Celebrity Celebrity Relationships Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan's Relationship Timeline Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan have been together since 2007 and share two children By Sydni Ellis Sydni Ellis Contributor, PEOPLE People Editorial Guidelines Updated on March 2, 2023 08:01AM EST Close Photo: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan are partners in more ways than one. The Little Miss Sunshine actor and the Big Sick actress met while working on an Off-Broadway play in 2007 and began dating shortly after. In the years since, the couple have gone on to welcome two children and collaborate on various film projects together, including Ruby Sparks, which Kazan wrote, and Wildlife, which the pair co-wrote together. While it can be difficult to balance their personal relationship with their professional one, all with two children at home, the couple have been candid about how they make it work. "Luckily we get along," Dano told Vulture during a 2018 interview. "It is sometimes hard when our work becomes such a big part of our lives. At the dinner table, in bed ... if it filters in almost too much at some point you might have check that because when the [project] is done you're like 'Ok what are we going to talk about now?' We have to keep that in mind and still give us some time away from our work." Kazan has an active Twitter presence (@zoeinthecities) and she often uses her platform to raise awareness for women's rights and other political issues. While the actress and screenwriter occasionally shares tidbits about Dano, referring to him as "PD," the couple generally keeps their relationship private. "I'm always shocked when I find out that she's [tweeted about me]," Dano told Flood Magazine of Kazan's tweets. "I know that happens, but I think it happens more than I know. I'm sort of jealous. I love how active Zoe is socially and politically — that's got great value." From co-writing a film together to raising a family, here's everything you need to know about Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan's relationship. Early 2007: Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan meet on Broadway Walter McBride/WireImage Dano and Kazan met for the first time during a rehearsal for the Ethan Hawke-directed play Things We Want, which debuted Off-Broadway on Nov. 7, 2007. While speaking with W Magazine in 2012, Kazan shared that she and Dano had their first kiss on stage, however, she noted that it was "totally different" from their first kiss in real life. "Kissing in a movie or a play doesn't feel real – there's a remove," she told the outlet. "Even when Paul and I met five years ago, we were doing a play together and falling in love and we kissed on stage before we had ever kissed in real life. When we did kiss in real life, it felt totally different." November 7, 2007: Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan take their first picture together Jim Spellman/WireImage While attending the opening night afterparty for Things We Want at Metro Marche in New York City, Dano and Kazan took their first picture together. The pair posed for the camera as their director (Hawke) stood in between them with his arms around their shoulders. January 24, 2008: Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan attend Come Back, Little Sheba afterparty Bennett Raglin/WireImage The newly minted couple walked the red carpet at the Come Back, Little Sheba afterparty at Planet Hollywood in N.Y.C. on Jan. 24, 2008. Kazan wore a short maroon dress, while Dano wore an unbuttoned black tux. The outing marked one of their first red carpet appearances as a couple. April 8, 2011: Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan star in their first film together Dano and Kazan shared the big screen together for the first time in director Kelly Reichardt's Meek Cutoff, a Western drama in which they played a married couple who traveled the Oregon Trail in 1845. July 25, 2012: Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan star in Ruby Sparks Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic The couple showed off their real-life chemistry again in the rom-com Ruby Sparks, which Kazan wrote. The film is about a struggling novelist (Dano) who creates the perfect female character (Kazan) and then wills her into existence. In a July 2012 interview with W Magazine, Kazan said she was inspired by her relationship with Dano while writing the screenplay. "Very early on, I showed Paul a couple pages of the script and he asked if I was writing the storyline for us," she said. "When he said that, it seemed like that was exactly what I was doing. But then I tried to put it out of my head as much as I could, because when actors try to write for themselves or the people they know, vanity can come in. The, 'Oh, I want to make me look good.' " Speaking to The New York Times about the project, Dano said, "For me, the best thing that Zoe did was not write a film about our relationship or write us as characters ... Calvin and Ruby are Calvin and Ruby, they're not Paul and Zoe." He added, "Luckily, when I watch the film, I'm not thinking about us." January 18, 2014: Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan attend the SAG Awards Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic Dano and Kazan attended the 20th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. At the event, Dano won an award for best cast in a motion picture for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), which also starred Michael Keaton, Emma Stone and Edward Norton, among others. May 20, 2015: Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan attend the Cannes Film Festival Clemens Bilan/Getty The following year, the pair attended the premiere of Dano's film Youth at the 68th Annual Cannes Film Festival in France. Dano wore a black tux to the event, while Kazan stunned in a baby blue two-piece gown. January 10, 2016: Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan attend the Golden Globe Awards George Pimentel/WireImage Dano and Kazan dressed to the nines for the 73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 10, 2016, with Dano in a navy blue tux and Kazan in a striped floor-length gown. The couple posed for pictures together on the red carpet, which was held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in L.A. Continuing to make the 2016 awards season rounds, the couple attended the Vanity Fair Oscar Party together the following month. October 19, 2018: Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan write Wildlife together Tibrina Hobson/Getty Together, the couple co-wrote the script for Wildlife, a drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Carey Mulligan. The project also marked Dano's directorial debut. While speaking with Flood Magazine about the writing process, Dano shared