TV has plenty of dating shows these days, from The Bachelor to Love Is Blind — but it turns out that scripted TV shows can be a real matchmaker, too.
Time and time again, actors who co-star on a TV show together have ended up getting romantically involved in real life, whether they’re playing on-screen love interests or even —oof —brother and sister. (Yep, we’ve got a few examples of that on this list.) Some of these were just temporary flames, but some burned long enough for the couples to make it all the way down the aisle and have children together, finding their own happy ending long after the cameras stopped rolling.
Because we’re ardent fans of romance here at TVLine, we’re digging into the archives to find more than 40 instances when TV co-stars dated off-screen, from Melrose Place to Game of Thrones and everything in between —and 20 of those couples actually got married, too. Now please note: This list is far from comprehensive, and focuses on primetime scripted TV shows from the past three decades or so.
But if we didn’t include one of your favorite real-life pairs who starred together on the small screen, don’t hesitate to hit the comments below to give ’em a shout-out!
Jennifer Garner and Michael Vartan, Alias
Garner was married to Felicity co-star Scott Foley —more on that later —when she debuted as spy Sydney Bristow on the ABC drama. But after she and Foley split, things heated up between Garner and Vartan, who played Sydney’s love interest Michael Vaughn. They quietly dated for more than a year before breaking up in 2004. They stayed close, though, Vartan later said: “Jennifer and I were best friends first, during [dating] and after.”
Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys, The Americans
The marriage between Soviet spies Elizabeth and Philip Jennings was often strained on FX’s Cold War drama, but it was smooth sailing for Russell and Rhys, who actually met at a kickball game ten years before the show debuted. They reconnected on the Americans set, and things soon got romantic, with the pair welcoming a son, Sam, in 2016.
Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Galecki, The Big Bang Theory
It’s science: There was a chemical attraction right away between these two actors, who played mismatched lovers Penny and Leonard on CBS’ mega-hit sitcom. “All the scenes up until we actually got together in real life, it was obvious there was always something there,” Cuoco now recalls. “There was chemistry, and we were crushing on each other.” They dated for two years before amicably parting ways, with Galecki saying that “we continue to love one another, just in other ways.”
Emily VanCamp and Dave Annable, Brothers & Sisters
Things were a bit messy between their characters Rebecca and Justin on the ABC primetime soap: They thought they were half-siblings at first, but after they discovered they weren’t, they got romantic (!), getting married in Season 4. It was a bit simpler off-screen, with VanCamp and Annable reportedly dating for several years while filming the series. After VanCamp left the cast, though, Annable’s character began dating a nurse played by Odette Yustman —and those two actors ended up marrying in 2010.
Alyson Hannigan and Alexis Denisof, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
It was “flirtation at first sight” when Hannigan and Denisof met on the set of The WB’s supernatural teen drama. (She co-starred as Willow, and he debuted as Wesley in Season 3.) They started off as friends, but things soon got romantic, with the two tying the knot in 2003. They are now the parents of two daughters: Satyana, born in 2009, and Keeva, born in 2012.
Sophia Bush and Jesse Lee Soffer, Chicago P.D.
Love bloomed in the #OneChicago universe when Bush and Soffer —who played fellow cops Erin Lindsay and Jay Halstead on the NBC procedural —dated on and off for two years after meeting on set. They went their separate ways in 2016, though, with Bush exiting the series a year later.
Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson, Dawson's Creek
Fans of the seminal WB hit were either #TeamPacey or #TeamDawson when it came to Joey’s romantic partner, but there was one clear choice behind the scenes. Holmes and Jackson actually dated for a year while filming the show, and they remained close after splitting up, with Holmes later saying: “I fell in love, I had my first love, and it was something so incredible and indescribable that I will treasure it always… I feel so fortunate because he’s now one of my best friends.”
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This one was always a little weird, since Hall and Carpenter played siblings on the bloody Showtime drama, with him starring as killer Dexter Morgan and her playing his sister Deb. But that didn’t stop them from striking up a romance off-screen, with the two getting married on New Year’s Eve 2009 in a private ceremony at Big Sur. They divorced less than two years later, but Carpenter later said that Hall “is and always will be one of my best friends in the world… Just because the marriage ended doesn’t mean the love isn’t still there.”
Trai Byers and Grace Gealey, Empire
These two were never a romantic pair on Fox’s music industry soap: In fact, his character Andre drugged her character Annika in the Season 4 finale, leading to Annika’s death! But thankfully, they found love off-screen, walking down the aisle in 2016 and welcoming a son in 2023.
Emily VanCamp and Chris Pratt, Everwood
Like the Dexter duo, VanCamp and Pratt felt romantic feelings stirring between them while playing brother and sister. (They played siblings Amy and Bright on The WB’s warmhearted family drama.) They reportedly dated from 2004 to 2007, but split up soon after the show ended its four-season run.
Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons, Fargo
Yes, they met while playing a married Minnesota couple on Season 2 of FX’s crime anthology, but Dunst and Plemons didn’t actually start dating until a year or so later. (It took some time for their love to thaw, we guess.) The couple got engaged in 2017 and welcomed two children before getting married in 2022. They work together well, too, with both snagging Oscar nominations for their roles in The Power of the Dog.
Ewan McGregor and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Fargo
These two first crossed paths while shooting Season 3 of Fargo, with him playing twins Ray and Emmit Stussy and her as ex-con Nikki Swango. They didn’t date right away —for one thing, they were both married to other people at the time —but they eventually went public with their love, welcoming a baby boy in 2021 and getting hitched a year later. They recently co-starred again, too, in the Showtime limited series A Gentleman in Moscow.
Keri Russell and Scott Speedman, Felicity
A lovestruck Felicity Porter followed her high school crush Ben Covington to New York in The WB’s heartfelt college drama — and off-screen, the spark was mutual. Russell and Speedman, who co-starred as Felicity and Ben, quietly dated for several years while filming the series, and though they’ve since moved onto other romantic partners, they remain close friends to this day.
Jennifer Garner and Scott Foley, Felicity
Garner was introduced in Felicity’s freshman season as Hannah, the semi ex-girlfriend of Foley’s computer geek Noel Crane. “We met on the show,” Foley later remembered, “and we hit it off instantly and were soon dating.” They got married in 2000, but split up three years later when Garner’s career skyrocketed as the star of ABC’s Alias. There’s no bad blood on Garner’s side, though: “He’s a really good guy, and we just imploded,” she explains.
Kit Harington and Rose Leslie, Game of Thrones
Jon Snow and Ygritte’s romance may have ended in tragedy on HBO’s fantasy hit —sob! — but Harington and Leslie’s real-life bond lives on. After Leslie joined the Thrones cast in Season 2 as wildling Ygritte, she and Harington discovered a spark. (“If you’re already attracted to someone, and then they play your love interest in the show, it becomes very easy to fall in love,” Harington later recalled.) They got married in 2018, with several Thrones co-stars in attendance, and are now the parents of two children.
Alexis Bledel and Milo Ventimiglia, Gilmore Girls
Bad boy Jess was one of Rory’s key love interests on The WB’s cozy mother-daughter dramedy, and Bledel and Ventimiglia clicked in real life, too, dating for four years before calling it quits in 2006. Years later, Ventimiglia was proud of his ex when she snagged an Emmy nomination for The Handmaid’s Tale: “I’m very happy for her. She’s always been a great actor.”
Lea Michele and Cory Monteith, Glee
The high school romance between Finn and Rachel on Fox’s musical hit spilled over into real life, too: Michele and Monteith dated for a year and a half while filming on the series. Their relationship ended in tragedy, though, when Monteith died of a drug overdose in 2013 at the age of 31. Michele marked the 10th anniversary of his death with an emotional Instagram post: “It feels like only yesterday that you were here and yet a million years ago all at the same time… We miss you every day and will never forget the light you brought to us all.”
Blake Lively and Penn Badgley, Gossip Girl
Spotted: these actors taking their romance off-camera, with Lively and Badgley dating for three years while co-starring as Serena and Dan on The CW’s glossy socialite saga. Serena and Dan eventually got married, but Lively and Badgley didn’t make it that far, splitting up in 2010, midway through the show’s run. “I don’t even know how they did it,” executive producer Joshua Safran later marveled. “They kept it from everybody, which is a testament to how good they are as actors.”
Ben McKenzie and Morena Baccarin, Gotham
Things got pretty dark on Fox’s Batman prequel, but McKenzie and Baccarin found love in a hopeless place, becoming an item while playing detective Jim Gordon and doctor Leslie Thompkins. (Baccarin actually guest-starred on McKenzie’s The O.C. years earlier, but they didn’t share any scenes.) McKenzie and Baccarin got married in 2017 and share two children, with Baccarin’s first pregnancy being written into Gotham as well.
David Giuntoli and Bitsie Tulloch, Grimm
Chasing mythological beasts on the NBC supernatural drama was apparently a recipe for romance. Giuntoli and Tulloch, who co-starred as Nick and Juliette, kept their dating secret for a while, but went public in 2014: “We were hiding it for a long time, but now everybody knows,” Tulloch said. They got engaged in 2016 and walked down the aisle a year later, welcoming a daughter, Vivian, in 2019.
Hayden Panettiere and Milo Ventimiglia, Heroes
While starring as cheerleader Claire and nurse Peter on NBC’s mutant drama, Panettiere and Ventimiglia dated for more than a year. Ventimiglia was blunt, though, when he was later asked what he learned from the relationship: “Never do it again,” adding that “you learn from it. You learn a better way of doing things.”
Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, High School Musical
These two launched a TV empire as teen lovebirds Troy and Gabriella in the 2006 Disney Channel movie musical, and sparks flew between them right away, Hudgens remembers: “We created a bond right from the start.” They reunited for two more High School Musical movies and dated for more than four years before splitting up in 2010. They’ve since moved on —Hudgens is now married to pro baseball player Cole Tucker, with the pair welcoming a baby in 2024 —but she still looks back fondly on their time as a couple: “We grew up together… It was nice to have someone to share all of those experiences with.”
Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer, House
Two of Dr. Gregory House’s staffers quickened each other’s pulses when the cameras stopped rolling, with Morrison and Spencer dating for years while playing Drs. Cameron and Chase on the Fox medical drama. They got engaged in 2006, with Spencer popping the question at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, but they broke it off the following year.
Rob McElhenney and Kaitlin Olson, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
He teases her mercilessly on the long-running FX bar comedy, where they play quarreling colleagues Mac and Dee. But these two found a love connection in real life after meeting on the set in 2006. (McElhenney wanted to keep it casual at first, but “it was no problem for me,” Olson remembers. “It was just like, ‘Oh, you don’t know, you have no idea that you are completely in love with me. That’s so cute!’”) They got married in 2008 and are now the parents of two sons, Axel and Leo.
Alexis Bledel and Vincent Kartheiser, Mad Men
Bledel and Kartheiser’s Mad Men characters Pete and Beth had a torrid suburban affair in Season 5 of the AMC drama, and it got hot off-screen, too. The two began dating and got married in 2014, with Bledel giving birth to a baby boy the following year. Sadly, it didn’t last, though: The pair divorced in 2022.
Jon Hamm and Anna Osceola, Mad Men
Even Mad Men fans might not remember Osceola’s small role in the series finale, playing the receptionist at a hippy-dippy spiritual retreat opposite Hamm’s ad man Don Draper. The two didn’t start dating in real life until years later, but love eventually bloomed, with them getting married in June 2023 in Big Sur, California —the same coastal setting as the spiritual retreat from the Mad Men finale.
Heather Locklear and Jack Wagner, Melrose Place
These two heated up the screen on Fox’s primetime sudser when he joined the cast as Dr. Peter Burns in Season 3. (She, of course, co-starred as bitchy boss Amanda Woodward.) It wasn’t until years later, though, that they heated things up in real life, first dating in 2007 and getting engaged in 2011. But they called off the wedding later that year, so they didn’t end up together like Amanda and Peter did.
Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson, The O.C.
Fans swooned over the unlikely sparks between adorkable Seth Cohen and cool girl Summer on the Fox teen drama, and the actors followed suit, dating for three years during the show’s run. They split up in 2006, with Bilson later dating Hayden Christensen and Brody marrying Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester. But the two old flames are still on good terms, with Bilson gushing in 2021: “I had so much, and still do, love and respect for Adam. We went through so much together… and I’m so happy for him with his family and his beautiful wife and kids and everything.”
Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas, Once Upon a Time
It’s a real-life fairy tale! The actors who played Snow White and Prince Charming on the ABC fantasy drama found love together off-screen as well after meeting on set in 2011. (“We didn’t fight it,” Dallas later said. “We went straight for it.”) They tied the knot in 2014 and now have two sons, Oliver and Hugo.
Sophia Bush and Chad Michael Murray, One Tree Hill
These two young actors had a whirlwind romance while playing on-again, off-again lovebirds Lucas and Brooke on the WB/CW teen drama, getting hitched in 2005. They separated just five months later, though, and it got ugly, with Bush filing for an annulment on the basis of fraud. (Murray later got engaged to Kenzie Dalton, who appeared as an extra on One Tree Hill that year.) But both have since moved on, and Bush now says the short-lived marriage is “not a place where I harbor ill will or anything.”
Chase Stokes and Madelyn Cline, Outer Banks
Love blossomed on screen and off for this young pair after they met playing Sarah and John B on the Netflix teen drama. The two went public with their romance before splitting in 2021 after a year of dating. But they kept it professional on set post-breakup, Stokes says: “We made a promise to each other before we even started dating that the work was always going to come first.”
Lauren Graham and Peter Krause, Parenthood
Here are two more TV siblings who found love when the cameras stopped rolling: Graham and Krause quietly dated for more than a decade while playing brother and sister Adam and Sarah Braverman on the NBC family drama. (They actually met way back in the ‘90s while shooting an episode of Caroline in the City.) They split up for good in 2022, with Graham reflecting: “We had such a good time together that I didn’t maybe ask some fundamental questions about ‘What are your values and what do you envision?’ and those more grown-up things. And then they just caught up with us.”
