Creator Couple

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

People who are creators, whether it be music, film, TV or whatever, are human, and most humans meet their partner through work. This means they will at some point inevitably end up in a romantic relationship with - or sometimes get married to - someone in their creative business. Sadly, these boyfriends/husbands/girlfriends/wives (the latter two are more common for some reason) will sometimes attract that insidious form of Die for Our Ship Fan Dumbness known as Yoko Oh No. And then there's the dreaded Couple Bomb.

A Creator Couple, on the other hand, is the nice, happy opposite to the Yoko Oh No - a trope for the times the opposite happens, when said love interest has something good to contribute to the entertainer's work, and sometimes becomes a key part of said work (but this is not strictly necessary all of the time for the trope), said love interest has his/her own talents and isn't just a useless Dungeonmaster's Girlfriend, and cooler heads prevail and the fandom embraces said love interest without the whole Die for Our Ship bitching.

Examples of Creator Couple include:

Cross-Category

  • Author Neil Gaiman and musician Amanda Palmer.
  • Director Cameron Crowe and musician Nancy Wilson (of Heart). From 1986 until 2010, anyway.
  • Since their marriage, recording artist/actress Rebecca Pidgeon has appeared in most of David Mamet's movies (and some plays), and he has written or co-written lyrics to some of her songs.
  • Mike D and director Tamra Davis, who, if memory serves right, directed one of their videos.
  • Bono and his wife Ali, who is a fashion designer and political activist.
  • Julia Child's husband Paul did the photography for most of her cookbooks and was heavily involved in her television shows. Among other activities, he was the one who selected the wines to pair with Julia's meals.
  • Phil and Kaja Foglio, creators of XXXenophile, Buck Godot Zap Gun for Hire, What's New with Phil and Dixie, and Girl Genius, among others.
  • Writer Shigesato Itoi is married to actress Kanako Higuchi.

Anime and Manga

Art

  • Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, both famous Mexican painters.
  • Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell.
  • Adam Hughes and Alison Sohn.

Comic Books

  • The Elf Quest creators, Wendy and Richard Pini, are a married couple.
  • Marian Churchland, creator of Beast and one of the artists for Elephantmen, and Brandon Graham, creator of Multiple Warheadz and King City. They will sometimes make covers and backup material for each other's comics.
  • Though they're divorced now Lynn Varley did some amazing color work for many of Frank Miller's best comics.
  • Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner.
  • Mike Allred, creator of Madman, has his work almost exclusively colored by his wife Laura.
  • Robert and Aline Kominsky Crumb are both underground cartoonists, whenever they do autobiographical comics together they'll draw themselves in their own style within the work.
  • While making Lost Girls, Alan Moore and the illustrator Melinda Gebbie started a relationship and eventually got married.
  • Walt Simonson and Louise Simonson.
  • Stuart Immonen and Kathryn Immonen.
  • The work of penciller Terry Dodson is usually inked by his wife, Rachel.
  • Roy and Danni Thomas.
  • David and Liz Lillie (Dreamkeepers)
  • Karl and Barbara Kesel (now divorced) wrote Hawk And Dove togerher.

Fan Works

  • Jack Staik and Lady Tesser, who burned very brightly for a very short time in the late 1990s and early 2000s. After posting many, many kilobytes of excellent work between them, including their large (but incomplete) Ranma ½ cycle The Tales of Ranma and Ranko, they abruptly vanished some time around Spring 2002.
  • Bob and Alyx, AKA Bobmin356. This couple were writing actively up until Bob passed away from cancer in early 2016.
  • GenkaiFan and the Frau. Although GenkaiFan seemed to be the primary writer and voice, all their fics were credited to both. With the death of the Frau in 2017, GenkaiFan briefly stopped writing, but has since resumed.

