Yahoo Finance Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally's Relationship Timeline
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Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally are one of Hollywood's funniest couples.
Comedy is not only what both do professionally, but it's also key to their marriage. As Offerman told PEOPLE Now in 2020, "First and foremost we [make] each other laugh … I think that's at the heart of if any relationship is gonna survive, you have to be able to laugh about things."
"We just got lucky," he added. "We adore each other. We're two human beings so it's a relationship that requires work and patience and maintenance. I'm sure I drive her up a tree sometimes and that's when I go and sleep out in the backyard. Then I write her a letter and she lets me back in the house."
Offerman and Mullally met in 2000, when they starred in the play The Berlin Circle. Mullally told New York magazine in 2010 that they weren't romantic until after previews, but once they started dating — spotting coyotes and a Glen Campbell concert at the Hollywood Bowl were part of their courtship — "it got serious and we were never apart from then on."
The couple got engaged in London in 2002 and married in a surprise wedding at their Los Angeles home in September 2003, on the night before the Emmys. Ever since, they've had a two-week rule when it comes to taking gigs.
"We made a deal that any job that's going to keep us apart for more than a couple of weeks, we discuss," Offerman told New York.
Many of those jobs have been with each other. Though they've done plenty of projects apart, Offerman and Mullally have worked together well over a dozen times.
Fifteen years after The Berlin Circle, they received praise for their roles in the play, Annapurna. They've also appeared in each other's TV projects — Offerman guest-starred on Will & Grace and had a recurring role on Childrens Hospital, while Mullally played the recurring role of Tammy Swanson on Parks and Recreation. On the big screen, they've starred in nine movies together, including 2002's Stealing Harvard, 2012's Smashed, 2013's The Kings of Summer, 2015's Hotel Transylvania and 2017's Infinity Baby. Off-camera, they co-wrote the 2018 book The Greatest Story Ever Told and hosted a podcast, In Bed With Nick and Megan.
It may seem like they're always working, but the couple does know how to slow down. "My favorite thing to do is just stay home with the dogs and read or watch movies and be together," Mullally told PEOPLE in 2016.
"We really like each other, and we try to treat each other well," she continued. "I feel like Nick and I have the best relationship and the best marriage."
From their meeting in 2000 to their many on-screen collaborations, here's everything to know about Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally's relationship.
2000: Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally meet while starring in a play together
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The funny duo met when they starred in the Evidence Room Theatre Company's production of the play, The Berlin Circle, in L.A.
"We had a lot of scenes together, and I started thinking, 'Wait a minute, he's funny.' And then I started thinking, 'Wait a minute, is he cute?' What's happening?" Mullally told Buzzfeed in 2013.
At the time, Mullally had wrapped season 2 of Will & Grace and Offerman was sleeping on a friend's basement couch.
"I was pre-disposed to not be impressed by this TV lady. I didn't have a TV. But when we did the first read through with a cast of 25 sitting in a circle, Megan just stuck out as so hilarious," Offerman told Sundance TV's "The Mortified Sessions" in a 2011 joint interview with his wife, adding, "Megan took a chance on me. It was quite the roll of the dice that she rescued me from the squallor I was living in at the time."
At the time, Mullally was 41 and Offerman was 29, though Mullally initially assumed he was much older. When she found out Offerman wasn't in his thirties, she "was pissed."
"I thought he looked old!" she told GQ in 2017 of her age miscalculation. "And he was mature, so when I found out he was 29, I said these two words: You motherf-------. And I almost ran my car off the road."
November 22, 2001: Nick Offerman and Will Grace appear together on Will & Grace
Though he had never seen an episode of Will & Grace before meeting Mullally, Offerman told IndieWire that starting with season 3, he only missed a couple of tapings.
The American Ham star also appeared alongside Mullally on the sitcom, playing Nick the Plumber (who gets to smooch Mulllally's Karen Walker!) in the 2001 Thanksgiving episode, "Moveable Feast: Part 2." Offerman would later reappear on the Will & Grace revival, dating both Will and Grace in the new series' first season in 2018.
2002: Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally get engaged
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Offerman fake-proposed three times in Paris before officially popping the question. He told Playboy that the Will & Grace costume designer helped him with the bit by giving him faux disposable rings. Once they were in London, which the Making It co-host told The Guardian was "our favorite city in the world," he really did ask for Mullally's hand in marriage.
"It was in Regent's Park that I bent my knee and presented my hand-carved, walnut, heart-shaped ring box," he said. "Magically, the ducks on the water and birds in the air began to furiously copulate all around us. Something made the moment bigger than the two of us. It was fated by Mother Nature."
Offerman described himself as being in a "heigtened state of agitation" ahead of the real proposal, which Mullally told Playboy she noticed. "I couldn't figure out what was up with him," Mullally said. "He was sucking and chewing on his mustache like crazy. I thought to myself, 'What is going on? He has never chewed on his mustache before!' "
September 20, 2003: Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally get married
The couple married in a private ceremony at their Hollywood home. The wedding was a surprise to their guests, who included Mullally's Will & Grace costars Eric McCormack, Sean Hayes and Debra Messing.
