Alison Brie and Dave Franco’s Relationship Timeline

Alison Brie and husband Dave Franco are more than just life partners: They’re also co-workers who have taken Hollywood by storm. The 21 Jump Street star and Happiest Season actress first met in 2011 at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and their chemistry was so strong that they started seeing one another shortly after. Four years later, Dave asked the ultimate question, and the two tied the knot in an intimate ceremony in March of 2017.

During their marriage, Alison and Dave have managed to seamlessly blend their personal and professional lives. They’ve maintained a healthy relationship for over a decade while taking their career to new heights by working together on four hit movies. In 2017, the talented pair acted alongside one another in The Little Hours and The Disaster Artist. They collaborated on The Rental in 2020 and Somebody I Used to Know in 2023, with Dave as the director and Alison as an actress. “I think it's just really fun to come into our own confidence at the same time and in these different ways of working, and that fuels each other,” Alison said about working together. “And it's a new way for us to connect with each other as well."

Despite their fame, the couple manages to keep their relationship largely under wraps. While Alison sometimes mentions her husband in press interviews, Dave prefers to maintain his privacy. From their off-screen romance to their on-screen projects, here’s a complete timeline of their relationship.

• Dave and Alison met at Mardi Gras in New Orleans in 2011.
• After a beach proposal in Big Sur, California, in August of 2015, the couple got married during a private wedding ceremony in March of 2017.
• Throughout their marriage, the couple has worked on four movies together, and their latest one, Somebody I Used to Know, premiered on February 10, 2023.

March 2011: A Mardi Gras Meeting

While Dave and Alison were celebrating Mardi Gras in New Orleans in 2011, a mutual friend introduced the two of them, and they immediately hit it off. While appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2020, Alison described the first time she met Dave. “I was there with some friends,” she recalled. “It was some incredible matchmaking done by my friend Jules after we ran into Dave at the airport.” Sure enough, her friend invited Dave to join them for dinner that night. “He was sitting next to her across the table, and 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.” The rest was history.

Summer 2011: A Surprise Party Gone Wrong

After dating for about three months, the Glow actress threw her boyfriend a surprise birthday party. In 2018, Dave reflected on the celebration during an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “If you know me, you know I’m a pretty private person, and I don’t like to be the center of attention, and so I freaked out,” he shared. To calm his nerves, he ate a weed cookie, but it ended up backfiring and contributed to his first panic attack. After that, Alison asked the guests to leave. “Alison and I still talk about how if we can survive my surprise party, we can survive anything,” he joked.

April 2012: Falling in Love

Once the acting duo hit the one-year mark, Alison knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with Dave. “There was a semi-immediate click,” she told Metro. “Probably about a year into our relationship, I was like, ‘Oh wow, this thing I thought I maybe never would do, I could definitely see myself doing it with you.’”

August 25, 2015: An Engagement Announcement

Four years after they met, Dave and Alison got engaged in Big Sur, California. E! News was the first to share the announcement, and People later confirmed the happy news. While later speaking with Larry King, Alison revealed that she didn’t see the proposal coming. “I was so shocked that I actually burst out laughing, and I asked him a number of times if he was being serious before saying yes," she admitted. 

Part of the reason why Alison didn’t believe the proposal was because Dave had on the same silver mask his girlfriend had worn during Mardi Gras when they first met, and he was holding up a placeholder ring since he knew Alison wanted to pick out her own. The actor explained the situation on an episode of The Late Late Show with James Corden. “The entire proposal is her saying, ‘What is happening right now?’ And it’s me trying to explain how sweet it is that I kept the mask for five years,” he summarized.

September 10, 2015: Expressing Her Feelings

A few weeks after they got engaged, Alison opened up to People about Dave. “I have an incredible fiancé,” she gushed. “He’s so wonderful. He’s just the sweetest man I know, and he’s so funny and incredible in every way.”

March 16, 2016: Alison's Thoughts on Marriage

In an interview for a New York Post feature, the multi-hyphenate admitted that she never imagined getting married because she was devoted to her career. However, all of that changed once she met Dave. “I was just like, 'Well, that's not my life path because I'm choosing this crazy lifestyle,’” she recalled. “And then, you know, I fell in love. So, blah, blah, blah, amazing. Acting is fulfilling, but it's also not the only thing.”

March 2017: A Private Ceremony

In March of 2017, People confirmed that the couple tied the knot in an intimate wedding ceremony. While appearing on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Alison shared her favorite part about her special day. “Probably our wedding vows because we wrote our own and didn’t know what the other person was going to say,” she recalled. “It’s funny to hear them out loud, and you feel like, ‘We said all the same things that we want to be for each other.’ That was very sweet.”

