10 Things to know about Laverne Cox's boyfriend, Jono Freedrix

October 01, 2024

With another Screen Actors Guild award under her belt and a hot new man on her arm, 2016 is shaping up to be a great year for Orange Is the New Black star Laverne Cox.

Cox made her public debut with reported boyfriend Jono Freedrix at the SAG Awards on Saturday, right before she picked up her statue for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series with the rest of her OITNB castmates. Though neither Freedrix nor Cox have publicly spoken about their relationship, several outlets say the alleged couple was heavy on the PDA at SAG Award after-parties.

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Here’s what we know about Freedrix so far.

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1. This actually wasn’t his first time out with Cox

Freedrix has been making the rounds with Cox for weeks, as evidenced by his post of himself raising the roof while sitting next to her at the Logo Trailblazer Honors in January.

There’s also this photo of Cox and Freedrix at a film festival together nearly a year ago.

2. He’s international

Freedrix hails from Canada, where he is the president of The Virtual Stage, a Vancouver-based film and theater company, according to his social media pages.

The Virtual Stage is “dedicated to the investigation of emerging technologies in live performance,” says its Twitter page.

3. Jono Freedrix might not be his actual name

Light Internet stalking revealed that Freedrix’s name might really be Jonathan Friedrichs. While his Instagram account is under the name Jono Freedrix, his Facebook identity is Jonathan Friedrichs, so the jury is out on which one is official, but we suspect that Jono Freedrix might be his stage name.

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4. He was an adorable child

He’s totally got the same look as Haley Joel Osment circa The Sixth Sense time period, as one of Freedrix’s Facebook friends so cleverly pointed out.

5. He has another Orange Is the New Black connection

He worked on a short comedy about public breastfeeding titled Sucklepump with Joel Marsh Garland, who plays Scott O’Neill on OITNB.

6. He’s a Leonardo DiCaprio fan

But who isn’t, really?

7. He’s a former teacher

According to his personal website, Freedrix previously worked as a high school teacher, where he taught photography, drama and ran an award-winning teen filmmaking program.

8. He’s a gifted wildlife photographer

The photo above, while gorgeous, isn’t even one of his best. His website is full of amazing pictures of birds, monkeys, bears and insects.

9. He dabbles in stop-motion animation

Is there anything this guy can’t do?

10. His favorite animal is the orangutan

“I spent 2 months living with orangutans in Borneo in 2003,” Freedrix wrote on Instagram. “Later I fostered 2 orphaned orangutans who were rescued from captivity after their mothers were killed by poachers & they were sold as pets on the black market. Illegal logging is an even more devastating problem. Go to orangutan.org, see the amazing work Dr. Biruté Galdikas & the Orangutan Foundation International is doing, and help protect these beautiful endangered species.”

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