Episode #59: Milana Vayntrub

Today’s guest, Milana Vayntrub, is recognizable to anyone who watches TV, owns a cell phone or even watches TV on their cell phones, as she has portrayed the friendly saleswoman Lily in TV ads for AT&T since 2013. Vayntrub also has appeared in episodes of Silicon Valley, ER, Key and Peele, House of Lies, and the Yahoo! Series, Other Space. You’ll see her this month in episodes of the new Netflix series LOVE from Judd Apatow, Paul Rust and Lesley Arfin. But Vayntrub’s first TV credit came when she was only a toddler as a refugee with her parents fleeing the former Soviet Union. They were Uzbekistani Jews stuck in Italy before making it to America, so when Vayntrub took a recent trip to Greece, she couldn’t help but be struck by the plight of Syrian refugees who were washing ashore on the island of Lesvos. She decided she Can’t Do Nothing. So she did something. She helped refugees firsthand, then she made a documentary about it and a website where you can do something, too. And Vayntrub invited me over to talk about her project, her life and career and what comes next.

So let’s get to it!

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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