June 30, 2017: Their First Stint as Co-Stars

Dave and Alison acted in their first movie together, the romantic comedy The Little Hours. “It was so wonderful to work together—so easy, so wonderful to work with someone that you’re getting married to,” the actress later shared with the Hollywood Reporter. 

November 13, 2017: What Marriage Is Like

Even though Alison never envisioned herself settling down, she said her married life with Dave has been empowering. “Something about being married made me feel so settled, almost more free, I guess, rather than trapped,” she told People. “It's great, so now, let's go do whatever we want. Onward and upward.”

December 8, 2017: Their Second Film Together

Less than six months after they starred in The Little Hours together, the couple appeared in The Disaster Artist. Once again, collaborating with her husband was a worthwhile experience. “It's so nice to work with your person, to be on set with someone who is the person you feel the most comfortable with in the world,” she told HelloGiggles. "It's a really great feeling, especially to be intimate with them on set or to have romantic or kissing scenes with that person. It's delightfully easy. He just makes a great point, and he and I talk about this all the time. We do really love working with each other."

June 24, 2018: Keeping Their Family Small

The actress opened up to The Sunday Times about the pair’s decision not to have children anytime soon, especially since they’re already parents to their cats, Harry and Arturo, and due to their busy schedules. “It would be nice, but I think of all the things that would be so stressful,” she said. “I think about how much we're involved in our cats' lives. Oh my God, if it was a child!”

June 18, 2020: Another Movie in the Books

For their third film together, The Rental, the couple co-wrote the horror movie as a team. Instead of acting alongside one another, Dave took on the role as director while Alison played the lead, Michelle. Since this was Dave’s first time directing, he admitted that he doubted himself at times, but Alison helped instill confidence in him. “To be able to go home to her every night and have someone who would build me up and remind me that things were going well and that I was doing a good job—it was invaluable, and I honestly don't think I could have done this without her,” he told Moviemaker Magazine.

For Alison, seeing Dave direct the film was a huge source of pride. “I enjoyed watching him work with everybody and seeing the crew fall in love with him because he was so collaborative and so passionate,” she expressed to People. “His enthusiasm on set is infectious, and it made me fall in love with him all over again.”

April 21, 2021: A Deeper Connection

Since Dave and Alison quarantined together during the pandemic, they say the solo time they spent together brought them closer. “Dave and I went through the first couple months in party mode, thinking we're on vacation,” she explained to People. “Let's drink wine. Let's make a lot of pasta. And then we’re like, it's going on for longer, so let's go into culinary experimental mode where we're trying to make new dishes and things like that. And then we got into health mode, and then we also were in creative mode, and we were doing a lot of writing together. So, I mean, I think we feel closer than ever.”

August 30, 2021: More Professional Collaborations

In 2021, the duo announced their next motion picture, the romantic comedy Somebody I Used to Know. While quarantining together, the couple co-wrote the film. Like their last movie, Dave would lead the team as the director, and Alison would share her acting talent on screen. “Alison and I love romantic comedies and were inspired by the classics from the '80s and '90s,” Dave said in a statement.

April 12, 2022: The Key to Their Marriage

After five years of marriage, Alison revealed the secret to their thriving marriage on The Drew Barrymore Show. “The first one is respect,” she shared. “I think we respect each other, and we are so kind to each other. We really take care with the way we speak to one another on a daily basis, and it makes a big difference I think.” 

Another way they keep the spark alive? They continuously tell one another how they feel. “Every day since [we met], I’m like, “God, I’m in love with you,’” she said. “‘I love you too.’ There’s something nice about that.”

August 18, 2022: Looking to Dave as Motivation

Alison co-wrote the comedy Spin Me Round with director Jeff Baena, which she said wouldn’t have been possible without inspiration from her husband, according to People. After seeing Dave come to life screenwriting, Alison explained that she wanted to try it for herself. “I think that was the impetus for any writing on my part—was watching Dave write The Rental with Joe Swanberg and seeing his excitement as he was trying out this new endeavor every day,” she said.

February 2, 2023: Her Husband’s Biggest Fan

Once again, Alison opened up about falling more deeply in love with Dave while watching him direct Somebody I Used to Know. “I've always known that he is an incredibly kind, genuine, curious person, but seeing him in action as a director and the way that he collaborates with the crew, it makes me fall in love with him every time, all over again,” she told People. “I know it sounds so cheesy.”

February 10, 2023: Their Fourth Film Premieres

The couple’s latest initiative, Somebody I Used to Know, premiered on Amazon Prime Video on February 10, 2023. During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the two explained that they’re always looking for potential collaborations, so they can spend more time together. “As actors, we would sometimes spend months apart and have very little control over when and where we would be working on other jobs,” Alison admitted. “So we wanted to start making stuff together partially just to be around each other more.”