The Stunning Transformation Of Cristin Milioti

Cristin Milioti has a rare talent that has allowed her to move seamlessly from Broadway to sitcoms to quirky films and even prestige comic book fare. Although she keeps a low profile and stays away from the internet, she is recognized often, but she doesn't always know why. She told Vanity Fair, "If someone stops me and is like, 'Hey, are you...?' I'm always like, 'I don't know.' Because a lot of times someone thinks that we know each other, which I also find delightful."

Milioti grew up in suburban New Jersey, where she always aspired to become a performer. Her road to stardom has been a bit rocky, but the actor is candid and funny when speaking about her showbiz missteps. She even flubbed her screen test for "The Wolf of Wall Street" but won the part anyway, playing the wife of Leonardo DiCaprio's character. "I spilled my coffee, and they had to cut and reset everything. I was so nervous," she told BuzzFeed. From school plays to hit shows, and off-key notes to starring roles, Cristin Milioti has really done it all. Read on to learn more about the actor and her stunning transformation.

Cristin Milioti's impressive resume shows her acting range, but she was more interested in music than acting while growing up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. "I sang in bands all throughout high school and loved it," she told BuzzFeed. Her father, who worked as a recording engineer, had music playing in the household all the time and was very knowledgeable about new artists. "He introduced me to Adele," Milioti said. "Like, he knows things before anyone. He's really plugged into that world."

Milioti eventually parlayed her love for singing into a viable career, but first came school plays. The actor told NPR that she played Maria in a high school production of "West Side Story" and, with her signature self-deprecating humor, explained that her performance was less than stellar. "... I couldn't hit the notes, so I just made tones," she said. She added that she played the role with a Russian accent, even though the character is Puerto Rican.

After graduating high school, Cristin Milioti studied acting at NYU, but the experience left something to be desired. "I was so unhappy there," she explained to BuzzFeed. "I just was really itching to get out and do stuff, and I think I also had done really poor research. Like, I didn't know there was a place like Juilliard. I think that's what I thought [NYU was like] — you just do acting all day." Milioti explained that she wasn't prepared for her non-performance courses and that she found them difficult. She ended up dropping out of the university within her first year.

Clearly, the choice to drop out of college didn't affect Milioti's career in a negative way, and it seems as though she doesn't regret her decision. In an interview with Backstage, the actor said she admired the confidence she'd had at that time. "I was following my gut. I remember thinking, 'This doesn't feel right to me, I'm going to leave,'" she explained. But despite her ability to make good choices, she still had some advice for her younger self: "I would tell her — and I would say it to myself now — to stop comparing yourself to everyone."

Cristin Milioti was eager to begin her acting career after leaving NYU, but she didn't have the easiest time landing roles. Milioti had to keep herself afloat financially, so she took on jobs as a waitress, a babysitter, and even worked for a while in a dog biscuit factory. But the gig Milioti really loved was working as a dog walker, a job she did for years. "I was so close with the dogs that I walked," she told Backstage. "When I left that job, one of my fellow dog walkers made me a photo album of all of my clients. I still have it."

Even as her career took off, Milioti had fond memories of her dog walking days. While filming the 2019 Amazon series "Modern Love," Milioti found herself back in a building where she once walked several dogs. As she explained to Backstage, "They picked me up, took me to set, and I was like, 'Wow, this address seems so familiar, I don't know why.' As we rolled up to set, I was like, 'Oh, I know why. I came here every day for two years.' It was really beautiful."

Cristin Milioti finally landed her first paid acting gig in 2006 on the final season of "The Sopranos." Milioti played Catherine Sacrimoni, daughter of crime boss Johnny Sacks, in three episodes of the beloved series. As if that weren't cool enough for a first-time TV appearance, it was iconic actor Steve Buscemi who cast Milioti in the role. Buscemi, who directed one of the episodes in which Milioti appeared, personally chose her for the part, which was the icing on the cake for Milioti. "I'm a huge Coen brothers fan and I watched him growing up," she shared with BuzzFeed. "That was the most enormous thing to me."

While Milioti was thrilled to get the job, she was a bit overwhelmed on set. On an episode of "Running Late with Scott Rogowsky," the actor recalled that she'd eaten food from a prop table because she thought it was craft services. She had another embarrassing food-related encounter when she mistakenly sat down with the stars of the show for a meal. "I stumbled by accident into the room where the real cast members of 'The Sopranos' had a private chef," she said. "So, it was like James Gandolfini and Paulie Walnuts and all these people eating like gorgeous Italian food, and I was like 'hi guys!'"

After making her TV debut, Cristin Milioti appeared in several off-Broadway shows before landing the coveted role of The Girl in the Broadway musical production of "Once." The role allowed Milioti to flex her singing and acting chops, but there was a catch. Milioti's character played the piano, but Milioti was not exactly a virtuoso. In fact, the musical director of the show considered her "unteachable" due to her inability to read music (via CBS News).

