Actor Shipping / Live-Action TV

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A-F

• The 100: Eliza Taylor and Bob Morley's on-screen chemistry led many to ship them, and this only increased when it was revealed that the two had gotten married secretly. Add to that the fact that Bob is a very vocal supporter of the Bellamy/Clarke ship, and you have a legion of fangirls who love to write fanfiction about them. Meanwhile, a lot of fans ship Taylor with Alycia Debnam-Carey (who plays her on-screen love, Lexa), mainly due to the two's on-screen chemistry and real life friendship, despite both actresses being straight. It helps that Eliza has described Lexa as the love of Clarke's life a couple of times. This has also led to a real life form of Ship-to-Ship Combat between the two groups, though not to the degree of their characters.
• The A-Team: Dirk Benedict/Dwight Schultz. Face/Murdock is already a hugely popular pairing in the fandom, but these two love to play up the Ho Yay aspects of their friendship during interviews—just in the past few years, when they are in their 60s. They seem to get a huge kick out of it.
• American Horror Story has huge amounts of actor shipping, the most notable of these being Parmiga (Evan Peters and Taissa Farmiga) and Raulson (Lily Rabe and Sarah Paulson). The former has mostly come about due to the pair's portrayal of Season 1's highly popular couple Tate Langdon and Violet Harmon, as well as the fact that they played a couple once again in Season 3. Raulson was about even before American Horror Story started, and was present all throughout the first two seasons, finally coming to a head during Season 3 with their portrayals of Misty Day and Cordelia Foxx, who are an immensely popular ship.
• Arrowverse:
  • Arrow: The ship Olicity (Oliver/Felicity) came about after the chemistry was noticed between the two leads, Stephen Amell and Emily Bett Rickards. This has lend to fans shipping the couple as 'Stemily'.
  • The Flash (2014): Some fans have paired Grant Gustin (Barry Allen) with Candice Patton (Iris West). It comes from the chemistry their characters have and how well they play their roles as a loving couple.
  • Supergirl (2015):
    • Real life husband and wife Melissa Benoist and Chris Wood are known as Melwood.
    • Chyler Leigh and Floriana Lima who played the popular Sanvers pairing, had enough chemistry that they are shipped together offscreen and known as Flyer.
    • The fan preferred Supercorp ship between Kara and Lena is very popular and some fans ship actresses Melissa Benoist and Katie McGrath together and call them Meltie.
• Austin & Ally has its main actors, Ross Lynch and Laura Marano, aka "Raura". Just like Austin and Ally being shipped together, lots of their fans ship them so much, even some wishing they'd date already. Same with Calum Worthy and Raini Rodriguez, but not to a big scale like Raura does.
• There's a small sect of people who ship Mary McDonnell and Edward James Olmos, purely based on the immense amount of chemistry they had in Battlestar Galactica. Olmos has said that if McDonnell wasn't married, they would be married to each other. Take that as you will.
• The Big Bang Theory had Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco who played couple Leonard and Penny on the show. The revelation they secretly dated for two years only encouraged fans to want them to reunite. This was furthered after Kaley Cuoco divorced from her first husband, however, the two have constantly affirmed that they are Just Friends, on the bright side for fans there characters do end up together on the show.
• Bones ended up with a contingent of “Demily” or David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel shippers, with fics existing in places. This is despite both actors being married with families. It may have been helped by Emily not getting married until 2010, 6 years after the show’s start and David having a rocky period in his personal life along the way.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • "Sariza", short for Sarah Michelle Gellar and Eliza Dushku who play Buffy and Faith respectively. Given the amount of pure tension (and some Unresolved Sexual Tension too) the characters have to each other it's no wonder. Doesn't help that Eliza Dushku admits to liking Buffy/Faith. Ohh, let's not forget those suspicious videos and Sarah jumping on Eliza on set "just to lighten up the mood."
  • Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz. It helps that Sarah is a hardcore Bangel shipper and has been known to call Angel Buffy's "one true love." When asked on a Reddit if she preferred Angel or Spike, her response was 'Angel', in all caps.
  • The chemistry between Nicholas Brendon and Charisma Carpenter was so strong that many thought they were dating in real life. They weren't, but they were very good friends.
• Castle fans seem to really ship Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic together to the point of calling it "Stanathan." It really didn't help that when Stana was asked in so many words whether she makes out with Nathan behind the set, she more or less evaded the question... It should be noted Fillion already has a girlfriend, and in recent months it appears Katic has become rather interested in Mark Polish, her costar in the 2011 indie movie For Lovers Only. Mark Polish has a wife and son, though, so it's unlikely that pairing will happen, and there's not much evidence to suggest that Stana's interest in him was anything but professional. She's much more lively and playful when being interviewed jointly with Nathan as opposed to her "strictly business" demeanor with Mark.
