How This Ad Star Became A Creative Force For Good

Actor/Director/Activist/At&T'S Lily.

- Kristina Monllos

The first thing you need to know about Milana Vayntrub is that she’s much more than the bubbly, witty AT&T store manager Lily Adams she plays in the ads from BBDO New York—though she won’t fault you if that’s why you recognize her, and she’s very happy to have the work, thank you very much

It’s a sweltering July morning, and we’re at YouTube Space LA, where Vayntrub has sequestered herself to digest footage she filmed the week before in Azraq, Jordan. In January, she released a 13-minute documentary, Milana Can’t Do Nothing, introducing the public to her own refugee story (her family fled Uzbekistan for the U.S. in 1989) and making clear the uninhabitable conditions that many Syrian refugees find when they do make it to Greece. She will spend the next month hunched over her laptop, editing a new doc that will show people who have donated to the nonprofit she has since created where their dollars have gone and bring more attention to the refugee crisis.

As we sit in the chilly editing room, the 29-year-old actress, director and activist—and Adweek’s Creative 100 cover star—tries to reconcile the refugee project with her other creative pursuits. She has a bit part in this month’s Ghostbusters; she’s just wrapped filming on a new David Wain movie, A Futile and Stupid Gesture; and she’s directing a new show for the Upright Citizens Brigade.