Whatever Happened To Kat Dennings?
Most people first encountered Kat Dennings when she played Darcy Williams in "Thor." By that point, she'd already been acting for years and had been a part of some pretty successful movies like "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist." But it doesn't get more high-profile than a Marvel movie, so in 2011 Dennings entered the zeitgeist.
The same year that "Thor" debuted, Dennings also kicked off her lengthy run on the CBS comedy "2 Broke Girls." For a while she seemingly showed up all the time. When "2 Broke Girls" was canceled in 2017, Dennings dropped off a lot of folks' radars. Her character had less of a role to play in the MCU, and Dennings showed up on camera less often than she used to. But in reality, she was keeping herself busier than ever.
In the years since Dennings became a mainstream actress, she's kept up a steady stream of appearances in movies and TV. She's also spent some time focusing on her personal life, discovering new hobbies, and accidentally stumbling into new partnerships along the way. Dennings' career hasn't followed the typical Hollywood trajectory, but it's as booming today as it was in 2011. If you're a fan of comedies, cats, or knitting, it's worth taking a look at what happened to Kat Dennings.
She dated Josh Groban
In 2014, Kat Dennings' fans got all kinds of excited about her romantic life. Dennings decided to take her relationship status public at the Carousel of Hope Ball, showing up to the charity event with musician Josh Groban. The internet picked up on the hints right away, but after the event everyone got more confirmation when Dennings made a now-deleted Instagram post about the two of them.
The fact that Dennings' Instagram post isn't online anymore might have already clued you into how this particular relationship turned out. Nothing lasts forever, and two years later Dennings and Groban broke up. Fans never learned any concrete details about the breakup, but it might not have been all that dramatic. An unnamed source told E! News, "They are still friends and care about each other, but it's not the right time for them now as a couple." Both have since moved on and struck up new relationships.
2 Broke Girls proved to be divisive
2011 was a great year for Kat Dennings. She joined the MCU as Darcy Lewis in "Thor," and she also starred in the first season of the CBS comedy "2 Broke Girls." The series followed Max (Dennings) and Caroline (Beth Behrs), two waitresses working at a somewhat rundown diner. They become fast friends and end up dreaming up a big plan to start their very own cupcake business.
"2 Broke Girls" had a successful first season and became popular enough to get five more. The series ran for six years before CBS unexpectedly canceled it after Season 6. Fans have long wondered about the real reason why "2 Broke Girls" was canceled, with declining ratings, contractual issues, and its raunchy humor all cited as possible reasons. The truth about the show might also have affected Dennings' career in general.
Despite finding a solid audience, "2 Broke Girls" had some controversial moments throughout its run. Critics pointed out that many of the jokes surrounding diner owner Han Lee (Matthew Moy) played up racial stereotypes about immigrants, with his broken English a regular target. Later in the series, "2 Broke Girls" also caught some heat for making jokes about Aboriginal people in Australia. The final nail in the series' coffin was a slew of rough negotiations between Warner Bros., which produced the show, and CBS, which aired it, but all the controversy did "2 Broke Girls" and Kat Dennings no favors.
She started a knitting club
Sometimes it's the simple pleasures in life that get you through the day. Kat Dennings has hobbies just like anyone else, and they don't exactly match up with the glamorous image of celebrity life we all have in our heads. Dennings talked about some of her hobbies, which include things like reading and solving Sudoku puzzles, with Ellen DeGeneres. "I am an old man," Dennings said, later adding, "I feel like every year I kind of fulfill my old man destiny."
Ellen asked Dennings if part of that destiny involved starting her knitting club. Dennings explained that she is good friends with UFC and WWE fighter Ronda Rousey, but instead of heading into the ring for sparring matches, the two of them get together to knit. They have a small group of friends who call themselves The Yarn and the Restless. The group meets up to knit scarves and blankets, but Dennings admitted that most of their time is spent drinking wine. Dennings has even joked about being the kind of person who knits at parties. If she keeps up that energy, by the time she's actually in her golden years, Dennings will be out of things to do.
She got engaged to Andrew W.K.
Kat Dennings' relationship status excited the internet all over again in 2021: on May 2, she posted a romantic-looking picture of herself and rock musician Andrew W.K. on Instagram. If there was a swirl of rumors after that picture, it became a virtual tsunami just a handful of days later. On May 13, Dennings posted another picture of herself and W.K. holding hands, but this time around she was wearing an engagement ring.
