AT&T Commercial Actress Milana Vayntrub Teamed Up With John Cena For A Hilarious Show

There is an obvious upside to becoming an advertising character for a major corporation. If you're the face of a long-running, frequently airing campaign, you could find yourself pulling down somewhere between $1 million and $2 million per year for not a lot of work. The additional upside should be that you'll have plenty of time to lend your considerable talents to film and television work, but there is a catch: sometimes, audiences can't see past the character who pops up on at least one of their screens every single day.

The good news is that, typically, these actors are in high demand for voice work. This has been the case for Stephanie Courtney, aka Flo from Progressive, and it's worked out fairly well for Milana Vayntru,b aka perky AT&T saleswoman Lily Adams. Outside of commercials, Vayntrub is probably best known as the voice of Squirrel Girl in the "Marvel Rising" shorts, but she was also hilarious as Peppa Pig on "Robot Chicken."

Had all gone according to plan, Vayntrub would've starred as a live-action Squirrel Girl in Kevin Biegel's "New Warriors" series for Freeform. Alas, Freeform opted not to pick up the well-received pilot, so Vayntrub missed out on certain TV stardom outside of the advertising realm. She did, however, have another shot at a long-running gig around that same time as the voice of Ellie Moonshiner in the unabashedly silly YouTube Premium animated series "Dallas & Robo." The show had a killer voice cast, but for whatever reason, it never made it past one season.

Created by Mike Roberts for the production company ShadowMachine ("BoJack Horseman," "Robot Chicken"), "Dallas & Robo" featured the voices of Kat Dennings as stock-car-racer-turned-space-trucker Dallas Moonshiner and John Cena as the tough-yet-sensitive AI Robo. They get into all manner of trouble as they haul their loads all over the galaxy for Dallas's Uncle Danny (Stephen Root), whose young daughter Ellie wants to join the family business.

"Dallas & Robo" wasn't a revolutionary piece of animated comedy, but the writing was the perfect kind of smart dumb. The animation was consistently inventive, and the characters quickly endeared themselves to the viewer thanks primarily to that amazing collection of voice talent (which also included Tim Blake Nelson, Dana Snyder, Giancarlo Esposito, Clancy Brown, and Jane Lynch). Vayntrub was a highlight as the underdog trucker Ellie. Had the series continued, she had serious breakout character potential.

While I'm happy Vayntrub is getting steady voice work, I'd really love to see her get more meaty live-action roles like the lovable postwoman Cecily in Josh Ruben and Mishna Wolff's "Werewolves Within" (one of the most underrated horror movies of the 21st century). She got a big role in the highly anticipated Phil Lord and Chris Miller adaptation of Andy Weir's sci-fi novel "Project Hail Mary." Here's hoping this launches her to richly deserved movie stardom.