All About Martin Aleman, Emma Mackey’s Boyfriend
4 min readTHE RUNDOWN
- Emma Mackey has been quietly dating French director and photographer Martin Aleman since 2023.
- The couple has made only a handful of public appearances, most recently at the Ella McCay premiere in Hollywood.
- Aleman works across film and fashion and directed Mackey in his short film Hotel Fantasma.
Emma Mackey has kept her personal life extremely private for years, but she has occasionally offered rare glimpses into her relationship with director and photographer Martin Aleman. The two were first publicly linked in 2023 and have made a handful of low-key appearances together since, including at Mackey’s Ella McCay premiere in December 2025.
Here, everything to know about Aleman and his connection to Mackey.
Mackey and Aleman were first linked at the 2023 BAFTAs.
The couple’s relationship first became public in February 2023, when Mackey won the EE Rising Star Award at the BAFTAs. As reported by Bustle, a representative for Mackey confirmed that she attended the ceremony with her partner, Aleman, after she shared a brief celebratory kiss with him as she stood to accept the award.
They have appeared together publicly only a few times since.
After the BAFTAs, the pair continued to keep a low profile. Mackey and Aleman attended a West End performance of Cabaret in March 2023.
They were also seen together in February 2025, at a Berlinale event at Hotel Chateau Royal in Berlin.
In June 2025, they were photographed together at the LIDO Festival in London. Most recently, Aleman joined Mackey on the red carpet at the Hollywood premiere of Ella McCay in December 2025, where he stood with his arm around her waist as they posed for photos together.
Aleman is a French director and photographer.
Aleman works across film, photography, and fashion. According to his Independent Talent biography, Aleman spent his childhood between the south of France and Ibiza before teaching himself photography and later relocating to Paris in his early 20s to study theatre.
In a June 2020 Sessùn profile, Aleman spoke in detail about his career trajectory, saying, “I’m a director and photographer. I live between Paris and the South where I created my photo studio. I moved from Montpellier to Paris nine years ago to start an acting career and little by little, I started writing screenplays. From there, I moved on to directing, first my own short films, then music videos, and finally fashion films. I’ve always loved photography, I used to do a lot of it when I was traveling. And since a few years, I decided to get into fashion photography while keeping my job as a director.”
He first collaborated with Mackey in 2022, when he photographed her for Flaunt.
A year before the pair revealed they were dating, Aleman and Mackey worked together professionally. Aleman photographed her for Flaunt magazine in February 2022.
According to Her Campus, Aleman shared images from the shoot on Instagram at the time and described Mackey as “gorgeous” and “wonderful.”
He later directed Mackey in his short film Hotel Fantasma.
Aleman wrote and directed the short film Hotel Fantasma, completed in 2024. Independent Talent lists the project as a “Franco-British short” starring Mackey, Vicky Krieps, and Stacy Martin.
Aleman keeps his online presence minimal, similar to Mackey.
Although Aleman uses Instagram, his posts are primarily work-related, often tied to Hotel Fantasma or photography projects. This mirrors Mackey’s own approach. In an interview with ELLE UK in 2023, she said she has “zero” social media.
“I find it crazy how much time people spend on their phones,” she continued. “I’m not saying that in an arrogant way—I do understand because it’s completely addictive. But it really frightens me. There are some positives to it, of course. I miss out on great restaurant recommendations or secret concerts or whatever. But people don’t talk to me about what they do anymore. They forget to tell me when they get a good piece of news because they just put all their life on their Stories and expect everyone to watch.”
His creative background includes acting, writing, and fashion work.
Sessùn’s interview with Aleman outlines the range of his creative background, including acting, writing, directing, and fashion work. In the profile, he said, “I remember leaving Montpellier for Paris almost nine years ago to emancipate myself as an artist, and nine years later, it’s in the south that I’m slowly finding my freedom. The creation of this studio gives me the right to make mistakes, and it’s a luxury that it’s unfortunately not so much possible to have in Paris today.”
He also described cinema as his foundational influence, saying, “What inspires me the most is cinema. My imagination was formed by the thousands of hours I spent watching movies. I still rave about the genius of some directors; it’s still the only art that binds all the others together.”
Fashion has been part of his life since childhood. As he explained, “I grew up in a family where everyone works in fashion, from second-hand clothes to ready-to-wear to magazine covers! I am particularly attentive and sensitive to this. I think it’s still one of my greatest sources of inspiration!”