that he and Kazan passed the script back and forth in edit mode for years. "I probably felt debilitated," Dano added about Kazan "tearing apart" his writing. "It was my first time trying to write. I definitely needed the help, though. I mean, I was asking for it," he explained. October 25, 2018: Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan confirm they welcomed their first baby During an October 2018 appearance on The Tonight Show, Dano confirmed that he and Kazan had welcomed their first child together, a daughter, eight weeks prior. "I'm so tired and I'm so in love," Dano told host Jimmy Fallon about becoming a father. "It's so extreme. Your heart has gone supernova in one sense." He added, "And then we landed from London last week and she cried for like 24 straight hours and you kind of just want to talk through a wall." The couple have yet to publicly share their daughter's name. November 14, 2018: Zoe Kazan says parenthood with Paul Dano is "overwhelming" In an interview with the Evening Standard, Kazan opened up about becoming a first-time parent. "It's a really weird time ... altogether it's a little overwhelming," she told the outlet. "Everything looks different on the other side of having a child." She continued, "It's terrifying. We are trying to learn a lot about this person and what they need, and how to do the really simple things that seasoned parents know how to do." April 29, 2019: Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan speak onstage at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's 50th Anniversary Gala Jim Spellman/WireImage The couple were some of the many speakers at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's 50th Anniversary Gala on April 29, 2019, where they spoke on stage at Alice Tully Hall in N.Y.C. September 22, 2019: Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan attend the 71st Emmy Awards Steve Granitz/WireImage Dano was nominated for outstanding supporting actor for his role as David Sweat in Ben Stiller's Escape at Dannemora at the 71st Emmy Awards on Sept. 22, 2019. He attended the event with Kazan, which took place at Microsoft Theater in L.A. January 6, 2020: Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan share their "immense" appreciation for their nannies Kazan has been open about the importance of childcare throughout the years. On Jan. 6, 2020, she took a moment to thank her childcare providers on Twitter, writing, "i mean this with respect: i wish more people who won awards on TV would thank their nannies, babysitters & other childcare providers." "Paul and i have only been parents for a year & four months and we have employed at least a dozen women over three continents in that time, all of whom have made it possible for us to do our jobs; this is not to mention our family & friends who have pitched in," she continued. "The debt is immense." April 20, 2020: Zoe Kazan says acting with her 6-month-old baby at home is "complicated" When Kazan started filming the HBO show The Plot Against America, where she starred as a mother named Bess, she had only recently become a mother herself. "My baby was about six months old when I started filming," she told WHYY's Fresh Air. "It [was] really complicated for me, because my body had sort of become totally at the behest of my child. I was breastfeeding and waking up at all hours for her. My love was totally funneled toward this new person, and my experience of my body was really different than it had been before. And your body is your tool as an actor, and so that felt really complicated to me. I felt like I didn't really know how I would begin to separate out my parts again and be able to use my body and myself to act." July 14, 2020: Zoe Kazan discusses parenting during the COVID-19 pandemic In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kazan opened up about the challenges of balancing motherhood with her career on Twitter. "I don't feel like I have much to say here right now but I do want to reach my arms out to every parent with small kids trying to work from home in these last months. If hugging were allowed, I'd hug you all," the actress and screenwriter wrote. "The way I RUN TO MY DESK as soon as she's napping, the way I have to gasp sometimes because I'm trying to write so fast I forget to breathe." She also noted how thankful she was for her health and for Dano's support, adding, "I'm so lucky to have my work and to have my child and to have my health and to have my partner, and for one million other reasons. But the reality of trying to do two things at once ... all the time ... I think about you all out there, doing your impossible juggle, and I send love." March 1, 2022: Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan attend The Batman world premiere Arturo Holmes/FilmMagic The couple attended the world premiere of The Batman in N.Y.C. at the Lincoln Center on March 1, 2022. Dano starred in the blockbuster film as the Riddler opposite Robert Pattinson's Batman. March 2, 2022: Paul Dano opens up about life with Zoe Kazan and their daughter In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Dano said that he and Kazan live a quiet life with their daughter in Brooklyn, New York. The actor also shared what their family life looked like during the pandemic, when they lived in California near Kazan's parents — screenwriters Nicholas Kazan and Robin Swicord. "The first part of the pandemic was one of the only times where work didn't seem to be a part of my life," Dano told the publication. "That period of time was about my family and maintaining sanity." He added, "I would take a few hours in the morning to myself, Zoe in the afternoon. We shared all meal times, but we each needed a point of the day where we weren't playing 2-year-old games." November 14, 2022: Zoe Kazan confirms she welcomed her second child with Paul Dano During a November 2022 appearance on Today to discuss her new film She Said, Kazan confirmed that she and Dano had welcomed their second child "three weeks ago." The month prior, Kazan put her baby bump on full display when she and Dano walked the red carpet together at the film's premiere during the 60th New York Film Festival. January 16, 2023: Zoe Kazan and Paul Dano attend the Critics Choice Awards Kazan and Dano stepped out for the 28th Critics Choice Awards 2023, one of their biggest outings since becoming a family of four. The Big Sick actress shared a photo of the couple on her Instagram Story, reposting the picture from stylist Leith Clark, who captioned the photo with, "Mom and dad are so damn cute." February 26, 2023: Zoe Kazan and Paul Dano attend the SAG Awards Kazan and Dano walked the red carpet together at the 29th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles. The Batman star looked chic in an all-white ensemble by Dior, while Kazan stunned in a black gown with feather embellishments.