Many celebrities have found love on set with their costars, particularly when being a couple is part of the script.
However, what happens when the storyline calls for a more familial pairing? Well, for some actors, starring as on-screen siblings didn’t stand in the way of their budding romance and relationships off-screen.
Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter dated, got married and ultimately divorced during the eight-season run of the Showtime series Dexter, where Hall played the titular serial killer opposite Carpenter in the role of his adoptive sister, Debra Morgan.
“We had a great base for our relationship,” Carpenter told On Demand Entertainment in April 2009, months after PEOPLE confirmed the pair eloped on New Year’s Eve 2008. “We see each other on a day-to-day basis. I know him; he knows me.”
Meanwhile, other stars such as Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson were already an item off-screen before being cast as brother and sister Sam and Suzy Baldwin in Sleepless in Seattle. By the time the romantic comedy hit theaters in 1993, the long-term couple had been married for five years.
See more celebrity actors who dated or tied the knot in real life, despite playing relatives in films and on TV.
Jennifer Aniston and Charlie Schlatter
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection
Before landing her breakout role as Rachel Green on Friends, Jennifer Aniston appeared in one of her earliest TV gigs as Jeannie Beuller on NBC’s short-lived sitcom Ferris Beuller (inspired by the hit 1986 film Ferris Beuller’s Day Off).
On set, she met her on-screen brother, Charlie Schlatter — who played the titular character — and the two briefly dated off-screen.
Drew Barrymore and David Arquette
S. Granitz/WireImage
Drew Barrymore has brushed off rumors of ever dating her Never Been Kissed costar David Arquette, but he remembers things differently.
On a season 11 episode of Watch What Happens Live in July 2014, Arquette said he and Barrymore — who played siblings Josie and Rob Geller in the 1999 rom-com — dated when they were “very young kids.”
Arquette told WWHL host Andy Cohen that Barrymore is “one of the sweetest, kindest people in Hollywood,” adding, “She always has been, and she always will be. She’s just a lovely, sweet person. We used to run around and just be silly.”
In 2018, he said on PeopleTV’s Couch Surfing that there really was some off-screen chemistry.
“We also dated,” he said. “But she denied it on Howard Stern. But we dated, Drew! Not during [Never Been Kissed], way before, when we were younger.”
Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower
Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower (Credit: Dave Benett/Getty)
Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower sparked romance rumors while filming 2013’s The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, where they played Clary Fray and Jace Wayland, two love interests who (spoiler alert!) discover they’re siblings by the end of the movie.
The pair reportedly broke up the same year the film was released; however, by 2015, they seemed to have rekindled their relationship. Collins posted a series of PDA photos — including one of them kissing — on Instagram, hinting that they were back together.
However, by 2018, the couple had split for good.
Chris Pratt and Emily VanCamp
John Shearer/WireImage
From 2004 to 2007, Chris Pratt dated his Everwood costar, Emily VanCamp, after the pair met on set and played siblings Bright and Amy Abbott on the Emmy-nominated series.
“We thought it was weird for [the first] six months, but it had more to do with just trying to hide our relationship from the set,” Pratt told TV Guide in August 2006.
He added, “Yeah, we’ve pretty much gotten used to the response of, ‘Ew, that’s weird. That’s creepy. … The people who know us are happy and probably expected it to happen eventually. But yeah, every once in a while, we get that one person that’s like, ‘That’s really creepy. You just kissed your sister.’ ”
Emily VanCamp and Dave Annable
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty
VanCamp moved on from one on-screen sibling to another: In 2007, after her split from Pratt, she briefly dated her former Brothers & Sisters costar Dave Annable, who played her character Rebecca’s half-brother Justin.
Executive producer Greg Berlanti told Entertainment Weekly in April 2008 that the pair’s chemistry was so strong that producers ultimately rewrote the show’s plot so they were no longer related.
“They had this electricity. There was nothing I could do,” Berlanti said.
VanCamp added, “I’m all for breaking boundaries, but we didn’t need to get into incest.”
Blake Lively and Penn Badgley
Jamie McCarthy/WireImage
Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley) and Serena van der Woodsen’s (Blake Lively) chemistry on the hit CW series Gossip Girl was palpable, even after their characters discovered they were step-siblings.
The romantic sparks transcended the boundaries of the screen, with the pair dating in real life from 2007 to 2010.
“At the time, I was wearing the same clothes and doing fashion shoots, and dating the same person that my character was dating — or sometimes that person [Dan] was my brother, you never know with Serena — and because of that, what people were projecting onto me was that I was Serena,” Lively told Vanity Fair in August 2017.
The actress continued, “We look the same, and we acted the same as far as they could tell, because I wasn’t doing anything but that show. If [Penn and I] were photographed walking down the street, they didn’t know if it was a paparazzi shot or if it was a shot from the show.”
Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter
Frazer Harrison/Getty
As siblings who worked for the Miami Metro Police Department, Hall and Carpenter’s characters on Dexter loved each other to death — literally.
Off-screen, their relationship began in 2007. They made their red carpet debut as a married couple at the 2009 Golden Globes after eloping on Dec. 31, 2008. Two years later, Hall and Carpenter filed for divorce in 2010; however, the exes continued to star on the show together until the season 8 finale in 2013.
“He 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,” Carpenter told E! News in October 2011. “We take very good care of each other … we always have. I’m just really lucky.”
The pair later reunited on the 2021 revival Dexter: New Blood.
