Rashida Jones and Ezra Koenig have remained private about their longtime relationship and parenthood.
Though the couple have largely kept their romance under wraps since they reportedly began dating in 2016, they haven’t always shied away from public displays of affection.
At the Sundance Film Festival in 2017, the actress and Vampire Weekend lead singer were reportedly “very comfortable together.” An onlooker told, “ She was calling him ‘baby,’ and after her interview at the studio, she walked up to him and was hugging him.”
The two became first-time parents in 2018 when they welcomed a son named Isaiah. Before their relationship blossomed, Jones spoke to The Guardian in 2014 about her monthly advice column for Jezebel and she opened up about relationships.
“I’m totally obsessed with relationships, female friendships, romantic relationships, all of it. It just fascinates me, thinking about what works, what doesn’t,” she said.
As for not being married and having kids, Jones was “happy” with her circumstances at the time. “It’s taken me a long time to get to a place where I actually am OK with that,” she added.
So who is Rashida Jones’ boyfriend? Here’s everything to know about Ezra Koenig and his relationship with the Parks and Recreation star.
He is from New York City
Koenig is a New York native, and the city has significantly impacted his life and music career.
“New York kind of feels like the country that my family originates from,” Koenig told Variety in 2019. “There’s something about the Upper West Side, in particular, that’s like the capital of that country — a place of origin where I feel like I understand the history and the archetypes pretty well.”
After his birth, on April 8, 1984, Ezra’s parents moved their family to Glen Ridge, New Jersey, where he grew up, according to Rolling Stone.
Upon finishing high school in the suburbs, Koenig returned to New York City and attended Columbia University; he graduated in 2006, per Columbia College Today.
He is the lead vocalist and guitarist of Vampire Weekend
The same year he graduated, Koenig formed the Grammy Award-winning indie rock band Vampire Weekend with three friends he met at Columbia University.
Speaking in 2008, he revealed he came up with the name from a movie he was creating inspired by The Lost Boys. Koenig also discussed how the band was initially received.
“Our first six months, we mostly played campus events and parties. It was hard to tell [if people liked us just] because they were our friends,” he said.
Despite this, their popularity grew far beyond Columbia University. Several years later, Vampire Weekend earned best alternative music album at the Grammys two different times: Modern Vampires of the City in 2014 and Father of the Bride in 2019. The group was also up for two other nominations.
Koenig has worked on the soundtracks and scores of several films as well, including I Love You, Man (2009), Boyhood (2014), Paper Towns (2015), Peter Rabbit (2018), Booksmart (2019) and Champions (2023).
He used to be a public school teacher
After graduating from Columbia University, Koenig joined the Teach For America program and secured an eighth-grade English teacher position at Junior High School 258 in Brooklyn.
“It was a pretty hectic lifestyle,” Koenig told MTV in 2008. “I mean, [being a full-time musician] is a hectic lifestyle too, but to teach all day, then go record or try to, you know, play a show, and then wake up and go to work again was pretty difficult.”
Koenig left teaching in 2007 after Vampire Weekend signed a record deal with XL Recordings.
He and Jones have a son together
On Aug. 22, 2018, Jones and Koenig welcomed a son, Isaiah, in Los Angeles.
Jones described the time in their lives as “very emotionally intense,” as the birth of Isaiah came just eight months before the death of her mother and actress, Peggy Lipton.
“The thing that’s the craziest about birth and death is just the utter rawness of feeling,” Jones told NPR in 2021. “It’s very binary, both things — becoming a mother and losing my mother — like, there’s my life before, and there’s my life after. And strangely, there’s something that’s not recognizable before those two things happened.”
Jones has appeared as a guest on his radio show
Koenig hosts an online talk radio show called Time Crisis, which began airing in 2015 on Apple Music’s radio service Beats 1. According to the show’s description, Time Crisis covers various topics, from politics to pop culture headlines, with episodes ranging from serious to not-so-serious discussions.
Jones was one of the show’s first guests in 2015, and she has occasionally appeared throughout the years.
He and Jones are involved in politics
Koenig publicly supported Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign in both 2016 and 2020, with appearances and performances at multiple rallies throughout his candidacy.
Jones is also similarly involved in politics and has publicly campaigned for Democratic Party candidates in multiple elections, dating back to 2004. She is known to be outspoken regarding her political convictions and defended her stances in a 2016 speech given at her alma mater, Harvard University.
“People tend to think it’s annoying for celebrities to be vocal about politics, but I don’t care,” she said. “ There’s too much to fight for. The equality and respect that people before us have fought for and the laws put in place to protect these things are at risk of slipping away.”
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