Anya Taylor-Joy has become one of Hollywood’s hottest actresses thanks to her star-making turn in the 2020 Netflix hit, The Queen’s Gambit. Now that’s she’s a high-profile celeb, her love life has become a hot topic among many curious fans—despite the fact that the 25-year-old prefers to keep her romantic pursuits out of the spotlight. So who is Anya Taylor Joy dating? Here’s everything you need to know about The New Mutants star’s boyfriend, Malcolm McRae.
Malcolm McRae Is A Musician
Like his famous girlfriend, McRae is a creative person with a passion for performing. He’s currently one half of the up-and-coming indie rock band More, which McRae formed a number of years ago with a friend and fellow musician Kane Ritchotte. In fact, in a 2020 interview with Rain Magazine, McRae may have suggested that Taylor-Joy helped inspire the band’s name.
“It’s hard these days because a lot of names are already taken,” he said about the challenge of coming up with a unique band name. “You’re a Google search away from realizing a name isn’t an option. I saw my girlfriend, who is an actor, sending an email to someone with a movie poster reference. I was looking at this email and one of the movie posters was called ‘more.’ It had a similar font and was all lowercase and so I showed it to Malcolm and we thought it would be a cool band name.”
More released its second EP, 2/2, in September 2021, along with a music video for the song, “Keeping It in the Family.”
He Also Has Some Acting Credits
McRae has also tried his hand at acting, which is something the multi-talented performer started pursuing as a kid. According to his IMDB bio, the Alabama native was discovered at a talent competition at the tender age of 12, standing out among 1,100 hopefuls to win the title “Over All Young Actor” in 2006.
McRae also starred in an award-winning short film called Brotherly back in 2008, and most recently appeared in a 2020 short film called Howdy!, which was directed by his brother, Keene McRae. Keene also directed the music video for More’s song, “Elaborate Attractions,” in 2020.
Malcolm And Anya Were First Spotted Together In May 2021
The timeline of Anya Taylor-Joy and Malcolm McRae’s relationship isn’t entirely clear. The couple first attracted attention in May of 2021, when they were spotted walking hand in hand and smooching on the streets of New York City. While this was the first time the public saw these two lovebirds together, it was pretty clear the couple had already been dating for some time.
Taylor-Joy had alluded to having a boyfriend in a March 2021 article for Elle, when she explained why she had to join the Zoom-conducted interview from her bathroom. “My partner’s just come back from work, and he’s moving around all of his equipment,” she explained. “So this was the safe spot.” Unfortunately, the actress did not share any further details about her boyfriend or clarify if the two were living together (though it sure sounded like it!).
In fact, it’s entirely possible that the pair have been together for well over a year. That’s because—as we mentioned—McRae said in a 2020 interview that his girlfriend was an actor. While he didn’t mention Taylor-Joy by name (and we suppose it’s possible McRae has dated other actresses in the past), we do know that Taylor-Joy was not linked romantically with anyone else during that time (or since). In a 2021 interview with Vanity Fair, the 25-year-old actress gave this info away when speaking about an experience she had filming the movie Emma in 2019. “Prior to filming, I’d just had a devastating breakup, and it had challenged everything,” she said. “I was just incredibly insecure and very, very unsafe in my own skin.”
So this means there’s no concrete evidence to disprove the theory that McRae was speaking of Taylor-Joy in his 2020 interview. Of course, we’ll probably never know for sure, as both McRae and Taylor-Joy like to keep a lid on their personal lives. “There’s a beauty in being anonymous, there’s a reason why we’re actors,” the Last Night in Soho said in a 2018 interview with The Guardian. “We’re playing other people so I think the idea of someone being interested in me, I’m quite a private person, is a bit daunting but I try not to think about it.”
They’re Instagram Official
The one thing we do know for sure is that adorable duo is most definitely together today. While Taylor-Joy has continued to keep quiet about her love life, McRae recently made the relationship Instagram official, posting a sweet pic of the pair holding hands with the lovely dovey caption, “Oof supremely happy.”
We can’t wait until this cute couple starts appearing together on the red carpet! Based on what Taylor-Joy said in an interview with Crash Magazine, it’s obvious these two creative minds were meant for each other. “I pretty much don’t do anything that’s not creative. Not out of choice, it’s just the way I was born,” the Glass actress said. “I’ve always needed creative outlets. I’ll go and have a full day on set and then come home and write poems and dance around in my room, read somebody else’s work, go see an art exhibition… Everything has to come from a place of art. All that keeps me sane.”