Jason Ritter and wife Melanie Lynskey are a hot Hollywood power couple. In 2025, he’s riding high on CBS’ Matlock and she’s celebrating season 3 of Showtime’s Yellowjackets. “He’s the most supportive person in the world,” Melanie gushed to People about her husband in 2024, about how they help each other’s careers. Closer takes a look at Melanie’s amazing career and family life with Jason.
Who Is Melanie Lynskey?
Melanie is an actress who was born in New Plymouth, New Zealand, in May 1977. She’s the oldest of five children. Melanie became interested in acting while working in her high school’s drama department.
“I did plays at church. I did plays at school. I did local theater. And then when I was a teenager, I started to say, well, that’s what I want to do for a living. And people just thought it was crazy. That’s not really a job, you know? It was really not seen as being, like, a viable career,” she told NPR in March 2023.
Melanie Lynskey Starred Opposite Kate Winslet in Her 1st Movie Role
Talk about a big break! Melanie was cast in her first on-screen acting role as shy Pauline Parker opposite Kate Winslet‘s daring Juliet Hulme in Peter Jackson‘s 1994 film Heavenly Creatures. The movie received widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar.
The duo starred as teenagers who became obsessed with each other and killed Pauline’s mother, based on the real-life 1954 Parker-Hulme murder case in Christchurch, New Zealand.
“They came to my high school. There was just one day. Somebody said, ‘Oh, some people are here auditioning for a movie.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, this is a good thing to put on my application to drama school, to say I auditioned for a movie, so I have that experience.’ I don’t know what I was thinking,” Melanie recalled to NPR.
“I’d got flown to Christchurch, where they were filming. Peter showed me Kate Winslet’s audition tape and said, ‘This is how good you have to be. This is a professional actress from England who we’ve found. And she’s this good.’ And I said, all right. Let me give it a try. And I did another audition, and I got the job. It was, really, a very, very lucky thing to have happen,” she added.
Melanie followed up Heavenly Creatures by playing one of Drew Barrymore‘s stepsisters in 1998’s Ever After: A Cinderella Story.
Melanie Lynskey Starred in ‘Two and a Half Men’
After appearing in more films including Coyote Ugly and Sweet Home Alabama, Melanie got a steady TV gig playing the recurring role of Rose on CBS’ hit sitcom Two and a Half Men from 2003 through 2015.
How Did Jason Ritter and Melanie Lynskey Meet?
As two talented actors in their own right, the pair met while costarring alongside each other in the 2013 film The Big Ask. The duo began dating that year and worked together again in the 2014 rom-com We’ll Never Have Paris. Jason and Melanie and got engaged in 2017.
Melanie Lynskey Said Jason Ritter Fumbled His Marriage Proposal
Melanie told the story of how she thought Jason was breaking up with her when he was trying to propose during an April 2024 appearance on The Tonight Show.
“The day before, I had been looking at rings, and I tried one on,” she recalled. “I was like, ‘Oh, it kind of looks like an engagement ring, almost. I don’t think I’m going to get it.’” Jason ended up buying the ring and giving it to her, but in such a low key way, “It didn’t sort of cross my mind [that it was a proposal].”
“And then there was this strange speech. We were just sort of sitting there. He had paused whatever [TV show], The Bachelor. And I was just sort of like, ‘Oh, OK.’” Melanie explained. She was so confused by the proposal she asked Jason if he was breaking up with her. “He was like, ‘No, no, no.’ So I said, ‘OK,’ and then I was like, ‘Well, thank you. Lovely. Good chat?’”
Melanie didn’t realize she accepted a marriage proposal. She added, “Then, three days later, we went to meet his family for Christmas, and he said, ‘We’re engaged.’”
The couple married in 2020.
Melanie Lynskey and Jason Ritter Are Parents
The couple welcomed a daughter in December 2018, sharing the news with fans the following month.
“We feel lucky to have been able to have our news just be for friends and family for a while, but I guess the story got out, so! Yes! @JasonRitter and I had a daughter in December,” Melanie wrote in a January 2019 post on Twitter. “We love her so much, she’s perfect. Thanks to everyone for your sweet messages.”
Melanie Lynskey Said Jason Ritter Is Supportive of Her Career
“The last few years we’ve had this role of like, whoever’s job makes the most sense, whether it’s the most exciting career-wise or it’s more money, we would prioritize the one that was going to help move the person’s career forward,” Melanie told People in April 2024, while expressing how “grateful” she was to Jason.
She added, “I think a lot of men don’t have that kind of self-esteem and that respect for their partner. I’m grateful that I have someone who does.”
