Who Is David Oyelowo’s Wife? All About Producer Jessica Oyelowo and Her Relationship With the “Silo” Actor

‘Silo’ star David Oyelowo and songwriter Jessica Oyelowo have been married for over 25 years

David Oyelowo and his wife of over 25 years, Jessica Oyelowo, are collaborators in both their personal and professional lives.

The couple met as teenagers while performing in youth theater in England. They got engaged after five months of dating and wed in September 1998 before welcoming their four children: sons Asher, Caleb and Penuel and daughter Zoë.

“It’s not possible to know or love you anymore than I do right now because I love you so much and feel like I know you so well, then we break the barrier again and again and discover that there is more to know and more to love,” Jessica wrote on Instagram in honor of their wedding anniversary in 2024.

Jessica is an actress, singer, producer and director — she and David even co-run the production company Yoruba Saxon and have produced more than a half dozen films, including David’s directorial debut, 2020’s The Water Man, and 2016’s A United Kingdom, in which both David and Jessica acted.

The pair travel a lot for work but have a rule that they won’t be apart for more than two weeks — David even includes the rule as a stipulation in all of his contracts.

“You tell people and they quite rightly think you’re crazy. But you know, sometimes it’s about the gesture,” he told The Times in 2021. “It’s about saying, ‘You mean more to me than my profession, than my sleep, than anything else.’ And that’s been huge in keeping our family together.”

Here’s everything to know about David Oyelowo and Jessica Oyelowo’s relationship.

Jessica was born in England

Jessica was born in England on Dec. 24, 1977. She has three siblings, sisters Anna and Fiona and brother Dave, and described her family to The Robb Report in 2024 as “being very British.”

She grew up in Woodbridge, England, where she attended the Woodbridge School, and joined London’s National Youth Music Theatre (NYMT) when she was 17.

Jessica is an actress, singer and director

Like her husband, Jessica is an actress and producer, as well as a singer and director.

Jessica’s first stage show came at the age of 3. She performed throughout her childhood and was signed by the agency ICM out of high school.

She began her career in stage productions of The Threepenny Opera and Cyrano De Bergerac. “It became pretty clear that this was what I wanted to do from then on,” Jessica told the Ipswich Star in 2006 of playing Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera, her first role with NYMT.

Her film and TV roles have included collaborations with her husband, such as The Water Man, A United Kingdom and Captive, as well as Sleepy Hollow, the 2000 TV movie Madame Bovary, a starring turn in the 2006 mini-series The Gil Mayo Mysteries, the 2007 series Murphy’s Law and Alice in Wonderland.

Jessica made her directorial debut with the 2024 Paramount+ documentary Becoming King, which follows David’s seven-year journey to play Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 2014’s Selma.

David is a proud supporter of his wife. Not only does he praise her in interviews, in 2021, the Jack Reacher actor shared a link on Facebook to “What Love Does,” which his “amazing wife” co-wrote and sang for The Water Man. She also wrote three more songs for the film’s original soundtrack and released an album, (M)OTHER, in 2023.

David and Jessica met when they were both teenagers

Jessica and David met at 17 and 18, respectively, while performing in youth theater.

During a 2020 appearance on The Carlos Watson Show, David shared that he became a born-again Christian at 16 and appreciated that Jessica was also a Christian who shared his “values” and “outlook.”

In the interview, David was honest about the challenges that came with being in an interracial relationship, but said, “At the end of the day, you can’t control who you fall in love with.”

“We fell in love with each other’s souls,” Jessica told The Robb Report. “I’m very aware that David is a Black man, and he’s very aware that I’m a White woman, and that our children have more to navigate because society can make them feel like they have a foot in both worlds.”

David and Jessica married in 1998

David proposed to Jessica five months after they started dating.

“She was incredibly beautiful, and we fell pretty hard, and I remember saying to her, ‘Look, I love you and I want to marry you, but I have to be able to at least afford an engagement ring.’ And I remember her saying, ‘If you put a curtain ring on my finger, that would be enough for me,’ ” David recalled to Watson. “And I just thought, ‘Oh my lord, okay, I’ve gotta figure out how to get this lady permanently in my life now.’ ”

The couple wed on Sept. 5, 1998, when Jessica was 20 and David was 22.