"We had our family and closest friends fly out and told people we were having an Emmy party," Mullally told Entertainment Tonight at the time. "When they arrived, we said, 'Welcome to our wedding!"
Ten years later, Offerman shared what led to their decision to marry, "We fell in love, and before long, we could just tell that we wanted to stay together and make a life together," he said during an interview with the A.V. Club. "We wanted to declare to each other and our friends and family that we were in it to win it."
Mullally was previously married to casting director Michael A. Katcher from 1992 to 1996, while this was the first marriage for Offerman.
August 27, 2006: Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally celebrate her Emmy win
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Mullally won two Emmys for her role as Karen Walker on Will & Grace, and Offerman was right by her side for her second win in 2006 for best supporting actress in a comedy series. Though she didn't thank her husband in her speech, they did share a kiss after she was announced as the winner in her category, which came after the NBC comedy's final season.
Fall 2007: Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally temporarily relocate to New York
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The couple temporarily left L.A. when Mullally took on a starring role in the Broadway adaptation of Young Frankenstein. Always supportive, Offerman saw the play 25 times.
"Sometimes when your wife says, 'Hey, can we move to New York so I can do this Mel Brooks musical?,' you take a deep breath and say, 'Yes, we can, honey,' and you pack a bag of chisels and hand planes," he said to The New Yorker in 2018.
"I am a very big fan of Megan's work in musical comedy," he added. "She can rip it, and then she can snap it, and then she wraps it up with a bow, and shoves it straight up your keister."
November 12, 2008: Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally celebrate the actress's 50th birthday with a song
For Mullally's 50th birthday, Offerman paid tribute to his wife by writing a tune called "The Rainbow Song." In 2015, he filmed a video for the charity, MyMusicRX, to go with the song. In typical Offerman fashion, the tune is full of puns and seemingly random references (leprechauns! Cialis! Peppermint Patty!) and manages to make prison jokes about marriage quite funny.
November 5, 2009: Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally costar on Parks and Recreation
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The couple have costarred in many projects together, but it was Mullally's stints on Parks and Recreation that really sealed the deal on their working relationship. She appeared as Tammy, the ex-wife of Offerman's character Ron Swanson, in 10 episodes. Her first appearance was on the season 2 episode, "Ron and Tammy."
"When Megan came on Parks and Rec as Tammy 2, that was kind of a watershed moment for me where we were treated like peers, like a team," Offerman told PEOPLE in 2014. "Up until that point I'd felt like Megan's student and fan. So once that happened, those particular roles required a lot of trust and vulnerability to go to horrifyingly deep places, especially with our tongues. So I feel like we've graduated to a level where we can look at each other and jump off any cliff together."
"There is a nice sort of security working together, but I also feel like we're more relaxed," Mullally added.
February 2010: Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally pose nude for New York magazine
The duo stripped down for a portrait to accompany their joint 2010 New York magazine interview, an idea that was all Mullally's.
"Neither of us are paragons of physical perfection. That's why I pitched that nude-photo idea: It's as if we were Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, but of course we're not," she told the outlet. "Yet before we met with you, Nick told me how beautiful I looked in my pajamas in the hotel. I didn't really, by somebody else's standards, but it's very nice to hear that, especially as an actress in Hollywood. Nick has said he would divorce me if I got Botox."
April-June 2014: Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally star in the off-Broadway play Annapurna
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The actors starred together as exes in a West L.A. production of Annapurna, which had only been produced once before they took it on. "We said, 'Well that's a happy accident – it's a two-person play and both parts are right for us,'" Mullally told PEOPLE in 2014.
After a successful stint on the West Coast, they brought the play to New York for a seven-week off-Broadway run.
2015: Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally star in Hotel Transylvania 2
The biggest animation project the two collaborated on was 2015's Hotel Transylvania 2, though they didn't get to record together due to their work schedules.
While promoting the film, Offerman discussed what he found so funny about his wife's work. "Like all things she touches, she has such a golden talent in animation," he told PEOPLE. "And the most mundane line like, 'Can I get you a wash cloth?' just cracked me up. She is somehow able to make every single line really funny."
Other animations the pair have both lent their voices to include the shows Bob's Burgers and The Great North (Offerman is the lead in the latter) and the 2012 movie, Ernest & Celestine.
April 15, 2015: Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally go on tour with their comedy show
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Offerman and Mullally hit the road together for a national tour of their variety show, "Summer of 69: No Apostrophe" in 2015 and 2016.
Mullally told PEOPLE that their joint venture worked because "we have so much fun together," with Offerman adding, "I look at us as one of those old-fashioned showbiz couples. We write the show together and head out on the road."
