Many people know Milana Vayntrub as the icon of AT&T, but in reality, there's so much more to this American actress. After playing a few successful roles, she joined YouTube with her funny series and started acting with some of the most well-known celebrities in Hollywood. She is becoming more and more popular every day.
However, only some people know that she isn't just planning to make her own dreams come true. She wants to help others accomplish theirs too!
Vayntrub has dedicated many years of her life to philanthropy and activism and isn't planning to stop even now when she turns heads everywhere she goes. Her goals are so much more than just her own wealth and fame.
Milana Vayntrub is amazing in many ways; her kind heart and personality fit for any situation, and she gets along with practically everyone she meets. Also, she has shown everyone that she's not afraid to be silly sometimes.
Milana often uses her sense of humor to lighten up the room and isn't afraid to make a fool out of herself. She loves making people laugh, but she also has an emotionally driven, deeper side of her that pushes her to make difficult decisions and explore deeper topics. Her philanthropic side motivates her to do better and be better.
But how did Vayntrub become the icon of AT&T? Well, it goes way back to her childhood.
Her adventures began when she was just a little girl. Vayntrub was born in Uzbekistan in 1987 to parents of Jewish descent. Her country was facing a difficult period back then, as it was a part of the Soviet Union.
Many minorities were facing religious persecutions, including Vayntrub's family. Vayntrub and her family immigrated to the United States due to religious concerns when she was still a toddler. They didn't feel safe in Uzbekistan and wanted Vayntrub to grow up in a safe and secure environment.
After arriving in the United States, they decided to stay in West Hollywood, California. Many people chose West Hollywood as their home to seek fame and make their way to it, and as Vayntrub's family later learned, their daughter proved to be no different.
Little Milana didn't know at the time that this is where she was meant to be. However, the transition period wasn't as easy as they'd hoped.
Immigrants face all sorts of problems in their new country, and living in a place like Hollywood is much more challenging for newcomers than some other parts of the country. The biggest challenge that Vayntrub's family faced upon arriving in the United States was trying to earn some money to survive.
After two years of living in Hollywood, Vayntrub started helping her family financially when she got her first acting gig. When she was five years old, Milana appeared in her first commercial for a famous phone company.
The producers immediately noticed her talent, and after her first role, Milana received several offers for Barbie commercials, which she gladly accepted. And before she knew it, a famous American TV show contacted her offering a breakout role.
Vayntrub's acting career started to take off, and after playing in a few successful commercials, it was time for her to join the big stage. She landed a role in the drama series E.R.
"My first big thing was when I was eight. I was on the first season of E.R. I played Tatiana, a little Russian girl with AIDS who Julianna Margulies tried to adopt," Milana told Esquire during an interview in 2015.
This role has helped her career tremendously, and she even met some of the biggest stars in Hollywood. While a small role in doctor drama series might not seem like a big deal for some people, it was everything for Milana.
Vayntrub landed a role in one of the most successful series in the United States only five years after moving to Hollywood. It was a big deal for the young actress and her family. In addition to getting more offers, she also met George Clooney, one of Hollywood's biggest stars. "[George Clooney] was amazing.
I just kept trying to invite him over. He was like, 'Yeah, I'll come over for a playdate.' I was like, 'Mom! Can you cook something, so we have a reason for him to come over?'" she confessed to Esquire.
Milana had many dreams and goals she wanted to achieve ever since she was a little girl, and she was on the right path. Some of her wishes came true when she was still a child, but she wasn't planning to stop there.
She helped her family pay the bills after playing a few roles, which jump-started her acting career. But there was one wish she never managed to make true; George Clooney never came over for that playdate and dinner she hoped for.
"My mom and I were both just goo-goo-gaga over [George Clooney] … He never came over. But he was really playful and silly. I hope to reunite with him one day," she recalled.
Making it in Hollywood is hard already for those who have acting experience; one can only imagine how hard it was for a child actress who just immigrated to the United States. However, that didn't prevent her from landing a role in Days of Our Lives, a popular soap opera series.
In 1997, Vayntrub played Young Kristen, and just a few years later, she appeared in the famous series Lizzie McGuire along with Hilary Duff. She made an appearance in a few episodes of the show, but there was one particular episode that brought Milana fame and showed off her funny side.
To everyone's surprise, Vayntrub said she never thought she was funny. She claimed she learned the importance of humor through acting but never thought she had it in her personality.
