Okay, so Milana Vayntrub isn’t exactly a household name, but Vayntrub has had a recurring face on the drama series This Is Us and — perhaps much more famously — a series of AT&T commercials as Lily Adams. Meaning it’s time to take a look at the girl, nay woman, behind the commercials – just who is Milana Vayntrub? That’s what we set out to find.
Milana Vayntrub – Lily from AT&T
So you’ll hear us commonly refer to Milana Vayntrub as Lily from AT&T and if you don’t know why then boy do you need to turn a TV on! Since November 2013, Vayntrub has been gracing our screens as the perky yet hilarious AT&T store associate. Within a 30-second commercial, she’s able to cause viewers to remember her long after the next commercial airs. Simply put, she’s unforgettable.
Milana Vayntrub – Lily from AT&T<[/caption]
Model Start
Not a far stretch to learn that Milana Vayntrub used to be a bit of a model. Although she’s more of a comedian and television actress now. Either way, she was on the right track to fulfilling her dreams!
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Model StartMayer
During 2006 to 2007, the rumor mill was churning. Reportedly Milana Vayntrub was dating the legendary singer John Mayer – considering his track record, we would be inclined to believe it. But as neither one has confirmed or denied anything, nor is there any photographic evidence, it just remains a rumor.
Mayer
Californication
In 2014, Milana Vayntrub appeared alongside David Duchovny in the raunchy series Californication. While she only appeared in one episode, titled “Like Father Like Son”, she absolutely loved every minute of filming, especially next to X-Flies royalty, Duchovny.
Californication
First Gig
Think quick, which television series was all the rage in 1995? If you didn’t say ER then we have a problem. Kidding…kind of. Anyways, ER was Milana’s first acting gig! For three episodes, she portrayed Tatiana – an abandoned Russian girl who has AIDS.
First Gig
Net Worth
Currently it’s reported that Milana Vayntrub’s net worth is a cool $500,000. However with a few upcoming projects under her belt, and having appeared in the new hit drama This Is Us, we won’t be surprised if it increases and soon.
Net Worth
Silicon Valley
Shortly after her role in Californication, Milana appeared for two episodes in Silicon Valley. Her character, Tara, is Gilfoyle’s visiting girlfriend who finds that Erlich and Dinesh are competing for her attention.
Silicon Valley
Doggie Lover
First of all, Milana Vayntrub is an avid animal lover whose motto is “all animals all the time.” (Sounds like a girl after my own heart!) While she has two dogs at home, her social media is littered with other cute animals too. Moreover her Instagram account often shows photos of dogs who are modeling and dogs who are also sound department canines. Paw-fectly adorable!
Doggie Lover
AT&T
As we’ve already mentioned, Milana Vayntrub landed the role of Lily Adams for AT&T back in November 2013. Not only was she hilarious and relatable, but she had a way of connecting with viewers in just 30-second snippets.
ATT
Being Lily
Hank Perlman, director of Hungry Man, commented about the character of Lily: “I think Milana’s Lily resonates with audiences because she’s a multi-dimensional character in a way that’s rare for commercials,” Perlman worked as the director for many AT&T commercials. “We try as hard as we can not only to make her funny but to make her as strong, smart and human as possible. And hopefully all of that makes her as relatable as a character in a 30-second commercial can be.”
Being Lily
Milana Vayntrub – Roots
Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Milana Aleksandrovna Vayntrub and her family fled their hometown due to religious persecution for being Jewish. From Tashkent, the family settled in West Hollywood, California in 1990.
Milana Vayntrub- Roots
Five
When Milana was just five years old, she began acting in Mattel Barbie commercials. Why? To help her family as they were struggling financially. Now that’s just really inspirational and heartwarming!
Five
Lizzie McGuire
A few years after ER, Milana appeared in three episodes of the popular Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire. Granted her roles were simply “Posse Member #1”, “Cute Burper”, and “Dancer”, however Milana was building up a portfolio and quite well.