• The Crown (2016):
  • Despite the disastrous couple they play on the show, Josh O'Connor and Emma Corrin have gotten some of this due to their strong onscreen chemistry and endearing behind-the-scenes friendship. It goes to the point that various fans have expressed their wish that they would reunite on another work playing another but much more functional couple.
  • Matt Smith and Claire Foy got shipped by a lot of fans during their time on the show due to their offscreen chemistry and how affectionate they are with each other in real life, even receiving the shipping nickname "Smoy" on certain social media platforms. The shipping still continues to this day despite them no longer being on the show, if Tiktok and Instagram are anything to go off of.
• The 2022 TV adaptation of Darna has a large group of fans shipping the lead actresses Jane De Leon (who plays Narda/Darna) and Janella Salvador (who plays Regina/Valentina). This is mainly due to their on-screen chemistry and real life friendship. This isn't helped by their chumminess in interviews and behind-the-scenes stuff. They even have their own Portmanteau Couple Name, "JaneNella".
• Dead Boy Detectives (2024): Co-stars George Rexstrew (Edwin Payne) and Jayden Revri (Charles Rowland) have been shipped by some parts of the fanbase on sites like Tumblr and Instagram thanks to their strong on-screen chemistry, the jokes they make regarding their characters' relationship, the photos and videos that have been spread about them after the premiere of the series, and how remarkable their friendship is in interviews and that they rarely appear without each other in these.
• Doctor Who's David Tennant and Billie Piper are a popular subject for the same reasons as above. Freely declaring their love for each other in public, kissing during the credits of their "Doomsday" commentary, and mentioning each other randomly in interviews even when not talking about DW doesn't help...despite the fact that both are now married with children to different partners.
  • Similarly, Matt Smith and Karen Gillan's chemistry on and off screen has many fans pairing them.
    • Fans of the pairing have claimed the 'secretly married' tag on tumblr. The tag is full of mostly posts of the two of them, sprinkled very rarely with other couples.
  • And then there is David Tennant/John Simm. Who were spotted partying together just after Tennant had broken up with Sophia Myles, and quite a few events after that. It really doesn't help that they were talking about their own Doctor/Master spinoff on "The End of Time" commentaries.
  • After Alex Kingston's infamous, "Oooh, I could just kiss you all night!" and Matt Smith's response of "And I you, Ms Kingston!" on the last-ever episode of Doctor Who Confidential (for "The Wedding of River Song"), Matt/Alex exploded as a pairing.
  • Despite the two actors insisting their relationship was more brother-sister, Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman were a popular fan pairing.
  • Despite a 25-year age difference, the off-screen chemistry between Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman was so strong, with both openly admitting their friendship for one another and the two often seen hugging and gazing adoringly at each other at public events, stirred the flames of speculation as to whether they might be a real life couple (with the ship name "Colepaldi" coined). In truth this isn't the case; Capaldi has been married for 25 years and has a daughter, and Coleman was involved in a long-term relationship with Richard Madden when she wasn't captured by paparazzi hanging out with the likes of Prince Harry. The two simply became very close and dear friends (as verified by directors, the show runner and fellow actors), who tended to spend every moment of free time together on set. Coleman probably didn't help matters any when she created the often-repeated soundbite "I love Peter Capaldi" during the 2015 San Diego Comic Con panel when she paid tribute to her co-star.
  • Although there was very little of this in the pre-Internet era of the show, fans in the late 1970s and early 1980s did notice that the chemistry between Tom Baker and Lalla Ward was particularly strong. In this case, the shipping was justified as it was eventually confirmed that not only were Baker and Ward dating, they married soon after Ward's final episode was recorded.
• Downton Abbey has Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern, who play the Earl and Countess of Grantham and practically ship themselves. It's the third time in their careers that they've played husband and wife. Tumblr went crazy over this particular ship.
  Interviewer: So do you stay married even though he loses the money?
  Bonneville: Yes.
  McGovern: Shh! We can't tell!
  Bonneville: Sorry! I thought you meant off set.
• Faking It fans have Volkevens: Rita Volk and Katie Stevens, who play Amy and Karma (who the fans ship as Karmy). This despite the fact that Volk and Stevens appear to be straight in real life (Stevens even had a boyfriend, and Volk has been linked with Jamie Kennedy, whom she worked with in a Hunger Games parody). Their close friendship off the set feeds into the shipping, however.
• Farscape and Stargate SG-1's Ben Browder and Claudia Black, who are good friends in real life, have the onscreen chemistry of several nuclear warheads - see this fanvid, or any of a hundred others, for proof - and who reportedly practiced their kissing scenes on set so often their fellow cast and crew didn't even notice after awhile, but who are both happily married and not to each other. Browder has been married to actress Francesca Buller (who herself played guest stars in episodes of all four seasons of Farscape) since 1989, and Black got married right before the shooting of the Peacekeeper Wars miniseries. This has not stopped the shippers whatsoever.
