Diego and Rachel met in spring of 2017 in a mutual friend’s living room to rehearse a student-written play. Throughout rehearsals and performances they developed a friendship as they both prepared to transfer to UCLA. Though they recognized talent in one another, the duo lacked any notable onstage chemistry. Diego and Rachel grew their friendship in the UCLA dining halls and shared many a bagel. In the spring of 2018, Rachel was cast in UCLA Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice” where her onstage lover conveniently dropped the show. Out of artistic necessity Rachel suggested Diego for the role, beginning a time-honored tradition of Rachel cajoling Diego into her onstage projects. The show ended with the couple slow dancing to Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child” while staring deeply into one another’s eyes. In those moments, keen audience spectators would’ve observed seeds of love being planted. A relationship soon followed. As a couple, they have graduated, begun careers, moved up and down California, undergone surgeries, adopted two cats, and shared the stage again and again with many friends. In December 2021, the two eloped at a courthouse a few blocks down from the theater where they first performed with one another.