Lizzie McGuire
Inspired
After the Vayntrub family arrived to the United States, Milana credits her parents as the most wonderful example of how to live a good life, “Once here, my parents worked their butts off to give me a good education and upbringing…They did a great job.” Not only were her parents warm and loving, but they taught her that hard work pays off. Something she’s never forgotten.
Inspired
Werk
Over the years, Vayntrub kept landing small roles in both film and television, including Life Happens. Of course she has also starred in many CollegeHumor videos. Besides how can we forget that in 2011, Vayntrub appeared as the the lead for the music video for “Teenage Tide” by Letting Up Despite Great Faults.
Werk
Sissy
First of all, Milana is one proud older sister, and let’s note that her little sister looks very much liker her! On her Instagram page, Milana even wrote, “My little sister graduated! Glad she finally got a hat to cover her enormous brain.”
Sissy
Chuckles
Not only is Milana Vayntrub an actress, but she’s also a comedian. As a stand-up comedian, she uses her sense of humor to get through to people and while she makes fun of various things, she’s not shy to poke fun at herself.
Chuckles
Radio Life
That’s right, Milana also does radio because hey, why not! Although she is known to use any media avenue to spread the word about her activism, especially her work towards helping refugees. AT&T have come out in waves of support, “Milana’s passion for her cause is absolutely remarkable. We respect Milana’s personal interests outside of her role in our ads.”
Radio Life
Figure
Right then, this will make some folks a bit sore but it is what it is! Ahem, Milana doesn’t do a lot to maintain that perfect figure of hers – mainly because she has no issues with how she looks. So she’s basically perfect, without even trying.
Figure
This Is Us
Recently, the television drama series This Is Us starring Milo Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore has taken the nation by storm, and rightly so! So it’s not surprising that Milana Vanyntrub is under the microscope as she appeared in the show as Sloane Sandburg, a theatre director slash love interest for one of the main characters.
This Is Us
My Character
“Sloane is bada** making her dreams come true. Sure, she’s hit some road bumps and let her impulses distract her, but we’ve all been there.The Christmas/Hanukkah episode meant a lot to me for so many reasons. When I was a kid, I learned about Passover from a cartoon called Rugrats, and it really stuck with me. I was excited to potentially teach people the story of Hanukkah. I’ve actually had a teacher tweet at me saying she’s using the scene in her classroom. How cool!”
My Character
In The Works
In July 2017, Milana was cast in the Marvel upcoming television series New Warriors – her role is the one and only superheroine Doreen Green aka Squirrel Girl. The premise of the show, cause we’re sure you interested is: “Six young people with powers living and working together want to make a difference in the world, even if their powers are not quite as impressive as those of The Avengers. They will have to learn to use their abilities to help people while also struggling with growing up.”
In The Works
Freak Out
Now with Milana’s latest role as Squirrel Girl in the works to hit the big screen sometime in 2018 is enough to make anyone excited. Of course Milana is ecstatic, but maybe what no one saw coming was the enthusiasm from the public! Little girls everywhere are dressing up like Squirrel Girl, and when Milana showed up to Comic Con, everybody and their mama lost it!
Freak Out
Co-Founder
Moving on to something slightly more serious, #CantDoNothing is an organization co-founded by Milana which is dedicated to raising awareness and funding for refugee crises around the world. “It is important for us to emphasize not just the problem, but all the things we can do to end it,” Vayntrub said, “We hope everyone will post about #CantDoNothing on their social media, and challenge three friends to participate by tagging them. I really believe we all have to power to be influencers, to use our voice and create a ripple effect of Good.”
Co Founder
Helping Hand
While Milana was on vacation with her father in Greece, she made the decision to fly to the island of Lesbos, where currently the Syrian refugees are flying into. She wanted to do what she could to help out. As a former refugee, this crisis really hit close to home. In the photo below, Milana is in a car with a Syrian family as they’re headed to the registration camp from the boat they just arrived to Lesbos on.