David told The Christian Post in 2021 that since they married young, “our marriage, our faith, our careers, our family have all grown together.”

Jessica and David share four children

David and Jessica welcomed their first child, son Asher, on Oct. 10, 2001. Son Caleb Oyedeji Isaac followed on Jan. 3, 2005, and their third child, son Penuel, was born on Feb. 27, 2008. Their youngest child and only daughter, Zoë, joined the family on Nov. 26, 2011.

“We think we become a family when we have kids, but you were a family as a couple before those babies rocked your world,” Jessica wrote on Instagram in 2023. “Their world is your relationship when they’re little and as they grow so we try to prioritize each other and let them know how important what we have is.”

As the family travels frequently for David and Jessica’s jobs, the mom of four homeschooled their kids, and the couple have a rule to never be apart for more than two weeks at a time.

On his birthday in April 2023, David was on a night shoot in Texas, so Jessica and the kids flew in to surprise him. The moment was captured in a video that showed David in happy tears as his wife and kids unexpectedly serenaded him.

“He had no idea they were there,” Jessica captioned the Instagram video. “He’s missed our babies so much. HAPPY MY BABY!!!!!! You are literally the best human EVERRRRRRR. (apart from our kids).”

The arts also run in the family — Asher is a musician, while Caleb is in drama school in London.

Jessica and David run a production company together

Jessica and David run a production company together called Yoruba Saxon — named in honor of their cultural heritages — which has produced films like 2014’s Nightingale, A United Kingdom and The Water Man and the Paramount+ limited series Lawmen: Bass Reeves. The couple have also acted together in many of these projects.

David told PEOPLE that he looked to Jessica for advice on how to direct himself in The Water Man,”especially for the first two weeks of shooting.”

“She is the person who knows me better than anyone else in the world,” the Five Nights in Maine star said in 2020. “And so I knew that if I was faking it in any way, she would be the one to be able to call it out. After every take, I would look towards her for the thumbs up or the thumbs down. Thankfully, there were more thumbs up than down.”

Yoruba Saxon signed a first-look production deal with Walt Disney Pictures in 2021, and their upcoming projects include Apple’s Government Cheese, the Netflix film adaptation of Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun, in partnership with Will Smith’s production company, Westbrook Studios, and Disney’s The Rocketeer sequel.

They live in Los Angeles

Jessica and David lived in Brighton, England, before moving to L.A. in 2007, when TheButler star was 30. David told The Times that the move was a “terrifying step,” but added that he loves the city.

The couple live in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley, where they have a compound that includes two Mediterranean-style houses across three properties. Each abode serves a distinct purpose — one is the family home and the other is for work, while a third to-be-built structure will be a post-production facility and music studio.

David told The Robb Report, “Because what we’re doing is fueled by passion, it doesn’t need to be so separate,” and Jessica added, “We have dinner together whenever we can, where we talk through all the stuff of the day.”

Jessica has made red carpet appearances with David

Over the years, the Oyelowos have stepped out together for many red-carpet events.

Glam appearances have included the Black Panther world premiere in L.A. in 2018, the 2015 and 2017 Academy Awards in Hollywood, the Queen of Katwe premiere during the 60th BFI London Film Festival in 2016 and the Selma premiere in New York City in 2014.

Other major outings have included the Spring/Summer 2025 Prada show in Milan in June 2024, which David called “a dream,” and the grand opening of the Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta in 2019.

Jessica has traveled around the world

Being in the acting business has allowed Jessica to travel across the globe.

She’s seen both coasts and everywhere in-between in both the U.S. and her home country of England, and her kids have been on sets in Botswana, Uganda and Texas, among others.

Family trips have included travels to Costa Rica in 2023 and Hawaii in 2019 with family friend Oprah Winfrey. Daughter Zoë joined Jessica when she performed in Utah for the 2023 Heaven on Earth Festival, and she spent her birthday in 2022 skiing in Big Bear Lake, Calif.

A busy stretch in 2019 included the whole family visiting Australia in March — Jessica wrote on Instagram that “Sydney is one of my fave places on the planet” — before visiting David one month later in Portland, Ore., where he was filming principal photography on The Water Man.