Jacob Martin Hoff said, “It was love at first cackle,” when he met Samantha Wynn Greenstone in the lobby of the theater at the Welk, a resort in Escondido, Calif., on Nov. 30, 2015. The two, both actors, were attending a callback for “Fiddler on the Roof.”
“From the lobby I heard Samantha’s cackle at the end of the song and instantly thought whoever just made that sound is an immaculate human,” Mr. Hoff said. Ms. Greenstone had been auditioning for the role of the witch Fruma-Sarah.
He ran up to her and recalled saying, “If they don’t give you that part, they are crazy.”
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Both were cast in the production, and they saw each other again on Jan. 8, 2016, at their first rehearsal. A week later, they hung out for the first time at Ms. Greenstone’s villa at the Welk, where out-of-town performers are housed. “We never stopped hanging out pretty much every single day after,” Mr. Hoff said.
The show closed on April 24, 2016, and the two spent as much time together as they could “in both Los Angeles and San Diego, depending on where the other one was working at the time,” Mr. Hoff said.
Eighteen months after they met, Ms. Greenstone was starting to struggle with the feelings she was having for Mr. Hoff despite the fact that he identified as gay.
So, on July 17, 2017, she went to an energy healer in San Diego, where she was doing a show, to seek some guidance. “I was living in utter confusion,” Ms. Greenstone said. Although she had plenty of gay friends in her life, this was different.
“There was a spark,” Ms. Greenstone said. “It felt like this magnetism that was so powerful. The energy healer gave me what I needed to talk to him. She said, ‘you two share a spiritual umbilical chord’.”
Ms. Greenstone took the healer’s words as confirmation. “It was like someone had found the words to explain our connection and package it in a way that made me finally understand what we had between us,” she said.
Later that day, she texted Mr. Hoff, who was then in Los Angeles, and asked if he had feelings for her beyond friendship.
“I was like, ‘Oh my goodness. I can’t believe she did this,’” Mr. Hoff said. “The answer was yes. But then I was scared. I thought, ‘If I can’t make this work physically, it could ruin everything.’”
Mr. Hoff texted back, “What do you mean?” Ms. Greenstone was frozen. But then he added, “Of course, I feel more for you.”
On July 23, 2017, Mr. Hoff went to San Diego to see Ms. Greenstone perform in the musical “Animal Crackers.” After, they had dinner for a friend’s birthday, and then “Jacob slept over with me at my friend’s house and we became a couple,” Ms. Greenstone said.
When the show closed three weeks later, Ms. Greenstone moved in with Mr. Hoff in Los Angeles. And on March 1, 2018, they moved to Beverly Hills together, where they now live.
“I am gay, and as a gay person, you can keep your identity as that even if you’re relationship doesn’t match that,” said Mr. Hoff, describing the relationship as mixed orientation. “We have a monogamous relationship. It’s beyond a visual lustful connection. It’s a soulful connection.”
“When he looks at me, I feel like the most treasured, attractive, amazing person in the world,” Ms. Greenstone said. “I feel the way you feel when you’re 12 years old, and you’re watching a romance story that makes you weak in the knees.”
Ms. Greenstone, 37, who was born and raised in San Diego, has a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Arizona. Mr. Hoff, 31, who is from Olympia, Wash., studied acting and filmmaking at Grossmont College in El Cajon, Calif. Both are also social media influencers.
Mr. Hoff proposed to Ms. Greenstone on the red carpet at the entrance to the Beverly Hills Hotel on Dec. 10, 2023. It was the fifth night of Hanukkah, and the two had just had dinner at Sugarfish.
The hotel was all decked out for Christmas. “I was infatuated by the display, particularly into the giant pink nutcrackers that are literally my height,” Ms. Greenstone said. “I was already completely in a mesmerized haze.”
Right then, “Jacob said, ‘Little lady, I love you more than anything,’” Ms. Greenstone recalled. He got down on one knee and proposed.
They went to the Polo Lounge inside the hotel for champagne and chocolate soufflé. When the pianist learned of their engagement and love story, he started playing a “Fiddler on the Roof” medley. “It was the kind of magic you want to bottle up,” Ms. Greenstone said.
The couple wed at the Kabbalah Center in Boca Raton, Fla., on Nov. 25, a Monday, because that is generally when theaters are dark. Rabbi Yosef Shvili, who works at the center, led a traditional Jewish ceremony in front of 34 guests. Mr. Hoff had recently converted to Judaism, although, he said, “I’ve been celebrating the traditions for the last eight years.”
An intimate reception at the Boca Raton hotel followed.
The couple said they really leaned into their “campy musical theater” personalities for the ceremony. Mr. Hoff walked down the aisle to the scream in “The Phantom of the Opera,” and Ms. Greenstone entered to Dionne Warwick’s “I’ll Never Love This Way Again.”
“Maybe love is more than check the boxes,” Ms. Greenstone said. “It’s just a pure love story in the simplest terms.”
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