Robert Downey Jr.'s Wife, Susan Downey, Has Been By His Side This Awards Season

Robert Downey Jr. is nominated for his third Oscar tonight, and he could take home the Academy Award for the first time for his role in Oppenheimer as Lewis Strauss. By his side this awards season has been his wife, Susan Downey.

At the SAG Awards, where RDJ won the trophy for Best Supporting Actor, he thanked all his costars and his wife, Susan, saying, "Now why have I added my wife's name to the list of super talented [actors] that I've learned so much from up close over these last 40 years? It's because, for 22 years, she has flawlessly portrayed a sane and rational individual who is happily married to an actor."

Robert and Susan in June 2023.

Here, get to know Susan Downey (née Levin)—who, yes, has been married to Robert Downey Jr. for 22 years.

She's from Schaumburg, Illinois.

Susan Nicole Levin was born in Schaumburg, Illinois, the daughter of Rosie and Elliott Levin. She attended Schaumburg High School, where she graduated as class valedictorian in 1991. After high school, Susan attended University of Southern California, where she attended the School of Cinematic Arts with the goal of becoming a film producer.

She works as a film producer.

After graduating, she started working at Threshold Entertainment, first as an assistant, and then working on developing the Mortal Kombat franchise. She moved to work at Dark Castle Entertainment and Silver Pictures, with Joel Silver announcing, "Susan is a gifted production executive who brings intelligence, energy and an instinct for exciting filmmaking to her work. She will be a great asset to us in our expanded production activities as she helps us move our development projects forward and broaden our pool of material." (You can see all the films she's produced, here.)

Years later, she left Silver Pictures, and in 2010, she and Robert launched Team Downey, a Warner Bros. production company. "Our feeling was, if we wanted to spend time together, have a life together, then we should just go ahead and make movies together," Susan told the Hollywood Reporter.

Susan and Robert met on the set of Gothika.

Susan Levin and Robert Downey Jr. in 2003.

The two met on the set of Gothika.

"We were up in Montreal prepping for Gothika, and we had lunch with the director and Halle Berry," Susan recalls of her first interaction with Downey. "Everybody else ordered Japanese, but Robert told us how oatmeal was the ‘superfood.’ He brought his own packets of oatmeal to have at lunch. And he had this box of various herbs and stuff. And then he started doing these yoga moves. I mean, he was interesting but weird."

Before they began dating, she says, "I was very focused, driven, rigid, work-oriented. I didn’t care about having a family or making a home. I didn’t think about kids. It’s not that I didn’t want those things, I just didn’t think about them. And then I had someone who came in as a tornado, this creative, beautiful ball of insane energy and passion. And it completely opened me up."

They married in 2005.

Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Levin on their wedding day.

Robert proposed just months after they met, and they had a two-year-long engagement, during which Susan helped her husband-to-be get sober. "'[I said] This isn’t gonna work.' I made it clear that to stay with me, nothing could happen," she told Harper’s Bazaar. "I think he saw what we had. There was something magical there, something we couldn't put our finger on. He always says that we became this third thing when we got together — something that neither of us could have become by ourselves — and I think that's true."

In August 2005, they tied the knot in a Jewish wedding ceremony in the Hamptons. They have two children: Exton, born 2012, and Avri, born 2014.

Emily Burack

Senior News Editor

Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram.