My Girl for Life! Find Out All About the Guy Lucky to Be Anna Chlumsky's Husband, Shaun So
Anna Chlumsky’s husband hardly met her in Hollywood. After skyrocketing to fame at age 9, when she starred in My Girl, Chlumsky took time off acting to attend college. In a twist of fate, her hiatus led her to meet Shaun So, now her husband of almost 22 years, at a party on the quad.
While she’s since returned to acting, most recently co-starring in Shonda Rimes’ Netflix series Inventing Anna (which premieres Friday, Feb. 11, 2022), she’s also focused on her family life with So and their two daughters. Get to know Anna Chlumsky’s husband Shaun So and the life they’ve invented together.
Who is Anna Chlumksy’s husband, Shaun So?
So is a veteran and entrepreneur. Three years after they started dating, much of which was long-distance, So was deployed to Afghanistan. Chlumsky described that time in their lives for a Glamourpiece in 2014, writing, “If long-distance dating is a sport, deployment is the X Games.” She emailed her friends in New York City when she got the news, telling them she’d be “building a fortress around myself in order to stay strong for my soldier.”
So returned in January 2006, but continued to serve in the Army Reserve for five more years. “During a two-week leave, we'd had many a discussion about the future—his, mine, ours, the Army's,” she wrote. “We'd come to the conclusion that life is only better with each other in it, despite any and all uncertainties, and we'd resolved to rely on our collective stubbornness to make it for the long haul.”
How long has Anna Chlumsky been married to Shaun So?
So proposed to his college sweetheart four months after returning from overseas, and the couple tied the knot on March 8, 2008. They'll celebrate their 14th wedding anniversary in 2022.
How did Anna Chlumsky and Shaun So meet?
Despite finding fame early, Chlumsky stepped out of the spotlight at 18. During her hiatus from Hollywood, she attended college “to discover a world of academia and possibilities,” as she wrote in her 2014 Glamour story. One of those possibilities ended up involving meeting her future husband, as she saw So for the first time during a “rare dance party” on the University of Chicago quad. “We fell for each other quickly and I knew we’d stay together after I graduated,” said the actress, who then moved to New York City for a post-grad fact-checking position while Cho finished his last year of college. The pair continued their long-distance relationship the next year, commuting back and forth by bus while So worked at the Department of Defense in Washington, D.C.
How old is Anna Chlumsky’s husband, Shaun so?
Shaun So is reportedly 42, while Anna Chlumsky is 41.
What does Shaun So do for a living?
According to So’s Forbescontributor bio, he moved to the private sector after 10 years as a counterterrorism expert and special agent for the U.S. Army and Department of Defense. Since April 2012, he’s served as the founder and CEO of The So Company. “I grow revenue, form strategy, and manage employees of a company that improves public services for users,” his LinkedIn profile reads. It appears to be the third company he’s founded, as his profile also lists roles as the founder and CEO of Cubby, an “urban logistics startup,” and as the co-founder of Digital Services Coalition, a non-profit organization.
Is Anna Chlumsky still acting?
After taking a break from the industry, Chlumsky returned to her roots as an actress. The former child star wrote in Glamour that she decided to “embark on the ‘safer’ pursuit of a 9-to-5 existence” after college. Around the same time, So enlisted in the Army Reserve; however, Chlumsky later had an “epiphany” and decided to stage a return to show business, saying, “As an adult, I thought, maybe I could do it right this time.” So supported his future wife’s career goals at the time, as she recalls him saying, "I can barely sit here training for the Army and tell you not to take a risk with your life.”
Chlumsky took steps towards her dream with acting classes at Manhattan’s Atlantic Acting School, where she went “to see what craft is all about,” as she told Elle in 2022. “And the first thing they say is, ‘This is a play. It’s not called a tedium. It’s called a play. So we’re here to have fun,’” she recalled. “I, literally—I had to go to school to find out how to be a kid.”
Since returning to Hollywood, Chlumsky’s roles have included a seven-season run as Amy Brookheimer on HBO’s Veep and appearances on shows including Law & Order and 30 Rock. Despite her success in show business, however, she prioritizes family over fame. She’s said, per IMDb, that she doesn’t “like to do back-to-back movies” and instead aims for “one movie a year. “I concentrate on things at home,” she explained. “My family and school life are important to me.”
Do Anna Chlumsky and Shaun So have kids?
Chlumsky and So have two children: Clara Elizabeth So, 5, and Penelope Joan So, 8.
In her Glamour piece, Chlumsky suggests that Penelope is named after Odysseus’ wife in Homer’s The Odyssey, who famously waited 20 years for her husband to return from war.
During an interview with KellyRipa in 2017, Chlumsky joked about both her daughters’ having July birthdays, quipping, “It kind of works out with my work schedule.” But while Chlumsky acted and modeled at a young age, don’t expect to see her kids stepping into the spotlight anytime soon. “I certainly don’t want them to be professional before they’re grown,” she told PEOPLE in 2017. “My plan is just to present them with any activity that they want, but they certainly don’t need the pressure of earning money with that skill until they’re adults and can make that decision on their own. So at 18, enjoy.”
While she won’t be encouraging her kids to enter the industry right now, Chlumsky says motherhood hasn’t changed her perspective on My Girl. "It was three months of my life when I was 10,” she told EntertainmentTonight in 2015 of the 1991 film that made her a child star. “I think I have perspective on everything that has happened since that movie - on childhood and being a kid. [Having Penelope] hasn't changed it any way.”
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