exclaimed, "Oh my god, you're the ****! You're Steve the ****!" Samberg said he immediately saw "heart bubbles" and that was that.
Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade
In 2007, Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade were hired to co-host a Super Bowl party. It was not love at first sight—the two barely spoke, and Wade was still married. But after the two were single, and despite balking at a 9-year age gap, Union discovered that Wade “had wisdom that comes with facing an insane amount of adversity.” She added, “He's sweet, funny, [and] honest about his shortcomings.”
Dylan Sprouse and Barbara Palvin
At a Harper's Bazaar party in 2017, model and actor Barbara Palvin cut in front of Dylan Sprouse in line. He called her out, she replied with, “What are you—a hot-dog vendor?” and the two had a playful back and forth. He slid into her DMs...and then she didn't respond for six months, lol. Once she replied, though, the two fell for each other fast.
Frances McDormand and Joel Coen
While Frances McDormand and Joel Coen have been quite, quite private about their relationship, we do know a bit about its start: she impressed the brothers when she auditioned for their first film. While they were filming it, McDormand asked Joel for book recs, and he brought her a box, including the very steamy The Postman Always Rings Twice. Later, McDormand asked Joel over to discuss it.
George and Amal Clooney
Amal Alamuddin was traveling with a friend in Italy when said friend made a pit stop...at George Clooney's house. Yes, Clooney's future wife came to his house by happenstance, with Clooney later noting, "I got a call from my agent who called me and said, 'I met this woman who's coming to your house who you're gonna marry.'" The two had their first date in London later that year (in 2013).
Liam Neeson and Helen Mirren
Liam Neeson and Helen Mirren met on the set of Excalibur. He and pal Ciarán Hinds were given the chance to meet her, and when she walked up to them (in full costume as the striking Morgana le Fay), both actors were totally smitten with her. Neeson and Mirren dated for four years!
Alison Brie and Dave Franco
In one of the more delightfully random meet-cute stories ever, Alison Brie and Dave Franco met and had a riotously good time over 48 hours in New Orleans thanks to a mutual friend. Brie later recounted, "My friend texts me under the table and was like, 'You should hook up with Dave'… and I responded with, 'Yes, please' with a lot of thumbs up emojis. A very enthusiastic response." Then they just kept things going!
Wanda and Alex Sykes
It's a match made in home decor heaven! In 2006, en route to New York's Fire Island, Wanda Sykes spotted a woman she felt drawn to on the same ferry. Later, Sykes mentioned she wanted to remodel her kitchen—and was immediately introduced to Alex, the woman, who sold granite counter tops.
Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest
It's called manifesting, look it up! Jamie Lee Curtis literally saw Christopher Guest's photo in Rolling Stone. She instantly told her pal Debra Hill, "I'm gonna marry that guy." Hill, a fantastic friend, told Curtis that Guest was repped by the same agency as her and called her agent to get Guest's phone number.
David and Victoria Beckham
Even though they grew up mere minutes from each other, David Beckham and Victoria Adams actually met at a Manchester City game, wherein he was a player and she was a very famous Spice Girl. They waved shyly at each other across the room but didn't speak, then she turned up at another game a week later so they could talk.
Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban
Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban met at the G'Day USA gala in 2005. Kidman was instantly star-struck, but later told Ellen Degeneres, "I had such a crush on him and he wasn't interested in me. It's true!...He didn't call me for four months." Urban countered by later saying that he himself was intimidated too: "I felt like I was meeting a real-life princess" when they first met.
Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance
Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance were both students at the Yale School of Drama in the 1980s...and Vance had a girlfriend. Fast forward to the 1990s, and the two met up—both single. After a tepid first date and an awesome second one, their first kiss sealed the deal.
Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams
It's true in fiction and in life: an enemies-to-lovers trajectory makes for a compelling story! On the set of The Notebook, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams did not get along and even reportedly fought on set. Then, two years after filming wrapped, the two ended up dating until 2007.
Stanley Tucci and Felicity Blunt
Technically, the premiere of The Devil Wears Prada was where Stanley Tucci (attending with then-wife Kate) met Felicity Blunt (Emily Blunt's sister). Kate would tragically pass away in 2009 of breast cancer; Tucci and Felicity reconnected at Emily and John Krasinski's wedding in 2010. For obvious reasons, they started slowly, but then fell in love.
Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift
It's a meet-cute worthy of a football star and an iconic musician! Travis Kelce attended a Taylor Swift show in 2023, hoping to give her a friendship bracelet with his phone number. They didn't meet up, but he kept trying to get her attention—and it totally paid off when she eventually contacted him.
Carey Mulligan and Marcus Mumford
Actor Carey Mulligan and musician Marcus Mumford actually met...at a Christian youth summer camp! When they were kids! And then they became pen pals who wrote and faxed each other for years. They eventually lost touch but then reconnected on Facebook—it's just unbearably cute.
Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian
Technically, Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian met at a May 2015 breakfast in Rome (Williams made the first move, encouraging Ohanian to sit with them and inviting him to a tennis match). The two had their first date in Paris—swoon—and Ohanian started publicly supporting her on social media not long after (and continued to be very enthusiastic about his tennis playing girlfriend and wife).
Michael and Shakira Caine
Michael Caine saw a model in a Maxwell House TV commercial, fell in love on the spot, and decided he needed to find her. A friend found out her number, and (with a little convincing) she said yes to a date. "She was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen," he told People.
Emily Blunt and John Krasinski
The couple has adorably differed about the exact details of their first date (each saying they asked the other out) but what they do agree on is that they were each having dinner at an L.A. restaurant when they spotted each other. "[John] was sitting with our friend Justin Theroux, and he abandoned Justin and came over to us. He just stood there and made me laugh," Blunt said. Krasinski said he fell for her instantly.
David Bowie and Iman
Set up on a blind date, Iman and David Bowie had instant chemistry. Bowie later told OK! (reported by BET) that "my attraction to her was immediate and all-encompassing. I couldn’t sleep for the excitement of our first date. That she would be my wife, in my head, was a done deal. I’d never gone after anything…with such passion in all my life.”
Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons
Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons met on the second season of the show Fargo. Dunst described an "immediate soul connection." Despite the fact that things don't work out for the couple on the show, the IRL couple had a much easier time of it: after the season wrapped, they missed each other, and reached out to connect.
Raúl and Colman Domingo
In an absolutely adorable moment, Colman Domingo spotted Raúl in a Walgreens (way back in 2005) but didn't speak to him. A few days later, Colman took a chance and posted a "Missed Connections" ad on Craigslist...only to discover Raúl had posted one for him a couple hours earlier!