Emily VanCamp and Josh Bowman, Revenge
After a couple of false starts with previous co-stars —see above —VanCamp finally found lasting love with Bowman, who she met on the set of ABC’s soapy drama. Their characters Emily and Daniel had a romance that fizzled out, but VanCamp and Bowman remained strong even after the show ended, getting married in 2018 and later becoming the parents of two children.
Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart, Riverdale
Betty and Jughead may have been an unlikely couple on The CW’s teen drama, but the spark carried over into real life as well: Sprouse and Reinhart dated for more than two years before splitting up in 2020. They stayed on good terms, though, with Sprouse saying in an Instagram post: “I’ll always feel lucky and cherish that I had the chance to fall in love. I wish her nothing but the utmost love and happiness moving forward.”
Camila Mendes and Charles Melton, Riverdale
The CW’s teen drama proved to be fertile ground for cast hookups: Not only did Sprouse and Reinhart get together, but Mendes and Meltonalso dated on and off for three years while playing Veronica and Reggie on the series. The split was mutual, Mendes later said: “It ended very peacefully and ‘wish you all the best.’ But it still hurts, no matter what.”
Katherine Heigl and Jason Behr, Roswell
What is it about playing TV brother and sister that leads to romance? Heigl and Behr co-starred as alien siblings Isabel and Max, and they reportedly dated for most of the show’s three-season run that began on The WB and ended on UPN. There were even rumors of an engagement, but they split for good in 2002 —the same year the show wrapped up.
Dylan McDermott and Maggie Q, Stalker
A grim network procedural about a murderous stalker doesn’t sound like a great place to fall in love, but it worked for these two, who met while co-starring in the short-lived CBS drama. They got engaged in 2015, but they never made it down the aisle, breaking up for good in 2019.
Natalia Dyer and Charlie Heaton, Stranger Things
Another case of scripted love spilling over into the real world: Dyer and Heaton’s characters Nancy and Jonathan struck up an unlikely romance on Netflix’s sci-fi hit, and the two actors were drawn to each other in real life, too. (Co-creator Matt Duffer recalls at “that first audition, we did a chemistry read with [Charlie and] Natalia, and sparks were flying.”) They began quietly dating in 2017 and remain together to this day.
Melissa Benoist and Chris Wood, Supergirl
The pair who played Supergirl and Mon-El on the CW superhero series made a super pair off-screen, too. They got engaged in 2019 and walked down the aisle later that year, welcoming a son, Huxley, in 2020. And though Supergirl wrapped up in 2021, Benoist and Wood reunited to provide the voices of Teela and He-Man in Netflix’s Masters of the Universe: Revolution.
Jared Padalecki and Genevieve Padalecki, Supernatural
These two met on the set of The CW’s long-running demon hunter drama, where he starred as Sam Winchester. She guest-starred as Ruby in a Season 4 episode, and the rest is history: The pair got married in 2010, later welcoming three children together. The two of them reunited on screen in 2021 when she guest-starred on his CW drama Walker.
Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, That ‘70s Show
They were just kids hanging out (down the street) when they first met playing Kelso and Jackie on the set of Fox’s retro sitcom. Kutcher even gave a teenaged Kunis her first kiss when their characters locked lips on-screen, she remembers: “I was so nervous and uncomfortable. I had the biggest crush on him.” But they didn’t start dating until years after the show ended, eventually getting hitched in 2015 and welcoming two children.
Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer, True Blood
While playing lovers Sookie and Bill on HBO’s vampire drama, Paquin and Moyer sunk their teeth into a real romance, too. (“We met screen-testing for the show,”Moyer remembers. “We were both single at the time, and there was just this kind of spark.”) They got married in 2010 and welcomed twins Charlie and Poppy two years later.
Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder, The Vampire Diaries
In real life, Dobrev was #TeamDamon all the way: She and Somerhalder quietly dated for three years after they met on the set of The CW’s steamy vampire soap, where they starred as Elena and Damon. They broke up in 2013, while the show was still airing, but they stayed on good terms, Dobrev says: “We didn’t break up because anything bad happened or because there wasn’t love or friendship… We were friends long before we dated, and we still are now.”
Meghann Fahy and Leo Woodall, The White Lotus
These two were paired up with different people on Season 2 of HBO’s luxury vacation dramedy —she played rich wife Daphne, and he played young charmer Jack — but they ended up together afterwards. Fahy and Woodall were coy about their relationship at first, with Fahy telling Andy Cohen, “I don’t kiss and tell.” But she finally confirmed the pairing with an Instagram post in February 2024.
Ryan Bingham and Hassie Harrison, Yellowstone
When Harrison joined the cast of Paramount Network’s hit drama in Season 3, her character Laramie became a love interest for Bingham’s ranch hand Walker —and Harrison became a love interest for Bingham, too. The pair went Instagram official in 2023 and got married later that year in an “elegant Western”-themed wedding with a “cowboy black tie” dress code. (Of course.)
