Rob Reiner's Wife Michele Reiner Had a Storied Career in Photography Before Her Death

Before director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Reiner, were found dead in their California home in December 2025, both had led long careers in the entertainment industry, but in different ways. Rob was a director who had worked on movies like When Harry Met Sally and Misery, among many others. He was also an actor, as was Michele. But Michele was also a photographer who had done some iconic work well before she met her husband.

Rob and Michele were married in 1989 and had three kids together. Between building a life that tragically ended together unexpectedly, they each managed to build careers that they became known for. In Michele's case, it was through photography, which even extended to her husband's movie sets and a two-time president.

Though she wasn't in the public eye as much as her husband, Michele sometimes worked under the name of Michele Singer as a photographer. According to her IMDb page, she took location photos for the video game MysteryDisc: Murder Anyone?, and she took jacket photos for the same game. She was also a special photographer on the set of the 1990 movie Misery, which Rob directed.

Michele also served as a producer for several movies, including Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, which came out in September 2025. Singer Josh Groban, who worked with the couple on the movie and on the 2026 movie Spinal Tap at Stonehenge: The Final Finale, shared on Instagram that he was honored to work with "Rob Reiner and his brilliant wife Michele."

It's unclear if Michele and Rob met because she was a photographer, but she was working on building her career in the 1980s when she visited the set of When Harry Met Sally and met Rob, according to The New York Times. Her visit and meeting Rob changed the course of history as far as the movie is concerned. Per the outlet, Rob said that meeting Michele made him change the ending of the movie to make the characters stay together. The couple married the same year the movie was released.

Although Michele's work as a photographer later in life included more movie work than print work, she did take one iconic photo that appeared on the cover of a New York Times Bestseller. Michele took the photo of Donald Trump for the cover of Trump: The Art of the Deal, a book he wrote with journalist Tony Schwartz.

She didn't speak publicly about politics or her political affiliation before her death, but Michele and Rob were known in part for their activism for various causes. One such cause was marriage rights and LGBTQ+ rights through the American Foundation for Equal Rights. Both Michele and Rob were board members of the organization, which was formed partially to fight Proposition 8 in California and keep same-sex marriage legal.