Lauren Graham and Peter Krause
Getty
Lauren Graham and Peter Krause initially met in 1995 on the set of Caroline in the City. However, they didn’t connect romantically until they costarred on NBC’s Parenthood as siblings Sarah and Adam Braverman from 2010 to 2015.
They were together for more than a decade before “quietly” ending their relationship in 2021, with Graham’s rep confirming the split to PEOPLE in June 2022.
“I’m in a better place, but it’s still just a shame. It’s just sad to me,” Graham told PEOPLE in November 2022. “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.”
Matthew Broderick and Jennifer Grey
Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty
Brother and sister Ferris (Matthew Broderick) and Jeanie Bueller (Jennifer Grey) may have despised each other in the 1986 comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off; however, the former costars began secretly dating off-screen in the ’80s.
“I learned so many things about myself from my relationship with Matthew,” Grey told PEOPLE before the release of her 2022 memoir Out of the Corner. “First of all, we were really young. We were in our mid-20s when we got together.”
The actress continued, “I was really in love with him. And I was with a guy who had just, whose star had just, it was, he was in such a high moment of his career … and he was just this genius, smart, funny, cute.”
After the film’s release, the pair took a vacation to Ireland together in 1987, where they were involved in a fatal car accident that killed two people. Broderick and Grey suffered injuries and split not long after.
“There was some very, very heavy stuff that went down that changed my life forever, and there was no one to blame,” Grey said, before adding, “It was a pure and simple accident that was tragic. And it had very serious, traumatic lasting effects on, I’m sure, Matthew and the family of the other women and me.”
Shannen Doherty and Jason Priestley
Ron Galella/Getty
Jason Priestley and Shannen Doherty famously played twins Brandon and Brenda Walsh on Beverly Hills, 90210.
Years after the long-running teen drama ended, Priestley admitted to Stern that he and Doherty had briefly dated during the show’s first season. In Jason Priestley: A Memoir, the actor wrote that “various combinations of people slept with each other over the years.”
During a 2025 episode of the I Choose Me with Jennie Garth podcast, Priestley revealed that he and Doherty spoke before she died at age 53 from breast cancer in July 2024.
“Whenever I had the chance to spend time with her, I made sure that I said all the things that I wanted to say to her,” he said of his former castmate. “So, when she did pass away, I feel like her and I had said everything that we needed to say to each other, which I think gave me some closure right away, which was good.”
Maureen McCormick and Barry Williams
Darlene Hammond/Archive Photos/Getty
As step-siblings Marcia (Maureen McCormick) and Greg Brady (Barry Williams) on The Brady Bunch, the actors developed a chemistry that ultimately turned romantic.
In August 2013, Williams revealed on an episode of Oprah: Where Are They Now? that he and McCormick dated when they starred on the blended family sitcom. He also shared that he was her first kiss.
“That was in Hawaii while we were filming those episodes. We snuck away, it was a full moon, and walked along the sand. Well, I knew where that was headed. Of course, I set it up,” he recalled.
Katherine Heigl and Jason Behr
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
Katherine Heigl and Jason Behr met in 1999 while playing siblings Isabel and Max Evans on the sci-fi drama Roswell. The former cast members found romance on set, which lasted through most of the show’s three-year run.
Ultimately, Heigl and Behr went their separate ways in 2002.
Amy Poehler and Will Arnett
Lawrence Lucier/FilmMagic
Amy Poehler and Will Arnett had already been married for four years when they costarred as uncomfortably close siblings Fairchild and Stranz Van Waldenberg in 2007’s Blades of Glory.
The former comedic couple costarred in several projects — albeit not as siblings — including Arrested Development, Parks and Recreation and 2008’s Horton Hears a Who!. Poehler and Arnett welcomed two children together, sons Archie and Abel, before separating in 2012 and finalizing their divorce in 2016.
Kirstie Alley and Parker Stevenson
Ron Galella/Getty
Kirstie Alley and Parker Stevenson had also wed by the time they played siblings Billy and Virgilia Hazard on the 1986 Emmy-nominated miniseries North and South: Book 2, Love & War.
The pair first met a few years earlier, at a restaurant in Los Angeles in 1981; they went on to marry in 1983 and welcome two children together, daughter Lillie and son William, before divorcing in 1997.
Alley died at age 71 in December 2022. After the news broke, Stevenson honored her in a heartfelt post on Instagram.
“Dear Kirstie, I am so grateful for our years together and for the two incredibly beautiful children and now grandchildren that we have,” he wrote. “You will be missed. With love, Parker.”
Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson
Ron Galella/Getty
One of Hollywood’s most iconic couples, Hanks and Wilson first met on the set of the ’80s sitcom Bosom Buddies.
“Rita and I just looked at each other and — kaboing — that was that,” Hanks told GQ about their immediate connection. “I asked Rita if it was the real thing for her, and it just couldn’t be denied.”
They reunited on the big screen as love interests in 1985’s Volunteers and siblings in Sleepless in Seattle.
Wilson initially auditioned for the role of Annie Reed’s (Meg Ryan) best friend and co-worker in the 1993 rom-com; however, the late director Nora Ephron revealed on the DVD commentary that she wanted Wilson to play Sam’s (Hanks) sister instead.
After tying the knot in 1988, the pair welcomed two sons together, Chet and Truman, in addition to Hanks’ adult kids, son Colin and daughter Elizabeth Ann (a.k.a. “E.A.”), from his previous marriage to Samantha Lewes (née Susan Dillingham).
