Who Is Jesse Tyler Ferguson's Husband? All About Justin Mikita

Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Justin Mikita first met at a gym in Hollywood

Justin Mikita was a fan of Jesse Tyler Ferguson before they even met.

Mikita was a law student when he first crossed paths with Ferguson, shortly after Modern Family premiered. While Mikita was dating someone else at the time, he and Ferguson later reconnected and began a relationship.

In 2012, Ferguson proposed to Mikita while on vacation in Mexico, and the pair were married the next year in New York City. Over their 10-plus years of marriage, Mikita and Ferguson have worked together on a nonprofit and a podcast, among other projects. They have also welcomed two children, Beckett Mercer Ferguson-Mikita in 2020 and Sullivan Louis Ferguson-Mikita in 2022.

"It's astonishing," Ferguson told PEOPLE of their firstborn eight months after his birth. "I can be in a bad mood and seeing him super excited, kicking and smiling, it just immediately lifts my spirits. It's so pure and sweet. And it gives me so much joy."

Ferguson's marriage with Mikita brings him a lot of joy, too. In honor of their 10th wedding anniversary in July 2023, Ferguson posted a sweet tribute to his husband, sharing images of both early days and recent memories. “Happy 10th Anniversary @justinmikita,” he captioned the post. “I love you so very very much & am so happy I get to call you my huzzzzzzbin.”

Here is everything to know about Jesse Tyler Ferguson's husband, Justin Mikita.

He's a producer

Mikita's professional background includes producing documentaries, musicals and films. For Broadway, he has produced the revival of Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy in 2018, the revival of Oklahoma! in 2019 and the Tony Award-winning drama The Inheritance. He also executive produced his husband's ABC miniseries OUTstanding and co-produced the documentary Broadway Rising with Ferguson.

The actor gave a shout-out to Mikita's work while accepting the 2022 best actor Tony Award for his performance in Take Me Out with Jesse Williams.

"I have to brag for a brief moment. Justin was part of the producing team that brought Dana H. and Is This a Room to Broadway this season," Ferguson said. "I am so endlessly proud of you — and you have incredible taste, obviously."

He met Ferguson at the gym

Ferguson met his producer husband in West Hollywood when Modern Family was just beginning to take off. Mikita was a law student at the time, and he had seen the show's pilot.

"We were both in the locker room, fully clothed," Ferguson told Variety in June 2020. "I was leaving." Mikita approached him to talk about Ferguson's character, Mitch, who was one of the first gay men in a monogamous relationship on network television.

"I was taken by how handsome he was and how sweet," he added. "I started asking questions about him, and I think he was sort of thrown off by that and ran away from me."

The two started messaging on X, formerly known as Twitter, before Ferguson asked him out for dinner, but Mikita was in a relationship at the time.

"I was like, 'Full disclosure: I'm in a relationship, but I'd love to get a drink with you as a friend,' " Mikita recalled. "And he said, 'I have enough friends,' which I loved." 10 months later, they ran into each other at the gym again, but this time Mikita was single so the pair planned for a date.

Ferguson and Mikita dated for almost two years before getting engaged.

He married Ferguson in N.Y.C.

In 2012, Ferguson popped the question while the couple were on vacation in Mexico. Ferguson and Mikita married the following year on July 20, 2013, in N.Y.C. — one of the few places, at the time, where same-sex marriage was legal.

"Justin and I both walked down the aisle — basically two separate aisles — at the same time, being ushered by both our parents," Ferguson recalled to Variety in 2020. "Then met at the altar together, where Tony Kushner was standing to marry us, which was insane for me because he's such an idol of mine."

In February 2023, Ferguson and Mikita reminisced on the best moments from their special day. "We got married on a very hot night in July in N.Y.C.," Mikita told PEOPLE. "We held an afterparty at a hotel a few blocks away from the wedding venue."

Ferguson jumped in, "It was always our plan to have people parade over to the afterparty. Our wedding planner, Bryan Rafanelli, had the great idea of handing out noisemakers to guests so we could keep the vibe alive on the walk over to the new venue."

The actor said this walk was his "favorite memory from the night" and that the pair have a framed photo from this moment, which includes their friend Padma Lakshmi, above their fireplace.