• Firefly:
  • There are some Browncoats (Fan Community Nickname) who ship Nathan Fillion and Morena Baccarin. Their characters Mal and Inara had a lot of Unresolved Sexual Tension.
  • Some Firefly fans ship Sean Maher and Jewel Staite. Their characters had a Will They or Won't They? relationship in the main series, and finally, they got together in the movie Serenity. The Actor Shipping continued despite several obstacles: 1. She was married and is straight, and 2. He is gay and has a family with his significant other. Not that a thing like that can stop fans from shipping them. Not that they aren't helping things by teasing the fandom at times.
• Friends: Matthew Perry/Courteney Cox have a pretty big fanbase due to their chemistry and close friendship. The shipping wasn't as prevalent during the actual show as Courtney was married to David Arquette, but after the couple split up 'Matteney' fans grew exponentially, regularly fueled by Cox guest starring on Perry's show, photos of them snuggling during breaks, their habit of crashing each others interviews (in Courtney's case to kiss Matthew on stage) and Matthew throwing around comments like "I just wanted to make her laugh all the time" and "she's a very beautiful woman" and making sexual jokes about their relationship: "would Courtney be the bike?" and even a skit on Ellen joking that they're a couple.

G-O

• Game of Thrones:
  • Many avid Renly Baratheon/Loras Tyrell fans ship Gethin Anthony and Finn Jones together. Both actors fuel the Ho Yay with public displays◊ of affection◊, by jokingly admitting that they're gay for each other in this interview clip, and Finn had some... interesting comments in the Feb. 2013 issue Gay Times magazine which make some people strongly suspect that he has a serious man crush on his co-star.
    GT: Did you have to go a few times for that scene [in Season 2]?
    Finn Jones: "Oh all the time, I remember," he howls with laughter. "One point in the scene we were really getting into it, and I just turned around to him and I went 'Gethin in the next take,' dead seriously,' really grab my dick this time, really go for it. ' And then just out of the corner of my eye, I saw the camera guys going..." he pulls a concerned face. "I realised 'Oh shit, maybe we're going for it a bit too much.' " He cracks up laughing again. "But it's good, it's good to be on that level to be able to really get into the moment."
  • Natalie Dormer and Sophie Turner, the actresses for Lady Margaery Tyrell and Lady/Princess Sansa Stark respectively, are often shipped together and for very good reasons, most of which listed here. Sophie affectionately caressed Natalie's face at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con Game of Thrones panel. At the 2015 New York Comic-Con panel, Natalie mentioned missing Sophie (who was not present).
  • Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams sometimes post photos with the hashtag #Mophie. Sophie even once groped Maisie's breast for a photo◊. They also exchange tweets like this. Some fans are inspired and ship those two lovely actresses. Probably helped by the incest/taboo/crack-pairing inclinations in this fandom, considering that their characters on the show are sisters.
  • Rumors of Lena Headey and Pedro Pascal dating circulated when they kept sharing pictures of themselves having fun together off set, and Headey interviewed Pascal for Hunger magazine and Hunger TV. While neither actor confirmed the rumors, Pascal speculated during a Reddit Q&A that everyone who meets his "good friend" Headey develops a crush on her.
• Gap: Becky Armstrong and Sarocha Chankimha, Mon and Sam's actors respectively, got hit hard with this as the fandom picked up steam, with many fans frenziedly speculating that the two might have brought their fictional romance into their real lives. It wasn't uncommon for the "#freenbecky" hashtag to trend on twitter the night a new episode premiered.
• Many Soap Opera fans did this to their Super Couples in their heyday. And sometimes the actors themselves take the initiative: General Hospital's second super couple, Frisco Jones and Felicia Cummings, married on-screen in 1986. Their actors, Jack Wagner and Kristina Crump, married in 1993.
• Glee is rife with this. There's the popular pairing of Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz (McHalowitz), there's the potentially "canon" pairing of Mark Salling and Naya Rivera, there's Cory Monteith and Lea Michele shippers, there's people who think Naya Rivera and Heather Morris (HeYa) are as close as their characters... And then there's Chris Colfer, who may qualify as the Glee RPF fandom's Launcher of a Thousand Ships, since there's maybe two male cast members he hasn't been paired with. And his on-screen dad is not one of them. Then there's the fact that Ryan Murphy has allegedly banned sex in the cast's trailers, suggesting that there's been sex to ban... Sorry, Glee cast, but it's not our fault you're twelve ridiculously attractive young people.
  • Two male co-stars Chris hasn't been paired with? I can't think of one. Cory Monteith, Mark Salling, Chord Overstreet, Kevin McHale, Harry Shum Jr, Darren Criss, Max Adler, Matt Morrison, Jonathan Groff, Mike O'Malley...
