On Feb. 16, 2019, Emil Ari Weinstein had a good feeling. He had just seen “Daddy,” a new play by Jeremy O. Harris, and was on his way to a dance party hosted by Papi Juice, an art collective in New York that celebrates queer and trans people of color. The performance of the play had gone well and the party was lively, but Mr. Weinstein couldn’t stop thinking about his friend, Dr. Alix Esther Masters, who was there with him.
The two had met about a year and a half earlier, when Mr. Weinstein was completing his graduate degree at the Yale School of Drama, and Dr. Masters was pursuing a graduate degree in bioethics at Columbia.
Dr. Masters, who had often worked on film sets while growing up in Los Angeles, helped Mr. Weinstein produce his first short film, “Candace,” after a mutual friend suggested he hire Dr. Masters. They quickly became friends, and worked on another of Mr. Weinstein’s short films together. Though their friendship was platonic, both Dr. Masters and Mr. Weinstein had developed feelings.
“I had a crush on Alix for a really long time, and I was sort of like, maybe something’s going to happen tonight,” said Mr. Weinstein, 33, about that evening more than five years ago, even though there were “no signs pointing toward that.”
The two danced all night, and when the D.J. played “Get Low” by Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz, they shared their first kiss.
“The day we kissed for the first time I knew that I loved Em, and that we would be together forever,” Dr. Masters, 31, said.
“I kind of did, too,” Mr. Weinstein said.
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The next day, Mr. Weinstein went over to Dr. Masters’s apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where they talked about their feelings for each other. They were nervous about risking their friendship, but decided to give dating a try.
For the first few months of their relationship, Mr. Weinstein was finishing his master’s in New Haven, Conn., and Dr. Masters was living in New York. They visited each other often, and after he graduated, Mr. Weinstein moved to New York and Dr. Masters moved to Philadelphia, where she began medical school at Thomas Jefferson University.
They continued dating long distance for a few more months, until pandemic lockdowns began, and Mr. Weinstein, who was able to work remotely while writing for the television series “A League of Their Own,” moved to Philadelphia to live with Dr. Masters.
In May 2022, Mr. Weinstein proposed while on a trip with friends to Lake Como, Italy. The proposal was private, but to celebrate, their friends decorated their Airbnb, and they all took a boat ride on the lake to dinner.
In June 2023, the couple moved to Los Angeles, where they currently live.
“Alix is the most brilliant person that I’ve ever met,” Mr. Weinstein said. “But she’s also the most gentle, kind, empathetic, moral, generous person.”
Mr. Weinstein, who grew up in New York City, is a writer and director for film, television and theater. He holds a bachelor’s degree in theater from Smith College, where he graduated summa cum laude, in addition to his master’s degree in fine arts from Yale.
Dr. Masters, raised in Los Angeles, is currently completing her residency in internal medicine at U.C.L.A. She has a bachelor’s degree from Vassar College, a master’s degree from Columbia and a medical degree from Thomas Jefferson.
The couple were married Sept. 21 at Dr. Masters’s parents’ home in Sagaponack, N.Y. Rabbi Abby Stein, a friend of the couple and a rabbi at Kolot Chayeinu in Brooklyn, officiated in front of 200 guests.
“The thing I love most about Em is that he is a creator,” Dr. Masters said. “Every single day, he makes something that wasn’t there the day before.”
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