He and Ferguson share two children

On July 7, 2020, Ferguson and Mikita welcomed their first child, Beckett Mercer. "Welcome to the world," Mikita wrote on Instagram. "We love you more than I could've ever dreamed of."

A few months after welcoming Beckett, Ferguson told PEOPLE that becoming a parent was "always in the cards," but the couple were just waiting for the right time. "My husband's 10 years younger than me, so I sort of was waiting for his timeline to catch up with mine," he said. "I think I would have done this 10 years ago, but whatever, it's fine. Better late than never."

Ferguson also told PEOPLE that he and Mikita have an "unspoken thing" and can sense when the other parent needs a break. "It's been a very 50/50 thing. We don't really talk about it too much. It's just been very natural," he added.

In May 2022, the couple revealed that they were expecting a second baby in the fall. On Nov. 15, 2022, Ferguson and Mikita announced the birth of their second child, Sullivan Louis. In his announcement post on Instagram, Ferguson apologized for missing a show for his play Take Me Out due to the birth and shared photos of the new baby.

The couple shared photos from their Easter celebration with their sons in March 2024 on Instagram, including pictures of them posing with Beckett and Sullivan — and even one of Beckett decked out in a Batman costume.

The final photo in the carousel featured Mikita posing alone, which they shared was taken by their oldest son. "Happy Easter! 💕 Beckett took the last one of @justinmikita 💕," said the caption on the post.

He and Ferguson co-founded a nonprofit called Pronoun

In 2012, Mikita and Ferguson created a nonprofit, Pronoun (formerly known as Tie the Knot). They started the organization with the mission of supporting marriage equality and raising money by selling bow ties, invitations, cuff links and other accessories. In 2017, they released a wedding-ready collection inspired by their own nuptials.

Ferguson told PEOPLE that he feels proud of Pronoun's success. "We're giving it to the people who are really in the trenches fighting for our rights," he said in June 2022. "I'm really proud of it and we've raised over a million dollars since we originated, so it feels good to give back."

According to Pronoun's website, proceeds from their collections have gone to various organizations that support the "mission of equality," like The Audre Lorde Project and the Human Rights Campaign.

He worked on the initiative to legalize same-sex marriage in California

In 2008, California passed the state constitutional amendment Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage. In 2010, a U.S. federal court ruled that Prop 8 was unconstitutional, making same-sex marriage legal in the state. Mikita worked for a nonprofit, the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which helped promote the proposition's overturning — he even helped film a project that landed on Modern Family's retelling of the historic event.

"So the company he worked for ... shot a lot of footage of celebration day the day that Prop 8 was overturned," Ferguson wrote in The Daily Beast in 2014. "We were actually using footage from that day in the episode. [As Mitch,] I'm watching it in the scene on the computer and I call Cam and say, 'We won! We won! It's amazing! We can finally get married.' My real-life husband is on the computer screen celebrating the win. It was a crazy moment."

He survived childhood cancer

In a 2019 essay for Movember, Mikita revealed that he was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma at 14 years old. He underwent lengthy chemotherapy and radiation treatments before going into remission. Mikita shared that he dealt with mental health issues as a result of his cancer experience.

"As a 14-year-old going through cancer I was really resilient," he wrote. "What was more challenging, however, was the journey afterwards [sic] and my struggle with PTSD and the life-long effects of going through that experience at such a young age."

For Father's Day in 2016, Mikita shared a throwback photo of his teenage self shaving his dad's hair. In the caption, Mikita recalled his father's kind gesture: "One early night in the process - as my hair was beginning to fall alongside a steady stream of (slightly over dramatic) tears - Dad said to me, 'hey, let's go buzz our heads together.' So we did. And while it probably only temporarily pacified my grief over the whole hair situation, it is a moment in my life I will never, ever, forget."

He created a scripted podcast

Mikita and Ferguson executive produced an original scripted podcast called Gay Pride & Prejudice over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. The Advocate described the series as "Jane Austen meets marriage equality."

Ferguson announced the series, written by Zackary Grady, in May 2022. "Gay Pride & Prejudice is a joyful and hilarious story about love and chosen family," Ferguson told Entertainment Tonight. "Justin [Mikita] and I have been such a fan of Zackary's writing and are so proud to see this story come to life in audio."

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