"Yes. Comedy came early," she said. "I knew when I was a kid that I was silly, and I knew that I liked people who were funny, but I don't think I knew I was funny.
I didn't really think about it." Milana showed off her sense of humor when she played Cute Burper in one of the episodes of Lizzy McGuire. The major key to success in acting is playing in comedy movies, and Milana took the same path, showing the audience her goofy personality.
"The whole [Cute Burper] episode took place in a hidden camera kind of setup. One of the characters set up hidden cameras around the school, and he caught me eating and burping. That was it.
And I didn't even really have to burp, but I practiced my burps for a long time before that. I'm a professional disgusting person!" she explained.
Milana loved comedies and making people laugh. Her goofy personality landed her many funny roles, where she gave it her all. The audience absolutely loved Milana and her character, no matter who she played.
She admitted she never thought she would end up in the film industry. When she was a teenager, Milana decided to think about her future and take a break from her acting career.
"I didn't think I wanted to do it. I stopped around middle school and high school because I remember thinking, 'I should probably focus on something more realistic. This is probably not going to work out.
I have high hopes, but that's probably not enough to make it in film,'" she shared. Milana was asking herself the same question as any other American teenager in high school – What do I want to do when I grow up?
After thinking it through, Milana decided to take on an entirely different route. After dropping out, she received her GED and got into the University of California, where she studied Communications. It seemed like she gave up her acting career and wanted to achieve different things in life.
However, Milana returned to the TV screens, but how did it all happen? Like many other college students, she faced many difficulties along the way.
She went to college because she wanted a more stable job than acting but later realized the program she's picked at college wasn't for her. Milana had trouble finding herself in college and, in the end, decided to enroll in a theater program. "I went to U.C.
San Diego, and I didn't really like the school or anything. But they had a really great theater program, so I just took theater classes so I could not go crazy and keep myself busy. I totally got sucked back in," she said.
Milana was afraid of how she would fit in there as she hadn't appeared in any commercials or TV shows for several years. She went ahead and signed up for improv classes at Upright Citizens and found the love for acting again. Her talent didn't go unnoticed either.
By taking the classes, Milana became more confident in herself and embraced her goofy side. This one decision helped her to jumpstart her career once again.
After rediscovering herself in acting, Milana got offers for a few minor roles. However, what especially helped her push herself was the development of the internet in technology in the late 2000s.
Her talk show on YouTube made her famous and has propelled her career. "I had a talk show on YouTube for a while… Which is kind of a role I gave myself that ended up starting my career," she recalled.
With the rapid development of technology, it's becoming easier and easier to communicate with people worldwide. People use social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook to receive more traffic to their profile and become well-known.
YouTube is another platform that has billions of users exploring and using it daily. It's safe to say it's much easier to become famous now than a couple of decades ago, thanks to social media.
The internet celebrity trend was still barely existing when Milana started her own talk show on YouTube. She paired with her friend Stevie Nelson in 2011, and they both decided to try their luck on YouTube.
They wanted to create a comedy series, Let's Talk about Something More Interesting, where they uploaded the funniest interviews. The description of the talk show on their YouTube channel was, "two girls make videos in an attempt to be liked."
Fortunately, being liked by the audience came naturally for the two girls, and they accomplished more than they expected. When they initially launched their channel, Stevie and Milana couldn't imagine how much fame it would bring them just in a few months.
They reached 100,000 subscribers, and their videos are viewed by millions of users every day. After going viral, the girls hosted many guests, including celebrities.
The point of the talk show was to invite people and ask them the most awkward questions in the funniest way possible. "It was another girl and me, and we would sit our guests in between us and harass them gently. Matt Damon was our guest.
And Bob Odenkirk, BJ Novak, and other YouTubers," Milana shared in an interview with Esquire. Her YouTube channel helped her career in many ways, and landed big roles in a few comedy series, such as CollegeHumor Originals.
She showed off her talent when she took different roles in 15 episodes. Soon, she became the icon of one of the biggest companies in the United States.
Milana became the AT&T Saleswoman, Lily Adams, and won the hearts of millions of people in America. Initially, when she landed the role of Lily, it was supposed to be nothing more than a 30-seconds advertisement, but it ended up being a three-year-long campaign.
It was just like any other commercial audition, we did not know it was gonna be a campaign, I just went in for an audition and then a callback," Vayntrub shared during her interview on the Box Angels podcast with Mike Elder. It's hard to imagine how much her career has changed ever since launching her talk show on YouTube.