  • One of Chris Colfer's castmates has described him as "like a magical creature." The fic wrote itself. Incidentally, the castmate in question was Darren Criss - who plays Blaine, who has spent most of the show having almost indecent eyesex with Kurt in practically every episode. The fic wrote itself - several times over.
    • Too bad Darren is actually straight... not that that would stop the fangirls.
    • After The Big Clinch in "Original Song", Chris and Darren were asked about their kiss. Darren's response? "He doesn't go by numbers, he gets hieroglyphics!" and teased, "It takes two to tango!" Deadpan Snarker Chris was a bit less fanboyish (giving Darren a 10 out of 10, but himself a 12), but had commented that "Damn, Darren! I need a cigarette now!" in a separate interview. Also, Darren is quite obviously a Kurt/Blaine shipper.
    • Darren Criss LOVES to fuel the shippers. After spontaneously kissing a shocked Chris onstage during the Glee Live tour, he talked about how in that moment he was "consumed with my love for Chris Colfer". He later describes it as "fun" and says he "just couldn't help it". His costars jokingly say that if they got married, Colfer would become Chris Squared. Darren's reply? "It could happen. Never say never."
    • Darren is one of the most classic examples of Camp Straight ever.
  • The Monfer (Cory Monteith/Chris Colfer) ship really stands out even among the HUGE amounts of pairing that Chris launches.
  • There are also a lot of people who ship Lea Michele with Jonathan Groff (even though the latter is gay) since their Spring Awakening days. Hilariously, one of those people happens to be Lea's own father, who according to Lea has offered Jon "millions" to marry her. Lea often calls Jon the "love of her life" and, when asked by a fan at a Glee event when she and Jon were gonna get married, promptly responded "hopefully soon".
  • Don't forget the Lea/Dianna shippers. They are hardcore.
  • Dianna knows what people are thinking: "Everybody is convinced that Lea and I are in a relationship."
  • And then, of course, there is Mark Salling and Chord Overstreet. Mark named them Sallingstreet. Among several other suggestive tweets is co-star Kevin McHale saying they were "cute - it's like watching schoolgirls flirting". Chord claims "he [Mark] asked me out, but I turned him down. I like them clean-cut". Speaking of clean-cut, "Colferstreet" is another popular couple. Then again, so is Chris/every male cast member.
  • There are also Max Adler and Darren Criss, also known as Marren or Adiss. I'll let this show one of the reasons why.
  • Some fans refer to the boys on the show as Amber's Harem, referring to Amber Riley. Kevin McHale has professed numerous times his love for Amber (and his desire to see a little Mercedes/Artie action), which has led to McRiley.
  • Other ship names: Kevin/Naya are Keya or McVera (the also call each other 'bee'); Kevin/Dianna Kevanna; Lea/Dianna Achele; Lea/Cory Monchele.
  • Heather Morris and Naya Rivera started out as a "twoshot". Naya thinks meeting Heather was the work of fate. Doesn't help that when Naya Rivera had a Facebook, there was one very affectionate picture of the two laying on the couch, Heather on top of Naya. There are other, more suggestive pictures as well, interviews were they fawn over each other, jokingly saying "we make out all the time", ass slaps exchanged throughout Glee Concert, Naya Rivera wanting Santana to get Brittany pregnant, the list of fuel goes on. Heather also thinks Naya "is a good kisser" way before "Heart" aired...
    • The Brittany/Santana couple started because fans began speculating on their relationship on and off scene. In other words, "Heya" invented "Brittana", not the other way around.
  • Kevin McHale and Grant Gustin also get this a lot, due to their constant tweets declaring their love for each other. What makes it better is that what kind of love is ambiguous (or as ambiguous as Grant describing his and Kevin's relationship as "true love" in a tweet).
• Good Omens (2019): David Tennant and Michael Sheen, who play the main characters Crowley and Aziraphale, are often shipped together by the fandom due to their on-screen chemistry and being close friends in real life. It doesn't hurt that Sheen is very approving of the "Ineffable Husbands" (Crowley/Aziraphale).
• Gossip Girl:
  • Leighton Meester and Ed Westwick, playing the couple Blair and Chuck, get a lot of this. Their shippers call them DeLeightEd.
  • Ironically, Blake Lively and Penn Badgley did not get so much of this, even though they played the season one alpha couple Serena and Dan and the actors were living together in real life.
  • Leighton Meester and Blake Lively are also shipped; they're known as Bleighton.
• Hannah Montana: A lot of Mikiley (Mikayla/Miley) shippers latched onto shipping Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus (Siley), perhaps even more than their characters, despite Selena only appearing in two episodes of the show. Mainly due to the two's real life friendship, which continues to this day, them often being very affectionate towards each other in public, and their on-screen chemistry. This is despite also having dated the same guy, Nick Jonas, at different points. The pairing still has a following years later.