Helping Hand
Reason
A part of the reason she’s so invested in helping refugees is because there was an organization that helped her family get settled into their new lives in America. Milana said, “We had a lot of help when we got to America. One of the organizations that helped us, they had a record of all the money they spent on us for our health care bills, and education programs, and so my favorite thing that I’ve done is just pay them back, because they invested in us. It’s my karmic duty to help them, because we’ve been helped so much.”
Reason
Social Media
Undoubtedly it’s plain to see that Milana Vayntrub is talented when it comes to acting and comedy, but her philanthropic work through her organization CantDoNothing is perhaps the most remarkable. And just like most celebs, she uses social media as a way to spread the world and bring attention to the refugee crisis.
Social Media
Your Voice
First of all, read just why Milana uses social media to talk about her cause: “I took to social media to spread the Can’t Do Nothing word, because the truth is if I see a burger, I want a burger. If I see a kitten, I want to pet a kitten. My hope is that if you see someone doing good, you might want to do some good, too. And if we inspire each other, we can create a ripple effect of good.”
Your Voice
Degree
So Vayntrub attended Beverly Hills High School, but would drop out just after her sophomore year. Not long after though she got her GED and then earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from University of California, San Diego. Moreover she received “comedian” training with a improvisational comedy group known as Upright Citizens Brigade.
Degree
Why?
“I wanted to be an artist. I loved painting, photo-editing and graphic design.Like at a lot of public schools, the arts program was limited, but my local community college had amazing teachers with a boatload of creative courses. I didn’t like high school. I wanted more diversity, flexibility, and freedom. I got in trouble for talking, disagreeing with teachers, and cheating on tests pretty regularly. But the strongest driving force was probably that my boyfriend at the time had dropped out and I thought he was the smartest, coolest, hottest and best person in the world. So the realest answer is: a boy.”
Why
Upbringing
During an interview with InStyle magazine, Milana discussed her upbringing. She said, “My parents worked their butts off to afford private school, summer camp, and gymnastics classes (which I’m pretty sure is a prerequisite for all Russian kids) so that I could take part in everything this promised land had to offer.” Clearly she adores and admires her parents more than anything and that’s so refreshing.
Upbringing
Outsider
“Despite all their love and hard work, as a kid, I remember feeling as though I couldn’t culturally catch up to my peers. Especially when it came to beach towels—these really stupid, but really cool, but actually really stupid towels. All my classmates owned these colorful beach towels with Disney characters on them. I desperately wanted one, but instead, I had this orange and white patterned thing, a glorified Slavic doily—that my parents brought with them from Uzbekistan. To me, it was a smoke signal alerting all potential friends that I was NOT. FROM. HERE.”
Outsider
No Doubt
In that very same interview, Milana said that she knows without a shadow of a doubt that she is most famous for: “Usually my AT&T commercials or my YouTube videos. Sometimes they’ll get introduced to me from the commercials and they’ll go look me up and find my YouTube videos. Or they’ve been a fan for a while and they’re really supportive of the commercials.”
No Doubt
Shout Out
Get a load of this: her fan-base is SO big that her character Lily from AT&T was even mentioned on an episode of Family Guy! Basically Peter asks Louis where the names of all the good looking commercial stars are so he can find out Lily’s real name and locate her. Louise says that the star list is on the fridge! How nonchalant.
Shout Out
The Best
Perhaps one of our most favorite things about her is her interview and photo-shoot with Dopeness magazine – everything was as colorful and bubbly as her personality. Just about every question was answered with wit and humor, the Milana way. About being an actress, Milana reflected, “Yeah, I always thought I’d be a actress, because I got into it really young. When I was five, I was already doing commercials and by the 12, I was awkward, chubby and wanted out. The insecurities that come with being a teenager made me think that I wasn’t good enough or that a career in entertainment was unrealistic. It wasn’t until college that I rediscovered how much I loved acting, and it’s also how I made my closest friends.”
The Best