Zoe Lister-Jones was proud to attend Sunday’s Spirit Awards, and the reason is twofold. First, the multi-hyphenate talent turned up in Santa Monica to support a pair of nominations for Roku’s Slip, the original series she created, starred in and executive produced alongside a team that includes Dakota Johnson. Reason number two: She did so by walking into the event hand-in-hand with a new love in her life.
When the subject of her plus-one came up during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the 41-year-old Lister-Jones responded with a big reveal: “I’m here, I’m queer, I have some fear but I’m working through it.” Lister-Jones is in a new relationship with a fellow filmmaker, Sammi Cohen, who most recently directed Netflix’s You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, the teen comedy starring Adam Sandler and family including wife Jackie and their daughters Sadie and Sunny. Cohen is also known for Hulu’s Crush starring Rowan Blanchard, Auli’i Cravalho and Isabella Ferreira.
Lister-Jones revealed her relationship status after being asked about the Spirit Award’s gender-neutral acting categories. “I’m so grateful to Film Independent for really being pioneers in that area. All award shows should follow in their footsteps and make categories genderless. I’m dating a nonbinary person. I’m friends with so many nonbinary people. And I think that without really shifting the paradigm in a larger way, it’s closing a lot of doors for really important voices,” she said.
Zoe Lister-Jones and Sammi Cohen at the Spirit Awards in Santa Monica.
JC Olivera/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images
Asked to elaborate on the relationship, she called it an exciting development. “They’re an amazing filmmaker in their own right,” said Lister-Jones, who previously dropped some hints like a cheeky Instagram post from last July with a caption that read, “queer ultimatium #happypride.” “The Independent Spirit Awards is about independence of spirit. It’s about defying categorization. It’s about defying formula. It’s also where I’ve been recognized for my work this award season, and so I’m really proud to be here on many fronts, in terms of my work and also where I’m at in my life.”
Zoe Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein at the premiere of their film How It Ends in L.A. on July 15, 2021.
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
Lister-Jones was previously married to filmmaker Daryl Wein. The couple had been together for 17 years, married for nine, and spent the majority of that time working as creative partners as well. Lister-Jones filed for divorce in September 2022, citing “irreconcilable differences.” During an appearance on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast the previous year, she told the host that she and Wein had gone “in and out of an open relationship,” despite the challenges of having a “constantly engaged” jealous muscle when he would engage in relations with other people. “It’s why I have so much indigestion,” she quipped at the time.
They are now on good terms, however. “I’m still very close with my ex-husband. We made a lot of films together,” she continued to THR, referencing such works as the relationship dramedy Breaking Upwards, Consumed, Lola Versus and most recently the apocalyptic comedy How it Ends. The latter film, released amid the pandemic in 2021, featured cameos by a number of high-profile actors and comedians who are close friends with the couple. It starred Lister-Jones alongside Cailee Spaeny, Whitney Cummings, Nick Kroll, Bobby Lee, Fred Armisen, Glenn Howerton, Bradley Whitford, Ayo Edebiri, Olivia Wilde, Paul Downs, Lamorne Morris, Paul Scheer, Helen Hunt, Colin Hanks, Charlie Day, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, and more.
The New York native Lister-Jones has a career that dates back to the early aughts, and while she’s worked on a number of films and TV shows as an actress-for-hire, she’s long steered her own projects as a writer, producer and director. Acting credits include Life in Pieces, Beau is Afraid, A Good Person, New Girl, Confirmation, Whitney and The Good Wife. Fun fact: She’s also one of the few actors to have appeared across the Law & Order universe from Criminal Intent and Trial by Jury to the original as well as Special Victims Unit.
“It’s always liberating in that I can create my own work, which is exciting,” Lister-Jones said of the current state of Hollywood. “[But] it’s requiring a different grind and hustle right now that even for those of us who have been making micro budget independent things forever, it does feel like we got to step up the game even more to break through.”