• In Heroes fandom, nobody thinks anything of 'shipping the hell out of Milo Ventimiglia/Hayden Panettiere (who did date in real life for a while), Milo Ventimiglia/Kristen Bell, Milo Ventimiglia/Adrian Pasdar, Zachary Quinto/Hayden Panettiere, Zachary Quinto/Milo Ventimiglia, Zachary Quinto/Sendhil Ramamurthy, Zachary Quinto/Dania Ramirez and Zachary Quinto/Kristen Bell. Let's face it, the fandom ships the entire main cast in some way or another. Zachary Quinto has been described as having chemistry with anyone and everyone.
• House of the Dragon: Quite a number of fans love to ship Rhaenyra and Alicent's actresses together, owing to the fact that Milly Alcock and Emily Carey did admit to injecting a sapphic vibe into their performances and character interactions while Emma D'Arcy and Olivia Cooke are often quite touchy-feely and close with each other in interviews and red carpet appearances.
• Both main shipping sects in iCarly, Creddie (Carly/Freddie) and Seddie (Sam/Freddie), like pairing up Miranda Cosgrove/Nathan Kress (Niranda) and Jennette McCurdy/Nathan Kress (Jathan) respectively. The Jathan side of things got so heated by people constantly tweeting the pair about being in love or dating or being best friends that eventually Nathan stopped following Jennette and specifically mentioned his real girlfriend was his best friend, Jennette told the world her worst pet peeve was dating rumors, and made it clear that the two of them are only friends, and nothing more. More rare, but some people like Jennette and Miranda. Jennette/Jerry Trainor (who plays Spencer), shows up pretty regularly in the various Kink Meme communities the show has.
• Interview with the Vampire (2022): Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid have coined their own Portmanteau Couple Name: Jam Reiderson. In a podcast, Reid mentions that when he and his co-star first met, "I can see that [Jacob] was gonna be a very easy person to fall in love with," while Anderson expresses in this interview "I really love Sam." According to producer Adam O'Byrne, "[Jacob and Sam] sort of fell instantly in love with each other."
• JAG: There was/is a lot of shipping among fans, often in the form of fanfiction, to different degrees with the two leads: Harm and Mac (or in some cases even the actors David James Elliott and Catherine Bell).
• Killing Eve actresses Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer get shipped by much of the audience. Playing the One True Pairing... openly shipping said couple... getting very touchy-feely in interviews and photoshoots... being close enough friends that Sandra not only acknowledged Jodie in her Golden Globes speech, but called her "my other half," and said, "When it's just the two of us on set, the entire world goes away"... The fanfic basically writes itself.
• Oddly enough, some Law & Order: Special Victims Unit fans think that Elliot and Olivia's actors have more chemistry than their characters. But they are the E/O tinhats.
  • ODDLY? It's not tinhattery when Chris Meloni and Mariska Hargitay go to the Emmys together◊, make out at the drop of a hat during photo shoots, and generally act like teenagers on the set together. And it's also possible to ship Chris/Mariska and not Elliot/Olivia.
• Craig Horner and Bridget Regan, the two leads from Legend of the Seeker, were heavily shipped, probably because of their general adorableness in their joint interviews. Bridget is now married with kids, crushing the dreams of their shippers everywhere.
• In the show's heyday, there was a sizeable sub-set of Lois & Clark fandom that shipped Dean Cain/Teri Hatcher (Clark and Lois, of course). This brought with it a strong streak of hate for Teri's then husband, Jon Tenney, even after he and Hatcher had a daughter. An element of surrealism was added to the mix when Tenney played a character in a 4-episode arc that included strong elements of a Love Dodecahedron. Tenney's character, Ching, was the bodyguard of Zara, the betrothed wife-to-be of Clark/Superman, courtesy of an arranged marriage that he knew nothing about, fully intending to marry Lois. Ching loved Zara, who loved him in return, despite him being a lowly guard; regardless, they both felt it was their duty for her to marry Clark, who loved Lois. So Tenney's character was preventing Cain's character and Hatcher's character from marrying, in addition to Tenney being married to Hatcher; cue much cursing and outpourings of Tenney-hate on various forums. Similarly, there was a lot of flak directed towards Mindy McCready when she became engaged to Cain while the show was on the air, and to Samantha Torres when she and Cain had a son in 2000.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Morfydd Clark and Charlie Vickers are shipped together by a good chunk of the Galadriel/Sauron shippers. It helps that the actors have a lot of chemistry in interviews and do a lot of Held Gazes in real life too. Some people go as far as commenting they are strangely touchy-feely in photo-sessions.
• Most of the characters from the BBC Merlin series, but particularly Colin Morgan (Merlin) and Bradley James (Arthur).