Film

Literature

  • Lev Tolstoy's wife, Sofia, not only helped him raise their 13 children, but was also his copy editor for all his manuscripts.
  • Science fiction authors Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore became writing partners after they married. Kuttner excelled at plotting and world-building, while Moore excelled at literary style, and their collaborative works combined both their strengths.
  • David and Leigh Eddings: The Belgariad and The Malloreon were credited only to David, but in his later work he acknowledged his wife's input, giving her co-author status.
  • Stanley and Janice Berenstain are most famous for their series of children's books about a family of bears.
  • Robert Louis Stevenson relied heavily on his wife's advice when writing. The story about The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde goes that after she read his first draft and told him to rewrite it as an allegory, he burned the manuscript so that he wouldn't be tempted to keep any of what he had.
  • Several married authors (such as the above listed and DJ MacHale) often have their spouses read their material as beta readers and for creative advice. In several instances, this pays off well.
    • An example of this is Stephen King. His wife, Tabitha, is a published novelist in her own right, and he frequently credits her critiques for improving his work.
      • Possibly the most notable example was when she pulled the first pages of Carrie out of the trash and persuaded him to finish it by promising to fill in what he didn't know about teenage girls.
    • Ditto Vladimir Nabokov and his wife, Vera, to whom he often dedicated his books.
  • An unusual example is Nicci French, who is/are actually a husband and wife writing team (real names: Nicci Gerrard and Sean French). They write alternate chapters and then rewrite each other's texts.
  • Frankenstein by Mary Shelley was edited by her husband, renowned poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
  • F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald were each Jazz Age authors, though not at the same time. As Kate Beaton notes, they each contributed to one another's Creator Breakdowns.
  • Michael Grant and K. A. Applegate developed and wrote the Animorphs, Everworld, and Remnants series together, though Applegate's name appears on the covers alone for simplicity reasons. They now mostly work on their own separate YA series.

Live-Action TV

  • Battlestar Galactica's resident vocalist, Raya Yarbrough, has been involved with the resident composer, Bear McCreary, since the two were in college at USC, and McCreary credits her as being a guiding influence in his life. The two collaborated on all four seasons of Galactica, and married in 2010.
  • Gene Roddenberry's second wife, Majel Barrett, played several roles in the various Star Trek series, most notably Nurse Christine Chapel in The Original Series and Lwaxana Troi in The Next Generation, and provided the voice of the onboard computers in all series and movies until her death in 2008 - she also provided the computer's voice in the 2009 movie, having recorded her lines before dying. Notably, she was cast as first officer Number One in the original pilot, but NBC torpedoed the entire idea - they weren't really enthusiastic about the idea of having a woman in an important role, but were mostly pissed at Roddenberry for casting his girlfriend in the role.
  • Francesca Buller, Ben Browder's wife, played four different characters on Farscape.
  • John Cleese and his then-wife Connie Booth created and wrote Fawlty Towers together. By the time of the second season, they divorced, but still could work together effectively.
  • Gerry and Sylvia Anderson married and then divorced during the decade-and-a-bit they were producing shows together.
  • Jed Whedon (younger brother to Joss Whedon) and his wife Maurissa Tancharoen not only co-wrote Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog with Joss, but also wrote several episodes of Dollhouse together (which are considered by fandom to be some of the best) and are currently[when?] writing season 2 episodes of Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Several tracks of Jed's first album, History of Forgotten Things, also features Maurissa on vocals.
  • Sue Vertue has served as producer on several of her husband's shows. Their courtship was of course fictionalized in the show Coupling.
  • Michael Chiklis has credited his wife with changing his image from the tubby, well-meaning figure in The Commish to the lean muscled Badass in The Shield.
  • Also from The Shield, the series was created by Shawn Ryan. His wife, Cathy Cahlin Ryan, played Vic's long-suffering wife Corinne.
  • Christa Miller has had roles in two of her husband Bill Lawrence's shows: a guest role that became recurring on Scrubs and a starring role on Cougar Town.
  • Will Arnett and Amy Poehler frequently end up working on the same projects, frequently in a romantic pairing. Their first appearance together was on Arrested Development (where she played the girl that GOB married while drunk), and the most recent in the American dub of The Secret World of Arrietty (as the title character's parents). Perhaps the most Squick-worthy was in Blades of Glory, where they played a brother and sister... and still were romantic partners.
  • Tina Fey met her husband when they were both at Second City, she as an improv-er and he as a pianist. Since then they've worked together in some capacity at both Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock.

