Chances are, you've taken notice of Lily the AT&T girl by now.
Her ability to adorably deadpan with phone service customers for the brand's commercials
made her a staple of modern marketing after her first ad debuted in 2013.
"I know you asked me to call you the AT&T hostess with the mostess."
"Okay, shut her down.
Turn it off."
Now, the Uzbeck actress behind the chipper clerk persona, Milana Vayntrub, is moving
onto bigger and better things with a recurring role on TV's hottest drama This is Us and
as the superhero Squirrel Girl in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
So, before she becomes known for her work outside of those adorable advertisements,
here are some details about Vayntrub's life and career that might surprise you.
A burpy start
Vayntrub got her start in showbusiness at a very young age.
A political refugee, her family fled her native country, the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic,
to escape religious persecution, and she started working while she was still in grade school.
One early role she landed was in TV's Lizzie McGuire, and, well, it's a good thing she
was willing to get silly on-screen even then.
Even though she was young, and the role might be deemed embarrassing for some, Vayntrub
approached it as a consummate professional, telling Esquire, "I practiced my burps for
a long time before that.
I'm a professional disgusting person!"
Stepping away
After a string of appearances on TV, Vayntrub dropped out of high school, took her High
School Proficiency Exam, and attended college at UC San Diego.
At the time, she decided to quit acting, even though she loved it, because she didn't think
it was a realistic career path.
She later explained,
"I just kind of stopped for a while because 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.'"
What ultimately brought her back?
According to her, "boredom and sadness" in college made her decide to start taking theater
classes again.
A big break
When Vayntrub won the role of AT&T's Lily, she thought it would be just another short-time
acting gig amidst many in her multifaceted career.
But the response was so strong that three years later, Vayntrub had shot more than 40
spots for AT&T.
The company's Vice President of Advertising said of the sudden stardom,
"The first spot was so successful for us that we thought, let's do another one and then
another one and then another one.
It was so well-received that we kept bringing her back."
The reason for her popularity?
Well, she's got a rare combo of smarts and snark that people seem to respond well to.
And Vayntrub will not stand for people who think her Lily is dim.
When fellow comedienne Amy Schumer spoofed her ads on her Comedy Central show Inside
Amy Schumer, Vayntrub didn't appreciate her pegging the persona as dense.
She told AdWeek, "The way that you're going to portray this character is that you're going
to play her dumb?
Well, that's lazy.
Can't we think of any other thing to make fun of this character for?"
"That's a surprise."
She also didn't appreciate way Schumer's bit pegged its saleslady as a sex object and said
that, by contrast, she was proud of the fact that her Lily was a strong, smart and successful
store manager who could match wits with the toughest customers.
"I'm not too sure what to do with my arms right now because this is usually where I
start throwing things."
"Oh, that's terrifying."
Cameo collection
Thanks in part to her AT&T notoriety, Vayntrub has been successful at snagging some pretty
high-profile, albeit brief cameo roles in bigger projects.
In the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot, for example, she made a dialogue-free but very funny appearance
as "Subway Rat Woman," who reacts with visible disgust when scores of rat ghosts pour out
of a subway station entrance.
She's also popped up a couple of times on the Netflix series Love as the mean ex-girlfriend
of main character Gus, and has a recurring role on Silicon Valley as Tara, the love interest
of intimidating programmer Gilfoyle.
Data increase
After so many small screen cameo roles, Vayntrub finally found a semi-steady place in the TV
realm with a recurring part in NBC's tear-jerking family drama This is Us.
In the series, she portrays a playwright named Sloane Sandburg, who dates the star of her
play for a spell before realizing he's got some major emotional baggage and maturity
issues.
Her work was so convincing on the show that many didn't even recognize her as the AT&T
commercial girl, and now, Vayntrub has another opportunity to break into the mainstream for
good.
Getting squirrely
Vayntrub has landed one of the most sought-after roles in Hollywood: Doreen Green, a.k.a.
The superhero Squirrel Girl, on Marvel's New Warriors, a comedy series set to air on Freeform.
It's about six twenty-somethings, including Squirrel Girl, Mister Immortal, Night Thrasher,
and Microbe, dealing with being young adults as well as superheroes.
Vayntrub was a relatively surprising choice for the part, especially since more well-known
actresses such as Anna Kendrick and Emmy-nominated Stranger Things star Shannon Purser had publicly
lobbied to play the character.
But when it comes to the audition process for a project like this one, her own commercials
might've put it best:
"No celebrity treatment here."
"Really isn't any celebrity treatment."
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