‘Stranger Things’ Star Brett Gelman Proposes to Girlfriend Ari Dayan in Jerusalem

0

The Western Wall and Jerusalem skyline provided the backdrop for actor Brett Gelman’s proposal to his now-fiancée musician Ari Dayan.

Actor Brett Gelman proposed to his longtime girlfriend, musician Ari Dayan, in Jerusalem last month. (Screenshot via Instagram via JTA)

The couple, together since 2019, announced their engagement on Instagram.

“SHE SAID YES!!!” Gelman shared. “Can’t wait for Mr. Gelman to become Mr. Dayan,” Dayan wrote.

Gelman, 46, is best known for his roles as the conspiracy theorist and private investigator Murray Bauman on Netflix’s “Stranger Things” and as the insufferable Martin on the BBC comedy “Fleabag.” He grew up in Highland Park, Ill., a heavily Jewish suburb of Chicago.

Dayan, meanwhile, is a singer and performance artist from California. She has posted videos previously from Tel Aviv and has also shared about her grandmother, a Holocaust survivor whom she said inspired her song “Sara.”

The pair have collaborated in the past, including for the music video for Dayan’s 2022 song “Love” and in a Chanukah singalong (with Dayan singing in Israeli-accented Hebrew) taped in their Los Angeles home and posted to Instagram.

In a joint interview with Ladygunn in 2022, Gelman called the “Love” video a “total equal collaboration.”

“Ari is a comic genius and her previous videos hadn’t showcased that side of her,” Gelman said. “Plus, the song itself has a celebratory tone to it.”

“We found our mutual voice pretty quickly,” Dayan said. “It has a lot of both of us in it both conceptually and tonally. I find a lot of joy at laughing at myself and I think Brett does too. This is a love letter to that part of ourselves.”

In an interview with W Magazine last year, Gelman said his Jewish background is the motivation behind his approach to the world both in terms of humor and empathy. Coining the term “Jaddy” to refer to a “sexy, Jewish, masculine man,” he said his style role models are actors like Elliott Gould and Richard Dreyfuss who dispel the stereotype of nerdy Jewish men.

Gelman will appear alongside Natalie Portman in the upcoming Apple TV series “Lady in the Lake,” focused on the disappearances and deaths of a Jewish girl and a Black woman who were treated with unequal media attention in the 1960s.

Gelman was previously married, from 2015 to 2018, to the Jewish performance artist Janicza Bravo with whom he collaborated on a film called “Lemon” about a washed-up Jewish actor.

Never miss a story.
Sign up for our newsletter.
Email Address

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here