Who Is America Ferrera’s Husband, Ryan Piers Williams?
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America Ferrera has had quite the thrilling award season, thanks to her standout performance in Barbie (which earned the actor her first-ever Academy Award nomination). But she hasn’t been attending the big events alone. Throughout all the red carpets and ceremonies, Ferrera has had one person by her side: her husband, Ryan Piers Williams.
The couple met while working on a short film together, several years before they tied the knot in New York City—and long before Williams, who is an actor himself (as well as a producer, director, and screenwriter), made a hilarious cameo in Barbie as Ferrera’s onscreen husband.
So, who exactly is Ryan Piers Williams? Ahead, we break down everything we know about the Hollywood creative.
Ryan also works in Hollywood
While Ferrera has been a staple of our screen for quite some time, it turns out that her hubby is also no stranger to Hollywood.
According to IMDB, Williams has starred in a number of films, including Blues, Tomorrow Comes Today, X/Y, and 1985. Williams also made a cameo in Barbie, where he played Ferrera’s husband and Sasha’s father.
Along with acting, Williams is a writer, director, and producer, and he acted as all three on the short film Muertas and the drama X/Y. He also wrote and directed The Dry Land, and he produced Kilimanjaro.
He’s collaborated with America on multiple projects
Besides their Barbie collab, Williams and Ferrera have collaborated on a number of occasions, in fact, the pair first met when Williams was casting for his first short film, Muertas, in 2005. At the time, Ferrera was finishing up her undergraduate degree at the University of Southern California, and she nabbed the role of Rebecca in the film. (Ferrera ended up dropping out of USC to pursue her acting career, but she completed her bachelor’s later, in 2013.)
While working on Muertas, the pair began dating, and they would collaborate again in 2010, on The Dry Land, as well as in 2014, on X/Y.
Ryan always wanted to be a filmmaker
Williams’s passion for film began at a very young age. He studied the medium at the University of Texas at Austin before transferring to the University of Southern California after two-and-a-half years. However, his interest goes back even further than that.
In an interview with USC’s Cinematic Arts department, Williams said, “I’ve wanted to be a director since I was 13. When I was in middle and high school, I was in theater and video production classes. Everyday I would write, shoot, and edit news stories for our school, as well as act in plays. I had a great love for journalism and for storytelling. Instead of choosing one over the other, I [decided] that filmmaking would be the best of both worlds.”
Oh, and he’s a low-key artist
In addition to his many skills on and off screen, Williams also has a talent for painting. In fact, the filmmaker often shares glimpses of his work—which is usually very colorful and abstract—on Instagram.
He and America tied the knot in 2011
After half a decade together, Williams and Ferrera tied the knot in 2011 in an intimate ceremony in Chappaqua, New York. The nuptials were held at the home of Ferrera’s Ugly Better co-star Vanessa Williams. For the event, Ferrera wore a dress from Amsale’s Christos label, along with Fred Leighton earrings.
A few of the celebrity guests included Williams, Rebecca Romijn (and her husband Jerry O’Connell), and Blake Lively, Ferrera’s longtime friend and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants co-star. Meanwhile, The Knot reported that there was even a celebrity officiant: Judith Light.
They have two kids
After a few years of wedded bliss, Ferrera and Williams welcomed their first child—a son named Sebastian—in May 2018. Ferrera announced the news with an Instagram post (that has since been deleted), which read, “When 2 becomes 3 … Welcome Sebastian Piers Williams – aka Baz! Mom, Dad and Baby are happy, healthy and totally in love!”
Just a couple years later, in 2020, the couple welcomed a daughter, Lucia. Ferrera shared an equally excited post this time around, writing, “LUCIA MARISOL WILLIAMS arrived on May 4th to give me my Mother’s Day hugs and kisses herself. Mama, Dada & Big Brother are over the moon to welcome her bright light to our family.”
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