The Truth About Emma Stone's Fiance

Emma Stone is a notoriously private celebrity. She shies away from both social media and the paparazzi. As a result, we don't know a whole lot about her relationship to Saturday Night Live writer and director Dave McCary, but we do know one thing: the actress is finally getting bridesmaids for real.

The last time we saw Stone as an impromptu bride was when she won an Oscar for LaLa Land. The star had her gal pals dress up as faux bridesmaids as she donned a white dress and posed with her golden statue as the groom. Honestly, we ship it. Today, the Easy A actress has plans to marry something other than her career (though there's nothing wrong with that). In a sweet and exceedingly rare Instagram post, McCary, who's been dating the star for a couple of years, announced the pair's engagement.

So, who exactly is McCary. This funny guy isn't a fellow A-lister, but he's certainly brimming with talent.

After Emma Stone's third hosting gig on Saturday Night Live, it looks like the actress walked away with a new man — sort of. Stone may not have officially started dating Dave McCary on the spot, but according to People, she did meet the SNL writer and segment director in December of 2016 when she hosted the show and starred in a sketch directed by McCary called "Wells for Boys."

Stone is somewhat of an SNL frequent. According to Entertainment Weekly, the actress hosted in 2010, 2011 and 2016. She also made numerous appearances, included a drop-in when her then-boyfriend Andrew Garfield hosted in 2014. Regardless, she admitted that she was still pretty nervous coming back around to host in the wake of the 2016 election.

"The timing is crazy," she told Entertainment Weekly. "But I'm just gonna go along for the ride. When I talk to people who are hosting SNL for the first time, they're always like, 'I have so many ideas!' And I tell them, 'That's cool that you have so many ideas, but unless you're a hardcore stand-up comedian, they've got it covered.'" 

Timing is crazy indeed. If she never hosted, she may have never met McCary, and from the looks of it, she really respects his work. If that's not the foundation for a great relationship, what is?

Emma Stone and Dave McCary weren't romantically linked until nearly a year after they first met, and part of it is because the pair are so unbelievably private it's hard to tell what's going on. Remember when Stone and her now-ex Andrew Garfield hid from the paps while simultaneously promoting a bunch of charities? Remember when they did it again two years later? She's kind of a master of disguise at this point.

According to Page Six TV, who broke the new couple news, Stone reappeared on Saturday Night Live as a surprise guest alongside her La La Land co-star Ryan Gosling in October 2017. She also hit up the afterparty, but did this have anything to do with her potential new love interest? A source that spoke to People claimed Stone and McCary had already been dating for at least three months when the news became public — and we were none the wiser.

Per Elle, the couple basically went into hiding "for nearly a year" after that. They weren't spotted in public again until McCary hit up her holiday party in December 2018, where they were "attached at the hip," according to Us Weekly. Honestly, you have to give the pair props for being able to fly completely under the radar. That's no easy feat in an era filled with smartphones.

Emma Stone and Dave McCary are so lowkey that their debut as a couple at a high-profile event didn't even include a joint red carpet walk, and it happened two years after they were first romantically linked. That's some secret to keep under wraps. According to Elle, Stone finally brought McCary to the Screen Actors Guild Awards in January 2019. This made their relationship official in the public eye, at least if you're not the kind of person to read into the onslaught of tabloid rumors that already told us they were an item. 

During the SAG Awards, McCary brushed elbows with some of Stone's celeb colleagues. She reportedly introduced him to her Aloha co-star Bradley Cooper, and while the couple did not walk the carpet together, they were seated next to each other for the event. Just a few days prior to the awards show, Elle reports the pair was snapped being adorable at a basketball game. 

The following month, McCary was Stone's plus one to the Oscars, where she was nominated for The Favourite. Yet again, the pair did not pose on the red carpet together, although there are snaps of McCary walking on the part of the red carpet that's not loaded with photographers.

Emma Stone and Dave McCary are so private that it's kind of shocking they posted a selfie featuring the actress' engagement ring to begin with. In fact, McCary's entire Instagram account reads like an homage to his childhood BFF and current co-worker Kyle Mooney. Stone doesn't even have an Instagram account (though her best pal Jennifer Lawrence has a finsta, so we can't rule that out). Anyway, the real point is that the couple are private as heck, so we're still kind of wondering if the engagement ring rumors that circled around in April 2019 were actually the real deal.

