ARIANA DeBose is well-known for her highly successful acting career which has earned her multiple awards.
Fans of the Academy Award winner want to know more about her dating life.
Who has Ariana DeBose dated?
Ariana DeBose is in a relationship with costume designer Sue Makkoo, whom Today referred to as her “longtime love.”
On April 1, 2022, the West Side Story star shared photos with Makkoo on Instagram at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party following her Academy Award victory.
“Grateful to be surrounded by so much love ❤️,” she captioned the post.
According to her LinkedIn page, Makkoo has had a 30-year career, beginning in the international fashion industry and going to Broadway as a “well-respected” designer and costume director.
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She has been involved with Broadway productions like Memphis, Sideshow, Hands on a Hard Body, 33 Variations, Cry Baby, and Come from Away.
She also works as a freelance interior designer and studied at Arizona State University.
Per MyDomaine, Makkoo also renovated and designed DeBose’s decades-old New York cottage.
According to PureWow, the couple met while working on Summer: The Donna Summer Musical in 2018.
Makkoo was the costume associate, and DeBose had a starring role as Disco Donna.
DeBose previously dated Broadway props master Jill Johnson.
In a 2015 interview with Playbill, the former couple opened up about their relationship.
When asked about their first meeting, DeBose said, “We first met on Motown, but we didn’t start dating until I was in Pippin and she was working on If/Then.”
Johnson said, “We had secret access to each other because [the Richard Rodgers and the Music Box theatres] share an alley.”
DeBose added, “There was a secret alley in between the theatres, so during my half hour and for pre-set I would either go through the little doorway and go say ‘Hi’ to her or she’d come say ‘Hi’ to me. It was very… romantic?”
What has Ariana DeBose said about her sexuality?
DeBose opened up about her sexuality during a June 2022 episode of the PEOPLE Every Day podcast.
Per People, the actress previously “celebrated being a queer woman of color” during her Oscars speech in March of that year and discussed how she is not a fan of specific labels while speaking on the podcast.
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“I prefer the term human because your humanity can be described in a myriad of ways, but it does not change the fact that you are human,” she said.
“The fullness of who you are, what it’s like to be queer, out, Latina, Afro-Latina, biracial, or multiracial, however you want to identify… we are moving towards a space where I think it is now more widely accepted to hear all of those labels wrapped up into one person,” she continued.
DeBose’s Best Supporting Actress victory at the 94th Academy Awards for her work in West Side Story saw her make history as the first Afro-Latina actress and the first openly queer woman of color to win an Academy Award in an acting category, per People.
“Imagine this little girl in the backseat of a white Ford Focus. Look into her eyes, you see a queer — openly queer — woman of color, Afro-Latina who found her strength in life through art, and that’s what I believe we are here to celebrate,” she said during her speech.
What has Ariana DeBose said about being LGBTQ+ in Hollywood?
In July 2022, DeBose spoke with British Vogue about being LGBTQ+ in Hollywood.
“As a queer woman of colour I’ve been asked to be more urban, as if my brand of Blackness wasn’t quite Black enough. I think that’s interesting,” she said.
“I’ve also been asked to be more butch, which is not a bad thing. But sometimes you’d like to be able to bring your sheer humanity to a role. I don’t think roles for queer women have to always present in one specific way.
“My experience of the musical theatre community is that we are moving forward. That does not mean that we don’t have our hang-ups, or areas in which we need to continue to grow, if that makes sense.
“But as a queer artist, I have found acceptance within the community. We are moving forward, but we have a lot of work to do in regards to how we tell stories, how we allow humans to be represented within the storytelling. What work we’re willing to back. There’s a lot of work to do.”
When asked what message she would send to her younger self if she could, DeBose responded, “I would tell her that she’s not crazy. And that the things that make you unique are your strengths.
“The way that you love, who you love, how you love – it makes you special, it is your superpower. And never let anyone take that away from you.”