Jenna Dewan is seeing someone new after her split from Channing Tatum last April. In October 2018, People reported that she’s dating Steve Kazee, a Tony-award winning actor and singer. When the story broke, they had already been together for a few months. Dewan later publicly called him her “boyfriend” during an appearance on Ellen in April 2019.
Now, not only are Dewan, 38, and Kazee, 43, expecting their first child together, but they are engaged to be married. Here’s what you need to know about Kazee, who has previous experience both working in Hollywood and dating fellow actors.
He proposed to Jenna with the biggest diamond engagement ring.
Kazee and Dewan announced their engagement in February. Each posted the same sweet photo, in which Dewan’s new giant rock is prominently featured, on their Instagram. “When you wake in the morning I will kiss your face with a smile no one has ever seen,” Kazee wrote in the caption. “When you wake in the morning I will kiss your eyes and say it’s you I have loved all these years.”
Dewan also had a sweet message for her now-fiancé, writing, “A lifetime to love and grow with you…you have my heart ❤️.”
He’s an award-winning Broadway star.
Kazee won the Tony in 2012 for Best Performance by a Leading Actor for Once, and he also won a Grammy for the soundtrack. In that musical, which he starred in both off-Broadway and on Broadway, he played an Irish guitarist who falls in love with a Czech piano player. He has also starred in shows like Spamalot and To Be or Not to Be, and was in Pretty Woman: The Musical during its Chicago run.
He’s expecting his first child with Dewan.
The couple confirmed to People on September 24 that they’re expecting a child. “We are beyond overjoyed and couldn’t be happier to be expanding our family!” they said in a statement.
This marks Kazee’s first child and Dewan’s second, following her six-year-old daughter Everly, whom she shares with ex Channing Tatum.
He paid tribute to his late mother at the Tony Awards.
In his Tonys acceptance speech, he tearfully mentioned how his Once costar, Cristin Milioti, helped him cope with the death of his mother.
“My mother always told me before shows to stand up there and show ‘em whose little boy you are,” he said. “And I’m showing you today that I am the son of Kathy Withrow Kazee who lost the fight with cancer on Easter Sunday this year. And I miss you every day, and I feel you here with me today, and I love you all so much, and thank you for this award.”
He has also worked in television and music.
Kazee has had roles on a variety of TV shows, including Shameless, Nashville, Legends, NCIS, and CSI. He also collaborated with Christina Perri for “A Thousand Years,” a song on the soundtrack of Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 that has become a favorite at weddings.
He’s from a small town in Kentucky.
Kazee comes from humble beginnings. He’s the only child of a welder and a health care aide from Ashland, Kentucky, and grew up in a trailer. He learned he liked singing when he was kicked out of Spanish class for belting out songs—and was sent to the choir room. In college at Morehead State University, he tagged along when a friend was auditioning for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and he ended up getting cast.
He previously dated another actor.
The New York Times reported he had dated Smash star and Broadway standout Megan Hilty for six years, and they broke up right as Once was moving to Broadway. “Ms. Hilty initiated the breakup, but both saw it coming,” the Times reported.
“The lessons I’ve learned about my time with Megan, six wonderful years, will live with me forever,” Kazee told Blouin Artinfo. “I have zero angst or anxiety about her. She’s a warm, caring, immensely talented, lovely human being.”
He’s really into wrestling.
Dewan said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that Kazee, whom she called her “boyfriend,” got her into watching WWE. “Steve, my boyfriend, is a huge wrestling fan. And he got me so into it!” she said.
“I watched WrestleMania by myself,” Dewan continued. “He wasn’t even in town and I watched WrestleMania. Because I had to know if Becky Lynch was going to beat Ronda Rousey!
“I was by myself, I ordered it, and I was sitting there texting [Steve] like, ‘Do you know what’s happening?’ I had to! I had to know! I was hooked!”
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