Jake Johnson Is A Dad Of Twin Daughters With His Wife Of Nearly 20 Years

You probably know Jake Johnson best from New Girl, as Nick Miller from the streets of Chicago. What you might not know is that the actor’s background in real life isn’t that far off. But, unlike Nick Miller, Johnson has actually been married for nearly two decades and is a proud, devoted father of two daughters. So grab yourself an alcohol and put on Julius Pepperwood’s finest detective cap because here’s what else you need to know about the funnyman and podcast host’s family.

Jake Johnson has been married to Erin Payne since 2005.

While the actor, who’s from a norther suburb of Chicago, generally avoids talking about his marriage, even going so far in 2013 to tell Glamour, “My business is personal,” we do know that he married artist Erin Payne in 2005. We know this because Johnson confirmed in a 2012 interview with Marie Claire that he had been happily married for seven years, so that’s just simple math. And as far as being happy, Johnson told Variance in 2014 that he loved two things in life at the time, his wife and his job.

“I love to act, but I didn’t get into the business to be a huge celebrity,” Johnson said at the time. “Of course, I’ll be out to eat with friends, and a woman might come up to the table and have nice things to say. It’s cool. But I didn’t get into acting for that. And I’m married. I know that’s tricky in Hollywood, but I’m not going to give up my wife so I can have more of what someone perceives as success. I love two things: my wife and my job. And although I love my job, I’m a happier person because I have my wife.”

She inspired him to write a movie based on their life together.

The 2015 comedy Digging for Fire that Johnson wrote, about a married couple who find a gun and bone in their backyard, was inspired by a similar experience Payne and Johnson had gone through. And she helped to advise him on the film, even though he told The Mary Sue that her initial reaction to an early version of the script was less than positive. “Not only do I hate your character, but I hate this movie,” she was quoted as saying, and then went on to advise him to help the movie get better. So we have her to thank for that.

If you liked the artwork featured on Nick Miller’s bedroom wall on New Girl, you can also thank his wife for them. At the series finale, Johnson told Fan Fest that his wife, who has done artwork for several other films like The Lovely Bones, Shutter Island, and Sex and the City 2, had created them for the set.

They welcomed twin daughters, Elizabeth and Olivia, in 2014.

Johnson and Payne welcomed twin daughters Elizabeth and Olivia in 2014. The pair did not make an announcement about their daughters’ birth, instead choosing to keep details, including their names, private. But in the years since, Johnson has shared a few more details about life with his daughters.

He has a unique way of getting his daughters to eat.

During the coronavirus lockdown in 2020, Johnson told Kelly Clarkson that he was spending “a ton” of time with his daughters. He even shared a very cute trick he came up with to get the girls, who were 6 years old at the time, to eat their food. By telling them they were judges on a cooking show.

“All of a sudden, they eat the whole meal because they’re a judge. They’ll say, ‘I like the texture, but I don’t like the cheese on the quesadilla,’ and I’ll be like, ‘Thank you, judge. How about you?’ and they’ll have to take another bite,” he said. It’s actually a truly inspired idea.

He stores his daughters’ baby teeth exactly as Nick Miller would.

Johnson opened up on his podcast We’re Here To Help with Gareth Reynolds about saving his daughters’ teeth after they’ve lost them. “Throwing out your kids’ teeth is shockingly sad,” he shared in November 2023. “Because you adore those teeth, you watched them grow and then they fall out and that means they’re not babies anymore. So I have not thrown out my kids’ teeth.” Although that doesn’t mean he has stored them in a safe place. Johnson revealed he just puts them up a high shelf, out of sight, and tosses them to the back.

“Here’s where I’m a trash person, this is where I’m gonna embarrass myself. I haven’t put them in a safe spot ... I just toss them back,” he shared on his podcast before breaking out in laughter. “There’s just dead baby teeth [up there]. This is gross.”

Imagine that grisly discovery if he forgets them there. But at least Jake Johnson, one of Chicago’s favorite sons, is keeping them there. Just in case. So I guess he really is Nick Miller, come to think of it.