- Taylor Swift is dating Joe Alwyn.
- Like Swift, he maintains a relatively private and mysterious public persona, giving few interviews.
- He's an actor who got his big break with 2016's "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" and has a growing career as a model.
Taylor Swift's current boyfriend and likely muse is Joe Alwyn, an actor and model.
The two have been dating since at least fall of 2016, shortly after Swift broke up with her previous boyfriend, Tom Hiddleston, but the precise timing is still uncertain.
Like Swift, Alwyn is in tight control of his media persona. He's given hardly any interviews in the past year and remains a relatively obscure — and promising — actor.
So what do we know about Joe Alwyn? Not much. Here are seven key things to understand about him.
1. He got his big acting break with "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk."
Alwyn acted in London's theater scene for a few years before starring in Ang Lee's 2016 follow-up to "Life of Pi." As a war satire, it was set up to be an Oscar contender, but all of that changed when critics actually watched it.
Nonetheless, Alwyn's performance was praised. He went on to have a role on "The Sense of an Ending," released in 2017 to good reviews. He's set to have small roles in four more movies this year.
2. Alwyn lives a low-key life.
Before the news broke that he was dating Taylor Swift, Alwyn had just 3,000 Twitter followers, which he used only to promote "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk." He doesn't use Instagram at all. Until late last year, he was living at home with his parents. Swift reportedly went on dates with him while wearing a wig to protect their privacy.
3. His parents taught him to love movies.
Alwyn's father is a documentary filmmaker who made films in "crisis zones,"as Alwyn described. His mother is a psychotherapist. Both of them introduced him to the world of movies and theater.
"I've always grown up with [my father] showing me films and I’ve always loved going to the cinema,"Alwyn told People. "And my mum had taken me to the theater a lot, so I always wanted to be a part of that world in some way but didn’t quite know how or how to go about it."
In high school, Alwyn dabbled in theater, and then studied drama in college. Afterwards, he went to the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama for three years to study acting.
4. Some songs in "Reputation" might be about him.
As long as Taylor Swift has been writing love songs, her fans have scrutinized them to figure out which real-life men they might be about.
Because Swift is dating Alwyn right now, her fans have peered into the lyrics of her songs from her last album, "Reputation" to figure out whether they're about him.
For "Gorgeous," there are some clues that the song may be about her love for his looks, but the details don't totally line up with reality.
And for "Call It What You Want," it's also possible that the song is about their relationship, but the precise meanings are still obscure.
5. Ed Sheeran approves.
In an October interview, Sheeran, one of Swift's longtime friends and artistic collaborators, said Alwyn was a good guy.
"He's really nice. Really, really friendly, really good dude,"Sheeran said. "They are very much in love, they have quite a low-key relationship, which Taylor likes. It's normal, and no one really knows about it right now."
Sheeran said their relationship is profoundly normal.
"They just work out, watch movies together and invite friends over," Sheeran said. "Taylor loves to cook and bake for him. They are still taking it slow."
The couple also attended Sheeran's Jingle Ball performance in December, one of their last public appearances together.
6. Prada made him the face of its spring and summer 2018 menswear collection.
The actor modeled for the fashion brand's menswear line.
7. He did a modeling photo shoot with Gigi Hadid.
Alwyn's Prada campaign isn't his first modeling gig. For the September 2016 issue of Vogue, Alwyn modeled with Swift's friend Gigi Hadid. Some Swift fans theorize that the couple met through the Hadid connection.
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