Music

  • This trope is older than many think: opera composer Giuseppe Verdi's second wife was Giuseppina Strepponi, a popular soprano who had worked with him before.
  • Sharon Osbourne has served as Ozzy's manager since The Eighties, helping him get over his substance abuse and gain continued success.
  • Rasa Davies contributed backing vocals to several songs by The Kinks, including their widely-acclaimed "Waterloo Sunset", and generally served as a peacemaker during conflicts between Ray Davies and the rest of the band. Oh, and after Ray divorced her The Kinks put out their worst albums.
  • Gaby "Deaffy" Hauke, married to Accept guitarist Wolf Hoffmann, used to manage the band and wrote the lyrics to most of their songs between Balls to the Wall and Predator.
  • Famous Record Producer Steve Lillywhite's wife was Kirsty MacColl. Apart from being a musician in her own right with reasonable critical acclaim, MacColl would frequently drop by the studio when Lillywhite was producing some band and add backing vocals. Two of the most famous examples of this are her backing vocals for "Ask" by The Smiths and her lead vocal on "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues. Additionally, while Lillywhite was mixing U2's The Joshua Tree, MacColl was brought into the studio to come up with the album's sequencing. She simply placed the songs in order of her favourites, but the sequence ended up on the final product.
  • Marvin Gaye's first, and famously troubled, marriage was to Anna Gordy, the elder sister of Motown Records' founder Berry Gordy. While it was a reasonable assumption that Gaye did it in order to get signed as a recording artist, especially considering Anna was 17 years older than him when they married, Anna did help him gain a contract with Motown and helped him work in the studio when he was "too lazy". So, what did Marvin do next? Openly had an affair with a woman 17 years younger than him which resulted in two children, dragged out the divorce proceedings for two years and proceeded to whine and bitch about how his wife was evil and shit on Here, My Dear (note: this doesn't necessarily mean that Here, My Dear is a bad album). What the fuck, hero?
  • Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon got married in 1984, and have been Happily Married ever since.
  • Eric Rosse produced Tori Amos' albums Little Earthquakes and Under the Pink, coincidentally her most critically acclaimed albums.
    • When they broke up, Tori released Boys for Pele, which is considered one of her best works by fans.
  • Tom Waits' wife Kathleen Brennan helped him quit drinking and has co-written a majority of his songs starting with Swordfishtrombones.
  • The Clash guitarist Mick Jones once had a relationship with Ellen Foley, and the trope goes both ways here. Foley, already known for being an actress and contributing vocals to "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" by Meat Loaf, sang backing vocals on The Clash's song "Hitsville U.K." and the turbulent relationship inspired Jones to write the very popular "Should I Stay or Should I Go". Thanks to the relationship, all four members of The Clash (along with members of Ian Dury's band The Blockheads) appeared on Foley's album The Spirit of St. Louis and Jones produced it, credited as "my boyfriend".
  • The wife of Raine Maida, lead singer of Our Lady Peace, is Chantal Kreviazuk, a well-known Canadian singer and songwriter. They have shared songwriting credits on each others' albums, done a few songs together, and Chantal can be heard towards the end of the OLP song "Thief".
  • Gillian Gilbert, New Order's keyboard player, is married to the band's drummer, Stephen Morris.
  • Tina Weymouth and Chris "The Human Drum Machine" Frantz are Happily Married and were the rhythm section for Talking Heads. They also had their own project, Tom Tom Club.
  • Jason Pierce's girlfriend, Kate Radley, played keyboards in his band Spiritualized between 1990-1997.
  • In Arcade Fire, the married couple Win Butler and Régine Chassagne provide vocals.
  • ABBA was made up of two romantic couples: Bjorn and Agnetha, and Benny and Frida. The men wrote and produced the songs while the women provided the lead vocals. Unfortunately, both couples' subsequent divorces led to the band's prolonged hiatus that will one day end and there will be much rejoicing. Really.