According to the Daily Mail, which isn't exactly the arbiter of true celebrity facts, Stone was spotted stepping out with what appeared to be a diamond ring on that finger. Of course, as an Oscar-winning actress, Stone can afford her own darn diamond ring. Maybe she just liked how it looked. She's also known to play games with the paps, so it's possible she was just getting in a few laughs. But then Stone and McCary stepped out for some groceries, where the paps caught Stone again rocking a ring on that special digit (shown above). Granted, anything could be an engagement ring, right? But to our untrained eyes, we can't really see anything that looks like a traditional engagement ring, per se. At this point, it's probably safe the pair was not engaged then, but you never know.

Date night looks a little bit different when you're dating an Academy Award-winning actress. For one thing, Dave McCary's probably not getting half-price apps at Applebees. For the Hollywood couple, double dating with one of the world's biggest pop stars at a swanky after party is just business as usual. What a life!

According to Us Weekly, the couple enjoyed a not-so-casual date night following the Golden Globes in January 2019 at Fox's after party in the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Emma Stone was fresh off her nomination for The Favourite, and later joined by her co-star Joe Alwyn and his girlfriend, 10-time Grammy winner Taylor Swift (remember, Stone allegedly played matchmaker for the pair). According to an alleged insider who spoke to Us Weekly, "Emma and Dave were super touchy-feely and affectionate which seemed to make Taylor more comfortable doing the same with Joe. It seemed like a very fun and lighthearted date night."

Our lighthearted date nights typically include watching Netflix and ordering Seamless, but okay, McCary. You do you!

It's a little early to make the call on who will be Dave McCary's best man at the wedding, but our bets are on Kyle Mooney. People reports that the pair have been best friends since childhood, and now they're co-workers at Saturday Night Live.  

According to the Chicago Tribune, Mooney and McCary initially bonded over collecting baseball cards in sixth grade. This eventually blossomed into a lifelong creative partnership. The pair graduated from high school and both attended the University of Southern California. In 2007, they also launched a successful YouTube comedy sketch channel called Good Neighbor, which eventually led to them getting some serious attention from SNL. Today, they remain each other's support system through the tough, high-pressure environment of making a weekly, live sketch comedy show.

"This might be a stretch for a metaphor, but it's like how twins supposedly have their own language; I think that's what [McCary] and I have," Mooney told the Chicago Tribune of his best friend. "We've worked together and hung out so often, we can just give each other looks."

If you need proof that the duo are practically inseparable, just look at McCary's Instagram account.

Dave McCary isn't just a segment director and writer for Saturday Night Live. He's also a legitimate film director. The star made his feature length directorial debut in 2017 with Brigsby Bear, an independent film featuring megastars like Mark Hamill and Claire Danes. Of course, his longtime collaborator Mooney, also co-wrote and starred in the flick. According to Deadline, the film made its rounds at Cannes and Sundance. Refinery29 reported that Stone even attended the premiere, but the entire production wouldn't have been possible without McCary and Mooney's long-standing friendship.

"I've been very fortunate to be working alongside my best friend over the past couple of decades from our high school band to internet videos, to SNL to this film," McCary told Deadline. "I think we've faced all the typical challenges that young filmmakers go through over the years — time, money, negativity — but it's a lot easier to manage when you can learn from and laugh about all those mistakes and anxieties with your best pal."

In 2019, McCary also lent his directorial skills to the HBO comedy special My Favorite Shapes by Julio Torres, which features Ryan Gosling as the voice of a blue racing penguin and McCary's fiancée as the voice of a shoe.

Even before Dave McCary started working with SNL in 2013, the writer had received some pretty massive attention for his comedy work. According to Vulture, he co-founded the comedy troupe Good Neighbors in 2007 alongside his fellow USC classmates Kyle Mooney, Beck Bennett, and Nick Rutherford. Their YouTube channel exploded, gathering millions of views, and the group signed a deal with Maker Studios to release both group and individual content on their respective YouTube channels. Good Neighbor also established itself with live sketch performances at LA's Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.