  • In fact, Bradley's shipped with all his co-stars. Among the fanbase there is much speculation, interest, insistence, rivalry and (naturally) shipping wars concerning whether he's dating Katie McGrath, Colin Morgan, Angel Coulby, or all three. This is not helped at all by the actors themselves, who obviously adore the guy, and are constantly hugging, tickling, teasing, heckling, play-fighting, or sitting on his lap during roller-coaster rides.
  • Not to mention Bradley's quite large affection for Colin, as he films Colin the most from all his co-stars, teases him and likes to act like a show-off in front of him. He also says he views him as tiny and fragile, in spite of the fact that Colin is only two years younger than him. In one interview he even says Colin is his favorite co-star and that a little piece of his heart goes to him.
    • In fact, Bradley appears to be more attached to Colin than vice-versa (well, this could be more obvious in Bradley's case because Colin is more introverted), as Bradley himself declares he always goes to Colin during breaks from shooting scenes, because he likes to 'play with Colin'. At one point he even suggested they will gro*** In fact, Bradley appears to be more attached to Colin than vice-versa (well, this could be more obvious in Bradley's case because Colin is more introverted), as Bradley himself declares he always goes to Colin during breaks from shooting scenes, because he likes to 'play with Colin'. At one point he even suggested they will grow old together.
    • He seems to have moved on a little bit, and is currently besotted with his Knights of the Round Table, admitting to a man-crush on Tom Hopper (Percival) and blowing a kiss to Santiago Cabrera (Lancelot) after Katie mentioned that they and Guinevere had a "great love story."
  • Mackhopp (Eoin Macken/Tom Hopper) seems to be getting quite popular amongst Merlin fans, especially the Perwaine (Percival/Gwaine) fans. Their conversations on twitter and pictures which have spread on tumblr have fuelled the ship.
    • Eoin Macken/Alex Vlahos has also leapt in popularity courtesy of Twitter.
• Noel Fielding and his Heterosexual Life-Partner Julian Barrat get a ludicrous amount of this, probably due to them being Very touchy feely with each other and the fact that the characters for which they are best known (Howard and Vince from The Mighty Boosh) have a crazy amount of Unresolved Sexual Tension between them.
• The Office (US):
  • Stars John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer have said in interviews that they would sometimes encounter excited fans exclaiming "Oh my god! You got married in real life?" when they had lunch together. To their dismay, each is happily married with children to other people, who were sometimes present for these encounters.
  • From the same series, Mindy Kaling (Kelly Kapoor) and B.J. Novak (Ryan Howard) are a combination of this and Romance on the Set—they dated in the very early years of the show before it got big (it helped that they were primarily show writers rather than actors) before breaking up, but remain such close, bizarrely romantic friends that they probably have more shippers than they did while playing Ryan and Kelly.
• Once Upon a Time:
  • Lead actress Jennifer Morrison gets shipped quite a bit with her co-stars. She briefly dated co-star Sebastian Stan (who plays Jefferson/The Mad Hatter) for a period leading to a lot of fans shipping them to this day. The flirty banter (on and off-screen) between Jennifer and Colin O'Donoghue (who plays her love interest Hook) leads a lot of Captain Swan shippers to ship Colifer. There is also the large section of Swan Queen shippers who ship Jennifer with Lana Parrilla (Morrilla) to this day, due to the pair's on-screen chemistry, as evidenced by the large amount of fanfiction still being written about them.
  • There is also a large set of fans who ship Robert Carlyle and Emilie de Ravin, who play Official Couple Rumplestiltskin and Belle, together due to the two's adorable interactions in interviews. This is even though Carlyle has been happily married for years and Emilie is in a committed relationship. Of course, this is not helped by the two constantly singing each other's praises in interviews, such as the time Emilie said she would be happy to spend the rest of her life working with Robert.
  • There is a huge following for shipping Lana Parrilla with Rebecca Mader due to their real life friendship (the two are often referred to as Bexana on by their shippers). Though not to the same extent, a group of fans ship Lana with Sean Maguire (who played her on-screen love interest, Robin). It doesn't help that Sean once described kissing Lana as his favorite part of the job.
  • Surprisingly, real life couple Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas don't get as much of this, but they are popular enough to get their own Portmanteau Couple Name "Gosh" and plenty of fanvids dedicated to them.
• A lot of Outlander fans have openly admitted to wanting Sam Heughan and Caitríona Balfe, who played Official Couple Jamie/Claire, to become a couple in real life. There is a lot of fanfiction and cute moments edits for the two around the internet as well. This is mainly due to their famous chemistry and off-screen friendship. Unfortunately, the two are dating other people in real life (in fact, Balfe is married), but this does little if anything to stop their shippers.

P-W

• Many Parks and Recreation fans have issues accepting that Aubrey Plaza and Chris Pratt aren't actually dating. Plaza is on board with this, as she mentioned in an interview that remembering Pratt isn't her real husband depresses her. Some fans also have admitted they wish Adam Scott and Amy Poehler were an actual couple and probably, even more, think Poehler and Rashida Jones would make an excellent couple.