  • Pop duo Boy Meets Girl was singer Shannon Rubicam and keyboardist/singer George Merrill. They have continued to collaborate since their (apparently amicable) divorce in 2000.
  • Cerys Matthews and Mark Roberts, the singer and lead guitarist of Catatonia, were in a relationship when the band began, and split up around the time of International Velvet. Although the band continued, it made for some interesting sexual tension. Cerys also had a relationship with Tommy D, who produced the aforementioned album.
  • Fleetwood Mac's John and Christine McVie were married, and Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were in a relationship. It didn't last.
  • Inverted with The White Stripes. Jack and Meg made great music while after they were married and seperated.
  • Alt-country duo The Handsome Family are married couple Bret and Rennie Sparks.
  • Keyboardist Keith Godchaux and lead singer Donna Godchaux of the Grateful Dead were a married couple until Keith's death.
  • Paul McCartney and his wife Linda from Wings count as a rare example of both this trope and Yoko Oh No.
  • Robin Guthrie and Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins.
  • Blues musicians Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie. You might know them as the writers of "When the Levee Breaks".
  • Brody Dalle, of The Distillers and Spinnerette, is married to Josh "Badass Queens of the Stone Age frontman" Homme. She sometimes sings backing vocals on QOTSA albums.
  • Natasha Shneider and Alain Johannes of Eleven. All the sources about them can't seem to agree whether they were married or just partners, but they were awesome. Also worked as producers and session musicians for a lot of alt-rock bands (Soundgarden, Queens of the Stone Age, etc.)
  • And back to the Beastie Boys, Ad-Rock is married to Kathleen Hanna from Bikini Kill. Sadly she hasn't showed up to drop science on any albums so far...
  • Ryan Lum and Suzanne Perry of Love Spirals Downwards.
  • The band Deas Vail- Wes Blaylock is the lead singer and his wife Laura Blaylock plays keyboards and sings as well
  • Harry Chapin's biggest hit, "Cat's In The Cradle", was a poem written by his wife, Sandy Cashmore, that he set to music.
  • Johnny Cash and June Carter.
  • Country music duo Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan. As evidenced by their edits to their own Wikipedia page, they're still together despite having had no hits since the mid-70s.
  • Sleeper's Louise Wener went out with John, the band's guitarist, and Andy, the band's drummer. Not at the same time, fortunately.
  • Celine Dion is married to the man who discovered her and later became her manager.
  • Little Jimmy Urine of Mindless Self Indulgence is married to Chantal Claret of Morningwood, who shows up on a few tracks on MSI's album If.
  • Hov and B.
  • Judie Tzuke romanced and later married band member Paul Muggleton (formerly of the band Omaha Sheriff), who wrote/co-wrote some songs for her over the years.
  • Blackmore's Night consist of Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night, a long-term couple although only recently married.
  • Singer and former Soft Machine drummer, Robert Wyatt, is married to Alfreda Benge who designs his album covers and also co-writes many of his songs.
  • Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee, the main songwriters of The Vaselines, were a couple until after the release of their first full album. The two of them broke up after that, and the band itself followed suit. While they're no longer a couple, they did eventually reform the band.
  • Within Temptation has common law husband and wife Robert Westerholt and Sharon den Adel as two of its members, on lead guitar and lead vocals, respectively.
  • John Doe and Exene Cervenka of X were the band's vocalists and songwriting partners, and remained so even after their mid-1980s divorce.
  • Debbie Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie. Like John and Exene, they've continued to collaborate musically after they broke up; in fact, they remain best friends.
  • Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel of Mates of State are married. And it makes their music ADORABLE.