Ultimately, both Mooney and Bennett were hired on Saturday Night Live alongside McCary, but before that, the group was filming a Will Ferrell and Adam McKay-produced Comedy Central pilot, The Good Neighbor Show. SNL reportedly wanted the group so badly that they were "working with Comedy Central to get them out of their deal," per Vulture. Since landing a job on the famed NBC series, McCary has been nominated for three Emmy Awards and won a Writers Guild Award.

Granted, McCary”s still far from Emma Stone's level, considering she was once the world's highest paid actress, but the guy is clearly talented, and certainly not unfamiliar with a good old Hollywood awards show.

Emma Stone is a self-admitted sensitive person. In an Elle interview, the actress admitted that she started having panic attacks when she was seven years old. "I'm sensitive on a level that is problematic," she said. In that regard, it seems like Dave McCary is actually a great match for the actress, because the writer and director seems pretty laid back and lowkey. Perhaps they balance each other out.  

An anonymous source who spoke to People admitted that McCary doesn't want to be famous. He's just a chill guy looking to chill out while he works. "He's never wanted to be famous himself, he's wanted to showcase his funny friends and make work that lets him hang out with them," said the insider. "Even in party situations he's lowkey and doesn't crave attention and is okay bouncing and doing something more chill. I could definitely see how that would be appealing to someone like Emma. He's just a great, cute, talented guy."

Excuse us, but where can we get a lowkey, funny guy like McCary?

In a 2018 Elle interview in which Stone was questioned by her BFF Jennifer Lawrence, she revealed quite a bit about what she wants in the future. At the onset of age 30, the star seemed to have completely changed her perspective on family. Initially, she wasn't into the idea of getting married or having kids. Needless to say, we know she totally threw that out the window because girl is planning a wedding (or at least basking in the glow of her new engagement).

"My perspective about kids has changed as I've gotten older. I never babysat or anything," she told Lawrence. "As a teenager, I was like, I'm never getting married, I'm never having kids. And then I got older and I was like, I really want to get married, I really want to have kids."

The curious thing is that Stone was dating Dave McCary at the time of the interview (even if they were rarely seen in public together). Is he the one who managed to change her mind when it came to family and marriage? If so, we can't think of anything to say other than awww and man, are those kids going to be hysterical.

Okay, here's the important stuff everyone wants to know: what's the deal with the ring? Dave McCary probably spent a hefty chunk of cash on Emma Stone's rock, at least if you're going by Us Weekly's estimate. The actual stone is blurred out in the Instagram photo, but it seems like it might be a diamond that's around 3 or 3.5 carats or a 7 to 10mm pearl, depending on who you ask. That is not small. It also appears to be surrounded by a halo of diamonds — or at least half of a halo — and a diamond-encrusted, gold band. 

According to Brilliant Earth's Kathryn Money, who spoke to Us Weekly, the ring likely ran the SNL director $30,000 to $60,000 if it's a diamond or $5,000 to $10,000 if it's a pearl. Ritani gemologist Ryan Kelsie, who spoke to The Knot said, "The average industry price has recently increased for pearls. Non-diamond engagement rings have surged in popularity in recent years as many couples prefer the price point of alternative stones ... Vintage engagement rings are also trending for their classic charm."

Of course Stone is always on-trend, but it seems like McCary also has some really great taste if he picked out the ring himself.

In 2019, Emma Stone expanded her property portfolio. According to Variety, the star purchased a $2.3 million home for a family member in Westwood, Calif. (just steps from the ultra-luxe Los Angeles Country Club) and a $3.25 million home for herself in Malibu, Calif. The latter is a ranch-style house that rests on a cliff side plot of land, and has a view of Las Tunas Beach. It sounds amazing, and it turns out that may just be the home she shares with Dave McCary when he's not working on SNL in New York.

According to a December 2019 People report, McCary and Stone took a huge leap before they decided to tie the knot. A source claimed the pair "got a home together in Malibu over the summer," which tracks with the timing of Variety's report. From what we gather, it'd make sense if the pair was shacked up in Stone's new property. As of this writing, it's not exactly clear where (or if) the pair live in New York. Considering Stone works in Los Angeles and McCary works in the Big Apple, it's likely they're living a bi-coastal lifestyle, but in 2017, she was reportedly trying to sell the Chelsea Townhouse she previously shared with Andrew Garfield.