Who Is Emily Ratajkowski’s Boyfriend? Meet French Film Director Romain Gavras

Did you see Emily Ratajkowski at the 2026 VMAs and think, “Hi, what are you doing here?” As it turns out, she was fully a plus-one at the show, and she got her invite thanks to her French film director boyfriend, Romain Gavras, who directed the viral music video for GENER8ION and Yung Lean’s “STORM.”Swipe to see some great BTS content from EmRata:She and Romain have been together for a minute now (they first sparked dating rumors in November 2025 before going IG official in February 2026), so now seems like a good time to get to know him. Starting with...He’s a filmmakerAs mentioned, Romain is a director, and the profession seems to run in his family since he’s the son of Greek-French film director Costa-Gavras. Even so, the creative has def carved a path for himself, having directed 2022’s French action film Athena and 2025’s action-adventure comedy Sacrifice, both for Netflix.Romain has also dabbled in directing music videos, including GENER8ION and Yung Lean’s “STORM,” M.I.A.’s “Bad Girls,” and Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Frank Ocean’s “No Church in the Wild.” He’s also shot tons of ad campaigns, such as Louis Vuitton’s “Coeur Battant,” Dior’s “J’adore: The New Absolu,” and Powerade’s “The Corner.”He’s been nominated for multiple awards.Back in 2017, Romain was nominated for Best Music Video for Jamie xx’s “Gosh (Version 2),” which is already a pretty incredible feat in and of itself. But it was far from the first time the director has been acknowledged by the academy.In 2013, he was nominated twice (!!) for a Grammy in the Best Short Form Music Video category for Jay-Z and Kanye’s “No Church in the Wild” and M.I.A.’s “Bad Girls,” and the year prior he actually took home an MTV Video Music Award for the latter.Most recently, he earned a 2026 MTV VMA nom for Best Direction for “STORM”—but unfortunately, Taylor Swift took home the award for “Opalite” instead.Luckily, it seems he and EmRata still enjoyed themselves at the show!He has some very famous exesBefore Emily, Romain had an eight-month-long romance with Dua Lipa, which began in early 2023. The two went public with their relationship at the Cannes Film Festival later that May...only for them to end up splitting by the end of the year.Dominique Charriau//Getty ImagesAs an insider told The Sun at the time, “She has blinkers on when it comes to her career and the pair ended the relationship before things turned sour. Romain considered Dua to be a workaholic but she doesn’t plan on slowing down for anything or anyone.”Before Dua, Romain was also briefly linked to Rita Ora, who he reportedly dated for six months before they called it quits. Their romance began in late 2020 (hence the masks, below) before ending for good in March 2021, per The Daily Mail.Neil Mockford / Ricky Vigil M//Getty Images“Rita and Romain split up months ago because of difficulties with their respective work commitments. They remain close friends,” said a spokesperson for Romain at the time of the breakup.A source close to Rita also added, “Rita and Romain tried to make it work but they both agreed it wasn’t meant to be. They remain close but it was simply impossible to maintain a relationship where they barely saw each other.”Here’s hoping he and Emily are in it for the long haul!