Anika Noni Rose has unveiled that she is now a newlywed.
The Princess and The Frog actress quietly married fellow actor Jason Dirden in an intimate ceremony last year. The “colorful” nuptials were officiated by Euphoria actor Colman Domingo.
Their wedding, held at the Paramour Estate in Los Angeles on Oct. 16, 2022, took eight weeks to plan. Admittedly, they “didn’t plan to only have eight weeks to plan a wedding,” Dirden explained to Brides. “We planned to have a year,” but the couple’s hectic schedules pushed their date up.
Rose’s custom dress was designed by London-based designer Gbemi Okunlola of Alonuko Bridal and was inspired by the vision of “a rose coming into full bloom, but without being too fussy.”
The groom entered to Stevie Wonder‘s “Knocks Me Off My Feet” while the bride, escorted by her father, entered to a live rendition of H.E.R. and Daniel Caesar’s “Best Part.” After being announced, they recessed to Stevie Wonder’s “As.”
The American Soul star proposed in December 2021 via his family’s annual Secret Santa Zoom. He played a video montage of their relationship, underscored by Norah Jones’ “Come Away With Me,” along with a conversation he had with his father about “love, partnership, and [his] desire to propose.”
Rose and Dirden met in 2014 while both were cast in a Broadway production, A Raisin In The Sun. “We were friends for a couple of years, actually,” she explained. “We both went off and did our own things and were disconnected for a while and then swung back.” Regarding their reconnection years later, Dirden revealed, “It was the right moment for both of us to be open and available for the possibility of what we have now.”
They opted to keep their romance private and never revealed they were dating or even engaged until after their wedding.
The Raising Kanan actor later admitted what made him fall in love with the Tony Award-winning actress. “This woman is so silly. She has a four year old child living inside of her that will never go away,” Dirden gushed. “She loves to prank people, and she has that kind of spontaneous silliness to her that allowed us both to release any type of armor, or any type of defense mechanism, and allowed us to really just be who we are with each other. We created this friendship walking 60 blocks from rehearsal to the gym, just talking about life, or about anything really. It had nothing to do with the play that we were working on. There’s always been that kind of comfort and ease between us.”
Congrats to the newly-minted Mr. and Mrs. Dirden!
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