Still, Vayntrub wasn't planning to stop even after such a successful gig.
She landed a role in a comedy sci-fi series Other Space, which was a perfect fit for her skills. "On Other Space, there was lots of room for improv.
I think one of the reasons I was able to book it was my improv experience and playing in the room during casting," she told Esquire. While some comedians find it hard staying professional and serious, Milana was didn't have that problem.
She never let her funny side interfere with her professionalism. We had so much to shoot, and we didn't really have that much time," she shared her experience filming Other Space "We were all trying to be pro, and we were all really grateful to be there." Many people know Milana from the AT&T commercial.
They have seen her girl next door demeanor and her goofy side that makes everyone smile.
Milana continues to surprise everyone with her unique sense of humor and kindness. One particular side of her personality was revealed when she went on a family trip to another country.
Succeeding in Hollywood is not an easy task, and sometimes, a short break is all that's needed to get to work and climb the ladder even higher. Vayntrub was overwhelmed with the number of projects she had, including her talk show, commercials, several movies, and TV show roles.
She decided to go to Greece with her dad for a vacation in 2016 and what happened during her holiday completely changed her outlook on life. "I came to Greece to vacation with my dad, and very quickly, I realized how ridiculous that is.
It's just an insane time to be on vacation here," Milana said in her Can't Do Nothing video. In addition to becoming a successful actress, there is something else that she wanted to achieve: becoming a global citizen.
Milana had a strong passion for traveling, getting to know new cultures, and meeting new people from all over the world. She wanted to make the world a better place and help others. During her vacation, Milana noticed many challenges locals faced on a daily basis.
"The country is experiencing not only a huge financial turmoil but also a giant influx of refugees that they can't support. I don't want to be a passive citizen anymore. I want to be a force for good," she shared in one of her videos.
She met a friend at the meeting, and they both traveled to a refugee camp stationed in Lesbos, Greece. That's where Milana began her journey of helping others in every way possible.
Despite being very young when she arrived in the U.S., Milana understood the struggles these people were facing, and she could relate to them on so many levels. Leaving your home and starting a new life in a foreign country when you can barely make your ends meet is tough.
She felt driven to help other people, and together with her new friend Amin, she began assisting with supplies, transportation and offered medical aid and support to all Syrian refugees. Milana's time in Greece completely changed her outlook on life and her values.
She understood what was important in life, and helping others opened her activist and philanthropist side. When she arrived in the United States, Milana started her non-profit organization called Can't Do Nothing.
"Now that I'm back [from Greece], I'm starting an organization called Can't Do Nothing… it's a place for you to find out simple ways that you can help these displaced people, and I think there's lots of easy things that we can all do to make the world a better place," she explained her intentions in one of her clips.
She couldn't have never imagined that she would accomplish so much since moving to the U.S.
Milana built a successful acting career, launched her own talk show on YouTube, and is now managing her non-profit organization to help other people. Milana often uses social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to raise awareness, voice, and money for the cause.
She also launched # Can'tDoNothing to inspire people to help each other, and it's been working wonders.
The website is attracting thousands of visitors every day. People donate money and give advice on how to help those who are less fortunate even more.
Milan's goal is "to give people a simple and accessible way to learn about issues and make a change for good in the world." Currently, the actress is busy raising awareness and helping people. But what about her acting career?
Despite having a hectic schedule, Milana is still pursuing her acting career. It feels so good to make people laugh. You're just like 'I did it!
My brain fired and synapsed in a way that worked to trigger something in somebody else that made them feel good. So, the fact that you can do that as a job, is the best," she said in an interview at WonderCon.
She recently joined the Marvel family. Even though she isn't playing a superhero on screen, her voice can certainly be heard through one of the book's characters. In 2019, she appeared in an animated T.V.
movie called Marvel Rising: Playing with Fire, where she voiced the Squirrel Girl. "Honestly the thing that is so wonderful is that [Squirrel Girl/Doreen Green] is very funny… I'm really like Squirrel Girl, truly… When I read the comics, before any of this, I felt like she talks like I talk. And so, as a voice actor, I don't have to do too much to make her more like myself," she explained.
Now, four years since finishing the AT&T campaign, Milana is going to embrace the role of Lily Adams once again. The new idea revolves around the coronavirus pandemic and her character providing help to the customers.
Her fans can't wait to see her again in the role of Lily! We wish Milana success in all of her future projects and can't help but admire her hard work!