It was an eventful week of quarantine for Booksmart actress Billie Lourd, 27, and her longtime partner, Austen Rydell, 28. He announced via Instagram that the pair got engaged following more than four years of dating. “💍💍💍She said YES!! (Actually she said ‘Duhhh’) But I guess that’s even better than yes?!? 💗🤪🎉🎰💥🍾 ” Rydell captioned a series of photos from their relationship on Instagram.
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Ahead, what you need to know about Lourd’s new fiancé and his family’s own showbiz ties.
Rydell is a fellow actor and producer.
It’s unclear how Rydell and Lourd met, but both are in the entertainment industry. While Lourd has co-starred in projects including American Horror Story and Scream Queens, Rydell has a few smaller acting credits to his name. He appeared in the 2001 TNT James Dean biopic, a 2006 episode of the Nickelodeon series Unfabulous, and in the 2013 short film Millie and Jerry.
More notably, Rydell is the president of entertainment at Morning Moon Productions, which he founded alongside Kyle Owens in 2018. According to his website bio, Austen graduated NYU Tisch School of the Arts in 2012 with a BFA in Theatre. From there, he focused on event production, becoming chief operating officer at CrowdFood and founding events such as the Downtown LA Donut Festival and Fairfax Outpost.
Last October, the company’s official Instagram wished Lourd’s late mother Carrie Fisher a happy birthday, sharing a video of Lourd singing with The Moon Brothers, who handle music production at Morning Moon.
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He and Lourd both come from show-biz families.
The world first became familiar with Lourd as the daughter of Fisher and granddaughter of actress Debbie Reynolds. Lourd’s father is talent agent Bryan Lourd. Per Rydell’s online bio, he comes from a similar Hollywood background. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, and “grew up in a family of actors and directors.” His grandmother was Joanne Linville, who co-founded the Stella Adler Acting Conservatory and co-starred in 1976’s A Star Is Born and a 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone.
Rydell and Lourd have been dating on-off for four years.
The newly-engaged couple has been in each other’s lives since at least 2015, dating back to Rydell’s first Instagram photo of Lourd. Since then, they’ve dated on and off, sharing their travels and milestones on social media. On August 9, Rydell commemorated their anniversary on the ‘gram. A few days later, Lourd announced that the couple had adopted a puppy named Pony.
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Lourd hasn’t shared news of her engagement just yet, last posting about Rydell in April. “🎉💑🎉Happy birthday to my #quaranteenagedream @avstenrydell #iloveyouisanunderstatement !!! 💝❤️💖💜💓💙💗💛💘🧡💚💞🖤💕” she captioned a series of photos for Rydell’s birthday.
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According to People, Lourd and Rydell last reconciled in 2017, shortly after her split from Scream Queens co-star Taylor Lautner. “They [Lourd and Lautner] aren’t together anymore but they are still friendly,” a source told People at the time. “She’s really focused on her work right now.” The couple dated for about eight months, getting together just before the tragic deaths of Fisher and Reynolds only days apart.
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He’s close to members of Lourd’s family.
After reconciling, Rydell and Lourd were first spotted together again on a family trip to Norway commemorating the anniversary of Fisher’s death. People reported that the couple went to see the Northern Lights along with her father Bryan and his husband, businessman Bruce Bozzi. In March 2019, Rydell accompanied Lourd at a Bloomingdale’s event in Century City, California, posing for a photo alongside her fathers.
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