On her talk show, Drew Barrymore asked Dennings how their engagement came to be. Dennings said she felt a near-instant connection with W.K. and described their actual engagement as a magical moment: "We looked at each other, and we both proposed at the same time." Dennings said she can be tough and emotionally restrained, but in that moment she started crying happy tears. The two got engaged quickly, but they've been slow to marry. Two years after the announcement, fans are still waiting for news of the big day. When it happens, Instagram will probably hear about it first.
She's been working as a producer
The longer you stay in Hollywood, the more responsibility you're bound to take on. With 57 acting credits and counting, it was only a matter of time before Kat Dennings tried her hand at another showbiz job. She's yet to sit in the director's chair, but in 2018 she took on her very first producing gig. Dennings worked as a producer on the YouTube Originals animated series "Dallas and Robo," also co-starring with John Cena as the voices of the titular characters. That same year she snagged a job as producer and star of the pilot for "How May We Hate You?"
The pilot didn't lead to an ongoing role for Dennings, but her next big thing was right around the corner. Dennings made the jump from producer to executive producer when she joined the Hulu series "Dollface." Dennings told Buzzfeed that after nearly three decades in the business, she finally felt ready to take on a bigger role behind the scenes. "You learn a lot as you go, just like in any job," she said, "but I felt really ready for that responsibility." Dennings said she deeply enjoyed the work, so it probably won't be long before we see her forging ahead with the producing side of her career.
She returned to the MCU
In the first two "Thor" movies, Kat Dennings' character, Darcy Lewis, was an integral part of the team, an intern-turned-astrophysicist working alongside Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård). Her expertise helped save the world on two occasions, but after "Thor: The Dark World," her future in the MCU felt uncertain. She didn't show up in "Thor: Ragnarok," and then Thanos snapped away half of all humanity.
Dennings has said that the people at the people at Marvel caught her completely by surprise when they called her to come back into the MCU. She was especially shocked because Darcy's return had nothing to do with Thor at all. She showed up in the fourth episode of "WandaVision," and we all learned that she'd spent the years after the Blip very much alive, earning her doctorate in astrophysics. Darcy also came back to the big screen for "Thor: Love and Thunder," in which Jane Foster was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Now that Jane is dead, Darcy's biggest connection to superheroes is broken, but "WandaVision" proved that she could show up just about anywhere.
She's gotten involved in another comic book adaptation
Neil Gaiman's legendary series "The Sandman" has long been a favorite of comic book fans, and in recent years the story has made the jump into other mediums. Netflix notably released a TV series adaptation in 2022, but Kat Dennings got involved in an even earlier version: Audible released "The Sandman" as a podcast beginning in 2020.
By the time that Audible began making plans for "The Sandman," Dennings was already on a first-name basis with the series' author. She and Gaiman had met, of all places, on Twitter. They struck up a friendship that lasted the better part of a decade.
By the time Gaiman started working on Audible's version of "The Sandman," he already knew that he wanted Dennings to be a part of it. "I love a lot of things about her, including her voice and the range that she has, but most of all I loved the way that talking to her always cheers me up," Gaiman told Entertainment Weekly. He texted Dennings to offer her the role of the cheeriest "Sandman" character: Death. She enthusiastically accepted and voiced the character for 25 episodes of the series over the course of two years.
She starred in the Hulu series Dollface
As a TV star, Kat Dennings is best known for "2 Broke Girls," but in recent years the Hulu series "Dollface" has kept her busy. We've already talked about Dennings' work as a producer on the show, but she also stars as the lead character Jules. The show follows Jules on a journey of connection and self-discovery. After getting dumped, Jules realizes that she's grown apart from all her old friends, and she starts working at getting back into their lives.
Dennings may never have gotten involved in the series without Margot Robbie's intervention. Robbie was an executive producer on the series, and she got in touch with Dennings' manager directly to ask her to read the script. Dennings jumped on the opportunity.
The first season of "Dollface" debuted in 2019. The second season was delayed, like so many other shows during the pandemic, to 2022. Though audiences generally enjoyed the show, it struggled to get a strong reception from critics. Unfortunately for fans, just months after the debut of Season 2, Hulu canceled the series.