May 15, 2017: Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally discuss their decision to not have children
In a joint interview with GQ, the couple discussed their family planning. "I never had a burning desire to have children," Mullally said. "But then I met Nick, and I thought 'This is the only person I'd do this with.' So we tried, but I was a little long in the tooth for that sort of thing. But we didn't turn it into a soap opera. We tried for about a year or so, and it didn't happen, and took that to mean it wasn't meant to be."
October 1, 2018: Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally release a joint memoir
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Fifteen years after their wedding, the couple released a joint memoir, The Greatest Love Story Ever Told. Offerman told The Guardian that while it was a "sincere memoir of our romance," it was also funny and filled with "lots of filthy references to what we do in the bedroom."
"Eighteen years into the relationship, I'm constantly grateful she continues tolerating me," the Hearts Beat Loud actor said. "When I wake up and look over at her, I still think: "You lucky bastard, you better be on your best behaviour today."
In an interview with USA Today, Offerman elaborated on why they keep teaming up on projects, saying, "We love working together. If we drive together, if we share a dressing room, we know going into it that we're going to get along. We're very domestically compatible. People often say to us, 'Are you crazy? I can barely stand my spouse at home every day after work, how can you choose to go to work with her?' And we say, 'Well, that sounds really sad for you, because we just like each other.' "
October 31, 2018: Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally share they once lived in a haunted house
During a Halloween appearance on Busy Tonight, Mullally said she believed she and her husband once lived in a house haunted by the spirit of Nicole Brown Simpson, who had been murdered in Los Angeles in 1994. Though Mullally and Offerman didn't live in the same home, their place was on the same property where the house O.J. Simpson had rented for Brown Simpson was located.
"We would have in that house, in one corner of the house, like maybe where the bedroom used to be in the old house, we would have all these sounds and weird things all the time," Mullally explained. "I would be like, 'That's Nicole and she's pissed because Nick doesn't get it.' "
According to the actress, after Offerman watched documentaries and The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, the spirit's activity stopped. "Ever since then, no more sounds. She just needed Nick to understand what happened," Mullally said.
November 2018: Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally celebrate his appearance in PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive issue
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The Paddle Your Own Canoe author was honored with sexy status in PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive 2018 issue. Mullally shared with PEOPLE why he deserved such a title.
"First of all, when I first met him I was really attracted to his kindness and his human decency," she said, before joking, "Now, it's really more about his money — but I still think he's a nice guy."
The Party Down star didn't leave out his looks either, adding, "In terms of just raw sexuality, the way that that man maintains his back hair is not to be believed. It is just professional level."
Though she loves cracking a good joke, she did end her video message with sincerity. "Bottom line, don't make me pick my favorite quality of one of the world's sexiest men — it's just an embarrassment of riches," she said.
That same year, Mullally appeared in PEOPLE's Beautiful Issue, where she shared that Offerman loves it when she goes makeup-free.
"He tells me every minute that I'm the most beautiful, sexy, incredible woman in the world, which couldn't possibly be true, but it's nice," she said. "He always prefers me without makeup, you know, a flannel shirt and a pair of jeans."
January 14, 2019: Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally appear on The Bachelor
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Though Offerman is known for his lumberjack-esque ways, both he and his wife are big fans of The Bachelor. "I hate to shatter everyone's illusions, but Nick Offerman watches the entire Bachelor franchise with me, including Bachelor in Paradise," Mullally said on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2018.
In 2019, they made their dreams come true with a guest appearance during season 23 of the reality show. They asked Colton Underwood's potential loves to share their "firsts," returning the favor by sharing their own innuendo-heavy tales.
November 12, 2019: Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally launch a podcast
Adding to their many collaborative moments, the longtime loves launched a podcast, In Bed with Nick and Megan. Each episode was quite literally recorded from their bed, and they interviewed some of their funniest friends and peers for the show, including Lisa Kudrow, Will Forte and Kathryn Hahn. The podcast lasted for one season, wrapping in September 2020.
March 6, 2022: Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally host the Independent Spirit Awards
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The couple hosted the 2022 Independent Spirit Awards in March 2022.
Ahead of the awards show, which honored independent films, the Devs star told The Hollywood Reporter that while neither of them was Billy Crystal (referencing the actor's many Oscars hosting gigs), he and his wife were "a married couple who loves to be onstage together and lean into our old-fashioned Nichols and May vaudeville back-and-forth … There will also be an overpowering sexuality to the presentation — and there's nothing we can do about that."
February 2023: Nick Offerman says Megan Mullally convinced him to appear in The Last of Us
A few days after Offerman starred in the third episode of HBO's The Last of Us, he appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live to discuss the role, revealing that he almost turned down the part before Mullally stepped in.
"I didn't have time on the calendar to say 'yes' to this job, and my incredible goddess of a wife read [the script] — and she said 'You're going to Calgary, buddy,' " he said. "'Have fun! You have to do this.' "