She was given less than two weeks to learn piano, during which she practiced for seven hours a day and got a little help from her friends. "... it was a harrowing ten or 12 days!" she told Playbill. "I have an incredible group of friends — they would watch me, so I could mess up in front of them, so I wouldn't be nervous when I went in." Luckily, she nailed it, and her performance garnered her a Tony nomination in 2012.

Milioti is also a Grammy winner, thanks to her starring in "Once," as the cast of the show took home the award for Best Musical Theater Album. Milioti told Broadway Buzz it was something she'd always dreamed of. "I've always wanted to be a musician, or just part of anything to do with music," she shared, adding, "There's nothing like it. It's on par with love."

One of Cristin Milioti's first TV appearances proved to be a fan favorite. Milioti showed off her comedic prowess playing "sexy baby" Abby Flynn on a 2011 episode of "30 Rock." Milioti's character was an over-the-top coquettish female comic who spoke in a cutesy, high-pitched baby voice. Milioti told Vulture that the voice was her own idea, and that she found inspiration in certain pop culture figures. "That voice came from watching Paris Hilton on 'Letterman.' She talks in that voice. It's like her and Kim Kardashian, where you're like, 'Wait, no, seriously, what is your voice?'"

Milioti nailed the audition, and it's a good thing she did, as she'd been going through a difficult period in her career. "It was a really dark time," she revealed to The Daily Beast. "It was a sh*t year of not being able to afford my rent. Not affording my cellphone. Wearing all my same clothes from college." Milioti also expressed gratitude for Tina Fey, who ultimately chose Milioti for the role. "She took a huge chance, too ... she could've given that to anyone," the actor said.

Milioti has been very vocal about not wanting to watch herself in any of her projects, but she made an exception when she joined the cast of "30 Rock". "Not that I took in any of what I was doing, but I took in, 'You are in your favorite TV show. You watched this last Thursday and this Thursday you're on it,'" she told The Daily Beast.

While Cristin Milioti's appearances on "The Sopranos" and "30 Rock" were great for her career, it wasn't until she landed a leading role in the cast of "How I Met Your Mother" that she became well-known to TV audiences. The sitcom, which ran from 2005 until 2014 was wildly popular and garnered legions of fans over the years. The show's finale was a tearjerker for sure, and Milioti was not immune to the emotion. "It was super sad. I just burst into tears as soon as they told me," she shared with Vulture. "I had to write an e-mail later that night to [co-creator] Craig [Thomas] being like, "Hey, I'm really sorry I cried all over you at the Christmas party."

Milioti also revealed that she couldn't keep it together during the last day of filming, either. "...I felt so silly because everyone else had actually been there for ten years, and I'd only been there for four months. But I couldn't stop crying," she said. The actor wanted to take home a souvenir from the set, but was too embarrassed to ask if she could. "What I had wanted was a picture — because the mother had done pictures of robots playing sports — and I was gonna take one, but then I was too afraid to ask anyone," she explained.

Cristin Milioti likes to keep her private life private. She stays off of social media, and her personal life has been somewhat of a mystery. However, in 2013 she revealed that she was dating actor and furniture maker Jesse Hooker. Hooker may not be a household name, but he comes from a legendary showbiz family — his mother is Lorna Luft, one of Judy Garland's children. Milioti didn't mention her boyfriend's famous family, but did brush off rumors that she and Hooker were engaged. "My boyfriend's going to get such a kick out of that," she told The New York Times about the gossip, adding, "But we're very happy."

Although a breakup was never announced, Milioti referenced some turmoil in her personal life years later. In a 2020 interview with Vulture, the actor spoke about a pilot she'd worked on that didn't get picked up and that it coincided with another difficult experience. "I'd gone through some things in my personal life that were really sad and eye-opening, and sort of ego-shattering," she explained. Whether she was referring to her relationship with Hooker was unclear.

This list of things Cristin Milioti has been doing since "How I Met Your Mother" went off the air is quite long, and her acting career has continued to grow. For example, in 2015,  Milioti starred in Season 2 of "Fargo," the FX series inspired by the 1996 Cohen brothers' film of the same name. Milioti played Betsy Solverson, a role that creator Noah Hawley knew she would be perfect in. He reached out to Milioti directly and explained the season was centered around strong women, and she was sold. "...that's all you need to tell me," Milioti shared with The Daily Beast. "'Strong female role? The one of four that will come out this year? Great, I'm in.'"

But it was more than the female-centric aspect that drew Milioti in; it was something like fate. When she was just nine years old, her father took her to see "Fargo" in the theater. "I knew a lot about the Coen Brothers by the time I was 12 or 13," Milioti said.

