About Milanka Brooks

Milanka is a screen and stage actor and writer, born in Regent's Park, London. Her mother, Mileva Brooks, was a model, and her father, Harry Brooks Jnr, was an actor and writer.

This Christmas, Milanka joins the cast of the BBC's Christmas special of The Cleaner, playing Cvetana opposite Greg Davies and Robert Webb. She also stars as Saskia in the upcoming feature film Sweetie, out later this year.

She's best known for playing Elena Tulaska in Black Mirror's USS Callister (2017), the Netflix episode that swept four Primetime Emmy Awards in 2018, including Outstanding Television Movie and Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special, and picked up three further nominations. She starred alongside Jesse Plemons, Cristin Milioti, Jimmi Simpson, Billy Magnussen, Osy Ikhile and Paul G. Raymond, in an episode reviewers praised for its Star Trek allusions, sharp performances and cinematography. Milanka reprised the role in the 2025 sequel, USS Callister: Into Infinity, as part of Black Mirror Season 7.

In 2024, Milanka made her Edinburgh Fringe debut with Mum and I Don't Talk Anymore, a solo show she wrote and performed, directed by Ben Cavey (Bad Education, Jack Whitehall: Travels With My Father, Grandma's House, Psychobitches). Equal parts character comedy and confession, the show turns her relationship with her mother into a wild, funny, and surprisingly tender journey through the people who've shaped it. A television series based on the show is now in development with 42.

On bringing the show to the Fringe, Milanka said:

"I'm so thrilled to be bringing my first solo show to this year's Fringe Festival. For years I've been hoping to make a piece about my mother and the eccentricities of our relationship. As I created the piece, Edinburgh was always the ultimate goal, as The Fringe is undoubtedly the home of the one-person show. I've ensured that as the audience meets Mum, and experiences our sometimes wild stories, they'll also encounter a few other people along the way. This has become a character show with much humour and heart, and I'm excited to take the audience on a journey that I hope will not only entertain, but also bring plenty of passion, poignancy, and promise."

Her other screen credits include two series as a regular on ITV's Benidorm, playing Ionela, Johnny Vegas's fiancée, and Princess Svetlana of Sweden in Channel 4's The Windsors.