16 Times Ryan Coogler And Zinzi Evans' Love Left Us Swooning

Ryan loves Zinzi.

Gifted screenwriter and director Ryan Coogler has been married to his wife Zinzi Evans since 2016, and the two have been a favorite of everyone’s for some time. It makes sense. They work together on films, they support and uplift each other, and of course, they look damn good together, too. But what you may not know is that they go way back.

The pair met when they were teenagers, around 13 or 14, according to him. These days, the two are filmmakers in Tinseltown, with Evans helping him bring his box-office hit, Sinners, to life. But Coogler says movies have always been an important part of their relationship. Their first date was to see Bring It On at the theater in 2000. “That was our first time going out as kids and holding hands and sharing popcorn,” he told The Hollywood Reporter at the 2025 Met Gala.

The two officially started dating while they were at college at Saint Mary’s in California. She helped him hone his talents as a screenwriter during those days, as he recounted to Hot 97 in 2018, solidifying her belief in his gift.

“My wife, she was my girl at the time, [and] they had a software where you could write screenplays. I was trying to write in Microsoft Word. It’s impossible because your format gotta be right,” he said at the time. “I was broke, playing football on the little scholarship money. And my wife scrapped together some cheese and bought me Final Draft, which is the software that you write your movies on. And she got me that.”

Ever since then, he’s always consulted with her, bringing her along for every step of the ride as he became one of Hollywood’s biggest, bankable filmmakers.

“He would often invite me into the most inappropriate meetings and places,” she once told The Hollywood Reporter. “From being in all of his classes at school to being on sets to being in rooms when he’s making deals with studio heads.”

All these years later, they’ve created some great work, as she’s a producer on Creed III and Judas and the Black Messiah, which was an Academy Award-winning film in the Best Actor category for Daniel Kaluuya. They’ve also created some beautiful blessings in their two kids, with a third on the way. And the bond only gets stronger.

“Zinzi is my favorite person in the world,” Coogler once said. “I’ve been around her a long time, and it still somehow feels like it’s not long enough.”

Anybody else in awe of this type of Black love? If you are, check out photos of this beautiful pair over the years, from their first red carpets after Fruitvale Station to the Oscars and the Met Gala. It’s only up from here for these lovebirds!