• Shadowhunters: The fandom loves shipping the actors who play the official pairings, like Katherine McNamara and Dominic Sherwood or Matthew Daddario and Harry Shum Jr.. In particular, Matthew and Harry have loads of Real Person Fics and fan edits about them around the internet.
• There continues to be a strong following of the BBC program Sherlock who ship the leading actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman (Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, respectively). Both of them making appearances in The Hobbit added fuel to the fire. There was an interview in The Guardian in which Benedict said that Martin is helping him pick out his clothes. And let's not forget the 2011 BAFTA Awards ceremony, in which the two of them rather excessively gushed all over each other - in separate interviews, no less. Martin thanked Benedict in his acceptance speech, while Benedict in his own interview said he and Martin adore each other and then very awkwardly rushed to point out that said adoration was completely platonic. Martin has said in an interview that they would have no problem kissing on screen.
• Skins has this big time. Some 90% (conservative estimate) of Naomily shippers are also Lily Loveless/Kathryn Prescott shippers (and LilyKat know it and Ship Tease to hell and back), and the actors playing Effy (Kaya Scodelario) and Cook (Jack O'Connell) briefly dated. The LilyKat tinhats even have a neat Reality Subtext to play with; Naomi's Anguished Declaration of Love in the S4 finale included the statement that it took her three years to be able to speak to Emily after she first saw her, which ties in with the fact that Lily and Kat first met at an acting class three years before they joined the show... Lily and Kathryn have stated many times that they did not speak to each other while in the acting class (despite each having lead roles) because they were shy and didn't think they'd have anything in common ...
• Sleepy Hollow has fans shipping leads Tom Mison and Nicole Beharie. The fact that they're so gosh darned cute together◊ doesn't help.
• In Smallville, there is apparently enough Allison Mack/Tom Welling (Chloe Sullivan / Clark Kent) Actor Shipping for sites to make rules against it. Fans also Squeed a bit when Allison says she likes scenes with her crying into Tom's chest because it is comfortable in the Truth commentary. However, in a later interview Allison was quick to maintain that while Tom and her know each other very well, they are not personal friends outside work after some hurtful rumours about co-star Kristin Kreuk (Lana Lang) started spreading after Tom Welling got married. Plus, any remaining momentum the ship might have had was all but extinguished after Mack was convicted of sex trafficking in 2018.
• Star Trek: There is a not-insignificant subset of fans who ship William Shatner with Leonard Nimoy. This is not surprising, considering that the characters they played launched Slash Fic as a concept.
• In response to some Stranger Things fans who ship Finn Wolfhard (Mike) and Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Millie made a video to explain that it makes her uncomfortable because they're just friends in real life.
  • Some fans do this with Charlie Heaton (Jonathan) and Natalia Dyer (Nancy), where it helps that they're dating in real life.
• Very common in Supernatural Real-Person Fic; the relevant nickname is "J2" or J-Squared. This is the common ship name for Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. This is because, in the earliest seasons, it was impossible to make an In-Universe ship of any durability that had neither Original Characters nor incest. J2 or Jared/Jensen appears to be the most popular ship within Supernatural fandom. The shipping for J2 heated up even more than before because Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki lived together for quite a while and the whole cast tends to be very...tactile in interviews/con appearances etc. A small but highly visible minority of the J2 fans have, unfortunately, taken over from The Lord of the Rings Domlijah fans as the most notorious example of a real-person-slash fandom convincing themselves that the people involved are genuinely dating and thinking that it's gay rights activism to try to bully them out of the "closet".
  • Other ships or pairings include Jensen/Misha (Cockles), Jared/Misha (Mishalecki), Jared/Richard, Jensen/JDM, Jared/Jensen/Misha... You get the picture?
• The Teen Wolf fandom is rife with this. The main couples seem to be Dylan O'Brien/Tyler Posey, due to them being very close on and off screen, ridiculously in-sync during interviews and actually living together when they filmed Season 1 and 2. Dylan O'Brien/Tyler Hoechlin are also popular, due to them playing the fandom's most popular ship, Stiles/Derek.
• That's So Raven and Raven's Home co-stars Raven-Symoné and Anneliese van der Pol get paired up sometimes by Chrave (Raven/Chelsea) shippers, despite Symoné being married in real life. The two are actually really good friends in real life, with the two often posting pictures of them together on social media, and being very affectionate in interviews. The two have also been known to play up their closeness in interviews, and joke about it from time to time.
• Anna Paquin, who plays Sookie Stackhouse, is married to Stephen Moyer, who plays Vampire Bill Compton on True Blood.
