A sometimes unwanted side effect of living one’s life as a celebrity is the fact that many fans feel entitled to know every detail of one’s personal life. Every actor, musician, and well-known creative has to make a personal decision about how to handle this and what they will allow to be public knowledge. It’s a difficult balancing act, but one that actor Constance Wu handles with imperfect grace. She leans more towards keeping her private life to herself which is why not much is known about her musician boyfriend and baby daddy Ryan Kattner. Before we examine what we do know, let’s take a look back at Wu’s beginnings and her career to see why fans care so much in the first place.
Constance Wu: a brief bio
Wu was born on March 22, 1982 in Richmond, Virginia to Taiwanese parents. She grew up with three sisters and developed a love of performing at an early age. She attended Douglas S. Freeman High School where she was active in the theater department. She would go on to graduate from SUNY Purchase with a BFA in Acting in 2005.
One of Wu’s first roles out of college was in the 2006 film What She Knew. She also appeared on the television shows Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Torchwood, and Covert Affairs.
Wu moved from New York to Los Angeles to get over a broken heart. It was a good thing she did, because in LA she booked a breakout role that would catapult her career in 2014. Her work as Jessica Huang on the comedy series Fresh Off the Boat would make her a household name.
Fresh off her sitcom success, in 2017 Wu starred in the hit romantic comedy film Crazy Rich Asians as Rachel Chu. This highly successful film is slated to have two sequels.
In 2019 she showed a grittier side of her work in the film Hustlers which also starred Jennifer Lopez. Her character Destiny is a former stripper who hustles wealthy men out of their money.
Wu’s memoir Making a Scene, released in 2022, goes into the full story of her rise to popularity. It does not shy away from the more difficult aspects of being a woman in Hollywood. Wu accuses one unnamed Fresh off the Boat producer of sexual harassment and is also open about times she fell short as a colleague on the series.
Most recently, Wu has returned to her family friendly roots with the musical film Lyle, Lyle Crocodile based on the popular children’s book of the same name. She has said that she is especially happy to be a part of this film because she can show it someday to her daughter:
“I started my TV career doing a family show, which was amazing. And now that I have a kid, it’s something I can hopefully share with her. If she could sit still for more than 10 minutes, which is not yet but hopefully someday soon, she’s only 2.”
Wu and Kattner’s daughter is not the only one who will be able to watch Lyle someday. Wu confirmed in her Instagram stories on Feb. 21, 2023 that she and Kattner are expecting baby number two.
What we know about Ryan
This brings us back to Kattner, who is a musician and lead singer of the alternative rock band Man Man, which has been together for almost 20 years. He goes by the stage name Honus Honus when performing. Their first album came out in 2004 and is titled The Man In The Blue Turban With A Face. Since its release, the band has completed five other albums. In 2016, Kattner also dropped a solo album titled Use Your Delusion.
Constance and Ryan
Because Wu and Kattner are notoriously private, it is unknown how they met or how long they have been dating. The first indication of their relationship came out in 2018 when Wu gave an interview to Bust, but she did not name Kattner officially. In this interview she let it slip that she owned a rabbit and when she introduced the bunny to her boyfriend, they gave their hop of approval. This made Wu believe that this unnamed boyfriend was something special.
“With my boyfriend, he was just himself when he first met my bunny, which was a while ago. He’s not really an animal person, but he’s a great person person,” Wu disclosed.
Wu and Kattner were not officially out as a couple until the birth of their daughter in 2020.
Before Kattner, Wu was romantically linked to actor and director Ben Hethcoat.
