'Insecure' Actor Reveals Engagement
Issa Rae and Jay Ellis aren't the only Insecure alums who have recently tied the knot. Jean Ellie, who starred in the HBO comedy series as Rae's character's brother Ahmal, popped the question to his girlfriend, Randall Bailey. The two first met in 2015, and their chemistry wasn't necessarily there. He overheard her venting to a friend about an ex and opted to give her some sound advice. "We get to the beach, I turn around, and he walks by us. He's like, 'You should get rid of that guy, he sounds like a loser,'" she recalled in a recent joint interview with ESSENCE Magazine. "Then he walks to the same party I was going to. I'm like, 'Oh my God, he is so cute.'" They didn't make a connection that night, but Bailey couldn't get him out of her mind.
She found Elie online and slid into his DMs, inviting him out for drinks. They began dating, but he was hesitant to be in a serious relationship as his career was booming and he relished in living the solo bachelor life. "I got cold feet," he admits. "But when we broke up, I constantly kept thinking about her. Then after Insecure and after a couple bad situations, someone was asking me, 'Who would you talk to?' There was only one girl I missed, and I ended up messaging her. I found my person." Luckily, she was on board to try it again.
The couple took a trip to Greece in May, and while on excursions, she noticed he was antsy. It's because he was planning to pop the question. While enjoying drinks back at their vacation home, as fireworks simultaneously went off, he felt it was the perfect time to ask for her hand in marriage.
"I said, this is beautiful. It can't be anything better than this," he remembered. "I said, 'There's a lot of things I want in life, and right now the only thing I want is you. Will you marry me?' She said yes, and then she was like, 'This is f–king really happening!' I said, 'Yes, the f–k it is.'"
While he's planning his nuptials, Rae recently celebrated her one-year anniversary with her longtime love after tying the knot last year in France. Ellis married his longtime love a few weeks ago in a ceremony in Italy.