• The Untamed: Many fans enjoy seeing the interactions between Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo due to their chemistry on and off-screen and how well they understood the characters they played. For similar reasons, the second most popular actor pair after them is Song Jiyang and Wang Haoxuan, followed by Liu Haikuan and Zhu Zanjin.
• The Vampire Diaries Universe:
  • The Vampire Diaries:
    • Many fans ship Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev in real life, both due to their chemistry onscreen as Damon and Elena, and due to their obviously close friendship offscreen. Later confirmed to be more than a "close friendship". The same happens for Steven R. McQueen and Malese Jow, the actors for Jeremy and Anna.
    • A lot of fans ship Ian Somerhalder and Kat Graham together due to the chemistry they have on screen. The pair's close friendship has also helps. There are several fan edits for the two, and one of the main reasons "Bamon" became as popular as it did was their off-screen friendship.
  • Legacies: A lot of the more die-hard Hope/Josie shippers have taken to shipping the characters' actresses, Danielle Rose Russell and Kaylee Bryant. This is helped by their off-screen friendship and the fact that the two have been very vocal about their support for the ship, saying that they would love for it to become canon. Bryant coming out as queer only helped fuel the ship's fans. The pairing is also popular on sites like Tumblr and Twitter. The two even have their own Portmanteau Couple Name, Daylee. This is not helped by the fact that the two are very affectionate with each other (such as calling each other wifey) or Bryant saying stuff like this:
  Kaylee: I'm not like a team Hosie or a team Posie. I'm like a "I'm in love with Danielle Rose Russell" team. Is that a team? I feel like it is.
• Victorious, being an iCarly sister show, naturally has this:
  • There is Elizabeth Gillies and Ariana Grande, due to their extremely close friendship stretched back over a decade and more despite being only teenagers, and the fact they keep doing things like photographing the other sleeping next to them in the same bed and posting the pictures online.
  • Several Jori (Tori/Jade) shippers have taken to shipping Elitoria (Elizabeth Gillies / Victoria Justice). The two played the Fan-Preferred Couple, and their on-screen chemistry is a big part of the reason why. The two were also known to be very chummy in interviews, and are still good friends. The two would often appear together in promos, and would often post images and videos of themselves together on social media. The pairing still has a following years later, despite Gillies now being married, helped by the fact that Justice is still very affectionate towards Gillies on social media and when they meet in public.
• Wednesday:
  • Co-stars Jenna Ortega (the titular Wednesday Addams) and Emma Myers (Enid Sinclair) have been shipped by a large part of the fanbase on sites like Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram. This is not helped by the two constantly posting flirty comments towards each other on each other's Instagram posts and their close real-life friendship. Any time they interact, those who ship them or their characters always lose their minds on social media.
  • Jenna Ortega (Wednesday) and Percy Hynes White (Xavier) have been shipped together in the fandom, due to their close real-life friendship.
• Wizards of Waverly Place fans who ship Jalex (Justin/Alex) have the tendency to ship Delena (David Henrie / Selena Gomez). In fact, Selena Gomez admitted she had a crush on her on-screen brother, David Henrie. It was even mentioned at one point that they casually date together, but they don't want to get further than that, due to some Unfortunate Implications their characters from the show would get involved in.
• Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny of The X-Files fame got shipping treatment a lot. Hell, they were still getting it a decade after the end of the show. It happened in 2012 that Ms Anderson had broken up with her long-term boyfriend, and Mr Duchovny's marriage to Téa Leoni had been over as well. Many a rumour spread again, despite the fact that one of them lives in Great Britain and the other in the States. In addition, fan-cut videos involving their characters, but also their real-life appearances, are very popular, and comments like "How those two never ended up together I'll never know" or "Thumb up if you think Gillian and David ever did it" abound. In late 2013, they did a joint Reddit AMA—where their 'proof' picture is the two of them lying on a hotel bed. Twenty years after The X-Files first aired, and still going strong. On winter 2015/2016, promotion of the new X-Files season gave a huge boost to this shipping, with many pictures and interviews showing their renewed complicity. It even gave them their own PortmanteauCoupleName, Gillovny. Needless to say, their chemistry on the show is legendary.
• Yellowjackets co-stars Ella Purnell (Jackie) and Sophie Nélisse (Shauna) have been shipped by some parts of the fanbase on sites like Tumblr and Twitter due to their on-screen chemistry and real life friendship, despite both being straight and the fact that Ella is dating Max Bennett Kelly. One particular thing that shippers have latched onto is the fact that Sophie loves to take pictures of Ella (with both admitting that Ella's Instagram account is mostly pictures Sophie took of her), and Sophie has admitted to being "obsessed with Ella's face" at one point. At one point, Sophie even described Ella like a painting. It's also not just limited to fans, as Ella once revealed that when she got home from filming the first season, that everyone there was convinced that she and Sophie were dating, and Sophie has revealed that she gets how some people would assume that they have "gay energy" as well.

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