Who Is Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s Wife? All About Yelena Yemchuk

‘The Bear’ actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Yelena Yemchuk have two daughters together

Ebon Moss-Bachrach has been in a relationship with his wife Yelena Yemchuk since the 1990s.

The actor is well-known for roles in shows such as TheBear, Girls and NOS4A2, but he’s not the only member of the family who’s respected in their field — Yemchuk is a photographer who has worked with big names including Vogue.

The couple first met via a mutual friend in the 1990s but were both in relationships at the time, and didn’t enter a relationship for another year and a half. In the time since, they’ve had two children — daughters Sasha and Maribelle — and support each other in their respective careers.

While they’re both busy with their work, they value time with each other and their family too. Yemchuk told Vogue Italia in 2017, ”I am obsessed with my kids and my husband … I am a romantic, I love to love,” while Moss-Bachrach told The Talks a few years later, “There are realities of having a family that definitely influenced my decisions … some of those realities are just me wanting to spend time with my family, my children and my wife, so I can’t be doing plays all over the country, like I was when I was younger and living that more romantic lifestyle.”

So who is Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s wife? Here’s everything to know about Yelena Yemchuk and her relationship with the actor.

Yemchuk was born in Ukraine and moved to the U.S. as a child

Yemchuk was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 1970, when it was part of the Soviet Union, and moved to Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1981. She spent her childhood summers in Hidropark on the Dnieper River in Kyiv, and she has referred to the area as a “Soviet version of Coney Island”, per The New Yorker.

She told Fondazione Imago Mundi that she grew up speaking Russian with her family and at school, and was exempt from Ukrainian class because she was a professional gymnast as a child.

After high school, she studied at Parsons School of Design in N.Y.C. and ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, per her website.

Yemchuk first met Moss-Bachrach in the 1990s

Yemchuk and Moss-Bachrach first met at a mutual friend’s dinner party in N.Y.C. in the 1990s, but were both in relationships — and Yemchuk wasn’t interested in dating an actor.

She told The New Yorker in 2022, in an interview alongside him, “When I saw Ebon, I was, like, ‘Oh, my God, he’s cute. Who is this guy?’ My friend was, like, ‘Forget it, he has a girlfriend and he’s an actor.’ And I was, like, ‘Ugh!’ When you think of an actor as a boyfriend, that’s not where you want to go. They just seem like such a pain in the ass.”

However, they began dating a year and a half later, and Yemchuk said, “Ebon is the least actor-y actor I’ve ever met,” before saying to him directly, “You’re just not obsessed with yourself.”

Yemchuk is a photographer, painter and director

Yemchuk began getting into photography when her father gave her a camera for her 14th birthday. She told Breed London, “Both my uncle and one of my parents’ best friends were amateur photographers who always had cameras on them, so I was around photography from a very early age. Also, my dad’s sister was an art historian and we were always talking about art and looking at art books.”

She’s done a lot of work in fashion photography, working with Italian, British and Japanese Vogue, i-D, Dazed & Confused and AnOther, while she published her first book, Gidropark, shot around the park she spent her childhood summers in, in 2011.

Yemchuk has two daughters with Moss-Bachrach

Yemchuk and Moss-Bachrach got married, though they haven’t shared when, and they have two daughters together: Sasha and Maribelle. Sasha was born in 2007, and Maribelle was born in 2010. The couple also have a cat, Sonny.

Yemchuk told Fondazione Imago Mundi that she speaks Russian with her kids, but that they had a Ukrainian nanny who speaks both languages.

The couple largely keep their children away from the public eye, but do sometimes post photos of them on social media. In August 2019, Moss-Bachrach posted a photo of Yemchuk with their daughters on vacation in Matera, Italy on Instagram.

Yemchuk was in a relationship with musician Billy Corgan

After finishing college, she was chosen to shoot publicity photos for The Smashing Pumpkins, and entered into a relationship with lead singer Billy Corgan. She photographed some of the band’s album covers and directed the music video for their 1996 single “Thirty-Three”.

Corgan told the Los Angeles Times at the time, “Because we are both artists, there is a total support and understanding for each other’s work.”

Yemchuk and Moss-Bachrach support each others’ careers

Yemchuk and Moss-Bachrach both have busy work lives, but are able to support each other. Moss-Bachrach told Sharp in 2023, “Our life is often quite chaotic, but we have similar struggles and successes and triumphs, Yelena and I, in terms of balancing work and finances and then ego stuff. Our lives work well together — because, for example, I’ve been in Chicago for the last three months, and as this work is winding down, she has the potential to do more on her end. This is her time.”

The couple are often seen together at public events too. They attended the Primetime Emmy Awards together in 2024, and Yemchuk was alongside her husband at the premiere of season 3 of The Bear that same year.

Yemchuk has often traveled back to Ukraine

After Yemchuk left Ukraine as a child, she has visited a number of times. She told Fondazione Imago Mundi, ”The first time I went back to Ukraine was when I was 19 years old. This was after the fall of Communism and when I had enough money to go back. When I was right out of college, I started to go see my grandmother every year because I was very close to her.”

She published a book about Odesa, Ukraine, and visited the city for the first time in 2003. She visited again several times from 2014 to 2019 to shoot the images in her book, and Yemchuk has described the city as “unlike any other — a wild place, so free and open, mysterious and beautiful,” per The Guardian.

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