  • Singer Tracy Thorn and DJ/remixer Ben Watt got married shortly after forming Everything But the Girl. As of 2000, however, they've taken a hiatus from working as EBTG to raise their children and pursue other musical endeavors.
  • Stereolab's two founding members, Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier, became a couple at about the same time they started the band. They separated in 2004, but continued working together until 2009, when they put Stereolab on hiatus.
  • Reba McEntire is managed by longtime husband Narvel Blackstock.
  • Patty Loveless is married to her producer, Emory Gordy Jr., who also plays bass for her.
  • Vince Gill and Amy Grant.
  • Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood.
  • Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.
  • Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert.
  • Baillie & the Boys is an interesting variant, consisting of Kathie Baillie, husband Michael Bonagura and third member Alan LeBoeuf, the latter of whom was temporarily replaced with Roger McVey.
  • Richard and Linda Thompson were a duo for many years before they divorced.
  • Shania Twain was married to her record producer and co-writer, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, until 2008.
  • Peter Christopherson and Jhonn Balance of COIL. They eventually broke up, but continued to work together until Balance's death in 2004.
  • This trope is quite common in the world of classical music:
    • Cellist/conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and soprano Galina Vishnevskaya
    • Conductor Claudio Abbado and violinist Viktoria Mullova
    • Conductor Daniel Barenboim and his first wife, the famous cellist Jacqueline du Pré
    • Bass Ivo Vinco and mezzo-soprano Fiorenza Cossotto (they divorced in the end; after 40 years of marriage!)
    • Bass Nicolai Ghiaurov and soprano Mirella Freni
    • Bass-baritone Laurent Naouri and soprano Natalie Dessay
    • Bass Ildar Abdrazakov and mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina
    • Baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's first wife was a cellist; until his death in 2012 he was married to the soprano Julia Varady
    • Tenor-soprano couples are also frequent: Montserrat Caballe & Bernabe Martì, Roberto Alagna & Angela Gheorghiu, Fabio Armiliato & Daniela Dessì, etc, etc.
  • Annie Lennox and David Stewart became romantically involved while in the punk bands "The Catch" and "The Tourists". The romantic relationship ended, but they still went on to become Eurythmics.
  • Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker of Sleater Kinney for a while, although they later split up. Their bandmate, Janet Weiss, was in Quasi and Elliot Smith's backing band with her now ex-husband, Sam Coombes.
  • Azam Ali and Loga Ramin Torkian, respectively the singer and instrumentalist in the group Niyaz, are married and have a son.
  • Pat Benatar is married to her long-time lead guitarist Neil Giraldo.
  • Jim "#4" Root of Slipknot and Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil have been dating since 2008.
  • Low's only constant members have been married couple Alan Sparhawk (guitar and vocals) and Mimi Parker (drums and vocals).
  • Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, known as Ashford & Simpson, wrote many R&B/ Disco hits throughout the 60s and 70s. Their most famous songs include "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", sung by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell and "I'm Every Woman", sung by Chaka Khan. They were married for over 40 years until Nickolas Ashford's death of throat cancer in 2011.
  • Subverted by the Silversun Pickups. They used to be this, as indicated by the original name "A Couple of Couples," but a lineup change made the monicker a Non-Indicative Name.
  • Frank Black and his wife Violet Clark have made music as a duo under the name Grand Duchy, where they act as a Vocal Tag Team. She's also contributed bass and backing vocals on Frank Black solo material, and designed the cover of his album Honeycomb.
  • Elvis Costello's second wife Cait O'Riordan, formerly of The Pogues, also appears on some of his records. His third wife, jazz singer/pianist Diana Krall, has covered his song "Almost Blue."

