Sarah Silverman Met Her New Beau While Playing Video Games
Published Dec. 30 2020, 5:27 p.m. ET
All's fair in love and quarantine, at least it is for comedian Sarah Silverman. The Ralph Breaks the Internet Star — who has had past public romances with Jimmy Kimmel and Michael Sheen — began dating someone new in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Though Sarah and her boyfriend are both figures in the public eye, the couple first became acquainted through video games. In addition to sharing a love for gaming (more on that later), the two are both heavily involved in the comedy world.
Who is Sarah Silverman's boyfriend? Keep reading for more on their meet-cute, and to find out where you've seen him before.
Sarah Silverman's new boyfriend is comedian Rory Albanese.
While appearing on an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show in October of 2020, Sarah revealed that she was in a new, exclusive relationship. At the time, Sarah didn't identify who her mystery beau was. But, she did discuss how they initially got connected over a shared love for a particular video game.
Some people got involved in baking banana bread during the early days of the pandemic, but Sarah focused on expanding her video game catalog.
"As the world was shutting down, I thought I should start playing video games again. It just made sense. This is the time. So I went to GameStop — it was still open — and I bought a console and couple of games," she said on the daytime talk series. "And I got really into this one, it's not the latest one but I love it — Call of Duty: WWII."
After posting about the game online, a man reached out to her via her DMs to play. The two knew of each other because of the comedy circuit, but they hadn't formally met before. Each night, after clapping for frontline workers at 7 p.m. (remember those days of quarantine?), Sarah and this man would play Call of Duty: WWII together.
"We were both quarantining. So every night at 7:05 — I was in New York, so at 7 we would bang the pots and pans out on the fire escape. It really became just like a group primal scream. It was actually kind of beautiful to be in New York at that time. Then at 7:05, I'd put my headset on and I'd kill Nazis with this guy," she said, before shocking Ellen with her next admission. "Yadda yadda yadda, we're boyfriend and girlfriend!"
Her new man ultimately went to New York to quarantine with Sarah, and the two have been together ever since. While Sarah was initially tight-lipped about the name of her boyfriend, she later shared that she was dating Rory Albanese while appearing on a podcast in November of 2020.
Who is Rory Albanese?
Fans of The Ellen DeGeneres Show now know that the 43-year-old Long Island native likes to play Call of Duty: WWII, but he has a lot more in common with Sarah than viewers may have initially realized.
Rory does stand-up comedy, and he was also a writer, showrunner, and executive producer on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart from 1999 to 2013.
He was also an executive producer on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, which was on the air from 2015 to 2016.
Before he began dating Sarah, Rory was in a long-term relationship with hairstylist and writer Reagan Baker. The two last posted together in 2018.
Since Sarah and Rory have survived multiple months of the pandemic together, it stands to reason that they're in it for the long haul.