In 2012, Milioti and her father attended the Lilly Awards where she won for her performance in "Once." It so happened that Frances McDormand, who starred in "Fargo," was there as well, and Milioti gave her a special shout-out in her speech. "I turned to her at some point and was like, 'It's because of women like you that I got into this. I saw 'Fargo' when I was nine and it was your performance that showed me this world where strong women and real people were welcomed.'" Several years later, things came full circle when Milioti was nominated for a Critic's Choice award for her role in the "Fargo" series.

In 2020, Cristin Milioti starred opposite Andy Samberg in the Hulu Original film "Palm Springs." Milioti and Samberg's characters find themselves stuck in a time loop, reliving the same day again and again, and eventually, a romance develops. The movie was shot in just 21 days, and Milioti and Samberg became friends almost immediately. "...we hit it off like gangbusters. I think we have very similar taste and senses of humor, and he's just wonderful. We never had to work at that," Milioti told EW.

Samberg spoke with Milioti in a 2024 edition of Interview, and reminisced about one of their early meetings. "I always cite the moment we realized we were going to be great friends, which was, we got asked, 'What's a role you wish you'd played?' And you were like, 'Beetlejuice.' And I was like, 'Oh... yeah,'" he said.

It was also clear that Samberg is a fan of Milioti's work beyond "Palm Springs," as he gushed about her recent projects. "As your friend, and as an admirer of your work, it's so fun to watch you just set loose. Because it's something we talked about a lot," the "Lonely Island" comic shared.

In 2021, Cristin Milioti starred in the MAX Original series "Made for Love" opposite Billy Magnussen, the one time actual partner of "The White Lotus" Season 2 cast member Meghann Fahy. Milioti and Magnussen played a married couple on the show, but it was not the first time they'd worked together. The pair appeared in a 2017 episode of "Black Mirror," as well as an indie film in 2012. "I met Cristin Milioti a decade ago. We played husband and wife in a movie called 'The Brass Teapot,'" Magnussen told Vanity Fair. "I fell in love with her, and I gained such a friend. We had one of the best experiences on this little movie."

The onscreen couple had theater in common as well, and while Milioti was performing in "Once," Magnussen was in a Broadway production of "Vanya." As luck would have it, their theaters were right next to each other. "I would, in my like, prince-tight outfit, walk over backstage ... and peer in the window on the stage as if I were a patron outside the bar," Magnussen said.

Milioti reflected on working with her friend during an episode of "How Well Do You Know Your Co-Star" for Marie Claire. "We really trust each other," she said. "When I'm acting with Billy he's such an incredible scene partner ... not only because we know each other so well, but we're both theater kids..." [5:44].

As a theater kid, Cristin Milioti is, naturally, a huge fan of "Wicked." So, when she got the opportunity to audition for the role of Elphaba in the movie adaptation, she jumped at the chance. The only thing holding her back was one little vocal run. The intimidating notes come at the end of the song "Defying Gravity," and they came to haunt Milioti as she prepared for her audition. "It was like 'The Tell-Tale Heart,'" she explained to Jimmy Fallon on "The Tonight Show." "Like all I could hear was like [these notes]."

When the time came to perform, Milioti was especially nervous, since she hadn't auditioned in person since the Covid-19 pandemic. According to Milioti, she was nailing each of the songs, and when it was time for "Defying Gravity," she thought she actually might land it after all. "I think I'm going to do it, I'm going to hit this crazy note that I've been obsessing over," she said. "...I opened my mouth wide, I took a deep breath, and the sound that escaped me is something I will hear on my deathbed." Could it really have been that bad? Milioti is a Grammy winner, after all. "It was like when you hear coyotes attack as a group," she explained. Despite her botched audition, Milioti expressed excitement for the "Wicked" movie and noted that Cynthia Erivo, the actor who plays Elphaba, "is who should be singing that."

In 2024, Cristin Milioti starred as Sofia Falcone in the HBO series "The Penguin." It was a dream role for Milioti, a huge Batman fan who dressed as Catwoman for Halloween when she was seven. Meeting with the creators of the show was a chance to share her excitement, even before she landed the part. "We had this really beautiful two-hour-long Zoom call, and I got to geek out about how much I love Batman and this whole world," she told Who What Wear. When she didn't hear back after three weeks, Milioti began to lose hope, but then she got a call to do a screen test with co-star Colin Farrell. She was offered the part of Sofia within 24 hours.

"The Penguin" became a hit with viewers and critics, and Milioti loves her complicated villain character as much as fans do. "I feel very protective of her," she told Vanity Fair. "I am just in love with her." Milioti has also noticed that people of all ages seem to recognize her now, and it's likely due to her starring as Sofia. Even at a Joni Mitchell concert, Milioti was feeling the love from fans. "I had a lot of really lovely interactions at that show from people who really are loving 'The Penguin,'" she said. And Milioti is all for the idea of playing Sofia Falcone again in the future. "She really means so much to me, so I wish for that, certainly," the actor shared.