Professional Wrestling

  • In the WWE, there's Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, the current[when?] head writer. Despite Triple H having a lot of influence on his bookings, Vince McMahon still has the final word on everything.
  • In Japan, Kensuke Sasaki and Akira Hokuto.
  • A historical example from Japan, Shohei "Giant" Baba and his wife Motoko. She spent most of her adult life playing his "bad cop." This came back to bite her after his death, with almost all of Baba's Japanese roster joining an untested startup led by top draw Mitsuharu Misawa.

Video Games

Web Comics

  • Yan "Kern" Gagne and Mary "Kite" Garren of Drowtales work on the series together, and originally met through the roleplay section of the site.
  • DeBray and Tracy Bailey of Catena.
  • Mel Hynes and James Grant of Two Lumps.
  • The Life of Nob T. Mouse was all but dead until Jennifer Kirk pushed its creator, Zoe Robinson, into resurrecting it. Now they both work on the comic and have created All Over the House together, too.
  • Yuko and Ananth of Johnny Wander, though their relationship seems so downplayed you'd think they were Platonic Life Partners
  • Questionable Content's Jeph Jacques' business manager is his wife, Cristi.

Western Animation

  • John and Faith Hubley have done animation for Sesame Street and the National Film Board of Canada.
  • Paul and Sandra Fierlinger created the Teeny Little Super Guy for Sesame Street.
  • Bill and Susan Kroyer, the people behind Technological Threat and Fern Gully.
  • Lauren Faust and Craig McCracken, who met during the production of The Powerpuff Girls and worked together on Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.
    • Also an interesting note, while Craig wasn't officially involved with Lauren's mega-popular My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, he did help design the Season 2 villain Discord and was there for her to bounce ideas off of.
  • Klasky-Csupo. The two divorced in 1995 but are still working together on projects.
  • Some of The Simpsons episodes were written by wives of the showrunners
  • The late Wayne Allwine, who provided the voice for Mickey Mouse for 32 years, was married to Russi Taylor, who provided the voice for Minnie.

Real Life

  • First ladies up until the modern age would usually be "seen and not heard", staying completely out of the limelight and concentrating on private matters while their husbands would govern the country/the state. However, this trend began to reverse and resulted in some notable examples:
    • Edith Wilson played a significant role after her husband suffered a debilitating stroke in October 1919, taking over numerous routine duties and, most importantly, decided which matters of state were more important and should be brought to her husband's attention. This caused a moderate constitutional crisis (since First ladies aren't elected) and helped lead to the 25th Amendment several decades later.
    • Eleanor Roosevelt was a prominent author, politician and activist both during her husband's presidency and after his death. She was an activist for civil rights, worked to enhance the status of working women (notably chairing the groundbreaking Presidential Commission on the Status of Women), traveled heavily and was one of the people who drafted the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
    • Lady Bird Johnson was a public supporter of environmental protection.
    • Betty Ford supported women's rights and was one of the first public figures to raise awareness of breast cancer and alcoholism. Her candid comments on Flame Bait topics such as drugs, abortion and gun control also set a precedent. Notably, she had a bigger approval rating than her husband.
    • Nancy Reagan is famous for her "just say no" message in the anti-drug movement.
    • Hillary Clinton was often viewed as her husband's second-in-command, was largely responsible for creating and pushing for his health care plan, and has become such a major national and international figure and in her own right that she has her own page. She was also the first - and so far only - First Lady to have offices located in the West Wing, as opposed to the traditional East Wing. Her staff was collectively known as "Hillaryland." She even was in a position to become a Presidential candidate for the Democratic Party, but lost in the primaries to Barack Obama.
    • Michelle Obama has spearheaded campaigns for organic gardening and against childhood obesity.
  • Emperor Justinian I and Theodora ruled the Byzantine Empire together. He's regarded as one of the empire's best rulers.
  • Marie and Pierre Curie shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics (with Antoine Henri Becquerel) for their work on radioactivity. Their daughter Irene Joliot-Curie later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935, shared with her husband, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, making this a Creator Family.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Creator_Couple?oldid=1927166"