casting couch

Milana Vayntrub of This Is Us and Those AT&T Commercials Will Play Squirrel Girl

Vayntrub and S.G.

One of the more unexpectedly hot roles in American entertainment has been that of Squirrel Girl, a Marvel Comics character who is a girl with some of the abilities of, well, a squirrel. But Anna Kendrick and Shannon Purser are weeping today, because the part has gone to Milana Vayntrub. She’ll leap across the screen in Freeform’s upcoming Marvel superhero show New Warriors, where she’ll co-star with a number of other young up-and-comers such as Dear White People’s Jeremy Tardy (he’s playing the excellently named Night Thrasher) and The Comeback’s Kate Comer (she’s playing a “low-level telekinetic, very low, like, she can move a paper cup,†says the press release). Vayntrub’s not exactly a household name, but she’s been a recurring face on This Is Us and — perhaps more famously — a series of AT&T ads in which she plays a store employee named Lily Adams. Which means she should be well-prepared for this role, given that dealing with squirrels is significantly less irritating than dealing with shopping humans.

Milana Vayntrub of ‘This Is Us’ to Play Squirrel Girl