The study of surface subgroups in 3-manifolds has drawn sustained attention for decades, motivated both by their intrinsic geometric richness and by their broad consequences in geometric topology, geometric group theory, and dynamics. A landmark result is the Surface Subgroup Theorem of Kahn–Markovic, which states that every cocompact Kleinian group contains a ubiquitous collection of closed surface subgroups. In this talk, we will introduce some key developments in the subject and highlight our recent progress, including joint work with Jeremy Kahn, and with Xiaolong Han and Jia Wan.