Dennings quit Twitter
Plenty of celebrities have embraced social media, but Kat Dennings really seems to enjoy posting online. She's long been active on Instagram, and as we've seen, she's shared some pretty big life announcements there. Once upon a time, Dennings was also tremendously active on Twitter. It's where she met Neil Gaiman, eventually leading to her role on "The Sandman." It's also where she shared so many wild or even amusingly unhinged thoughts that Buzzfeed once listed "19 Tweets That Prove Kat Dennings is the Queen of Twitter."
Now Dennings is the queen no more. For one thing, Twitter is dead, now reinvented as X. But Dennings actually didn't stick around for the rebrand, and was part of the mass exodus after Elon Musk took over the platform. Musk finally secured his control over Twitter on October 28, 2022. On November 10, less than two weeks later, Dennings had shut down her account and moved on. Her strange posts will definitely be missed, but at least we still have all the cat pictures she puts on Instagram.
She's been working as a brand rep
You might not see Kat Dennings on camera as much as you did a decade ago, but that doesn't mean she's any less active. If anything, Dennings has more on her plate now than ever before. In addition to continuing her work as an actor and expanding her focus to become a producer, Dennings has also been working in advertising.
In 2021, Dennings enthusiastically announced her partnership with sparkling water brand Spindrift on Instagram. "I may be part Spindrift at this point, as it is actually the only water I drink," she wrote. In fact, it was Dennings herself who sought out her partnership with Spindrift. She's so supportive of the company that it produced the Kat Pack, a variety box that specifically features Dennings' favorite flavors.
Spindrift might have even managed to shift Dennings' opinion on drinking. She's previously stated that she's never been someone who likes to get drunk, with the occasional glass of wine as far as she'll go. In October 2022 Dennings started promoting Spindrift Spiked, an alcoholic version of the sparkling water, and we have to assume she's been bringing that to meetings of The Yarn and the Restless ever since.
She's got a big role on Big Mouth
There's another reason you might be seeing less of Kat Dennings than you used to. She's spending fewer hours in front of a camera and more in the vocal booth. Earlier in her career, Dennings dabbled with voice acting, landing some guest appearances on shows like "American Dad!" and "Robot Chicken." During her "2 Broke Girls" years, Dennings didn't have much time to explore voice acting roles, but since then she's really gone for it.
In 2017, Dennings made a guest appearance on "The Simpsons" to get her vocal cords warmed up. Then she took things quite a bit further in 2018 when she starred in the animated series "Dallas and Robo." After that she had a lengthy role on "The Sandman," but also joined the cast of a less somber show.
Dennings played Leah Birch in the first season of Netflix's raunchy animated comedy "Big Mouth." As the show went on, Dennings picked up another character: Lorraine the hormone monstress. Dennings stayed with "Big Mouth" for four seasons, but then she left the show when "Dollface" and MCU appearances started taking up more of her time.
She's been encouraging people to foster cats
Kat Dennings hasn't been using her social media presence just to promote Spindrift. She's also been an outspoken advocate for animals, particularly cats. In May 2022, she made a post calling on more people to foster stray cats. "By fostering a kitten (or two), you're providing them with a chance to grow up and find families of their very own," Dennings wrote.
Feline friends have been a huge part of Dennings' life for years. Dennings loves all cats, but her adopted furball Millie holds a special place in her heart. She celebrated Millie in an Instagram post, writing, "It's #NationalBestFriendsDay which means I can show off my daughter, Millie, adopted over a decade ago." Dennings had a truly special relationship with Millie, which made October 2023 all the more heartbreaking when Millie tragically died on October 8. Dennings gave her a good life, and in part thanks to Millie, Dennings will go on to be an advocate for cats in need everywhere.
She's got some future roles in mind
Some people can only dream of having a career like that of Kat Dennings. She's found success in front of the camera and behind the scenes. She's starred in movies and TV shows, and she's even been a regular part of one of the biggest franchises in history. It might seem like Dennings could call it quits tomorrow and spend the rest of her life relaxing, but she has no intention of slowing down.
Dennings has plenty of years of acting, producing, brand repping, and cat rearing ahead of her. She's not necessarily someone who's living a rise-and-grind lifestyle, but she does have some goals for her future. After her work on "Dollface," Dennings has said that she hopes to get the chance to be an executive producer again. As for acting, Dennings has a couple of shows in mind, saying that she'd love to join the cast of some of her favorites like "The Righteous Gemstones" on HBO or "American Horror Story" on FX. For now, Dennings' future is a total mystery — which is probably how she likes it.