Donna McMillan

Donna Julie McMillan (2019)

**Donna Julie McMillan** (born July 2, 1967) is an American actress, model and activist.

## Biography

### Early Life

Donna Julie McMillan was born on July 2, 1967 in Dallas, Texas, the older daughter of homemaker Joanna "Jo" (née di Girolamo, b. 1941), and Bud McMillan (b. 1937), who owned a building company. Her mother is a Swedish Italian from Malmö, and her father is a native of Texan city of San Angelo and has Anglo-Scottish ancestry. She has younger sister Wendy Martha (b. June 30, 1969). Her father was the brother of Sally McMillan, the mother of actress and model Rita Gail Hayden, thus Donna was the paternal first cousin of Rita. When Donna was in tenth grade, Rita came from San Angelo to live with her family. Earlier, Rita and Donna were seeing each other only on the family events and celebrations, but when Rita moved to live with her, they developed a friendship. She attended Bryan Adams High School in East Dallas, and was a school cheerleader. After graduating twelfth grade, she decided to end her education so she did not go to the university.

### Career

#### Modeling

In early 1989, McMillan attended american football match and was featured Jumbotron. Then, she caught attention of fashion designer and photographer Douglas Shannon who also was present at the match. He proposed a photo shoot featuring black-and-white photographs of McMillan in his new clothes line. McMillan who agreed to do it, visited Shannon in his mansion in Austin and had her photo shoot done month after meeting him. The following year, she appeared on a cover of *Bunny* magazine, and same year settled in Los Angeles. She has also made numerous appearances in the publication's newsstand specials.

#### Entertainment career

Soon after moving to Los Angeles, she got a role of Denise in a television show *Quirky Lovers* (1990-1993). Denise in plot of the series, was sister of the main character. Beside being a supporting character, Denise became fan's favourite character in whole series. In 1993, after *Quirky Lovers*' end, she got a main role in series *Party Denise* (1993-1995), which was a sequel of *Quirky Lovers*. In 1997, she had a supporting role as nanny in comedy film *I Dare You*. In 1998, she played main role of spy Judith in an action film *Blondes Are Good Spies Too*. From 1999 to 2004, she was playing one of the lifeguards named Alice in a television series *Beach Rescue*. In 2005, she played one of the main characters in comedy film *Oh My Blonde*, and replied role in the film's sequels in 2009 and 2013. In 2015, she was announced to be in cast of upcoming comedy film *Why, how, why?*, which premiered on January 6, 2017. In 2018, she voiced lioness Tara in the animation film *Wild Savannah*. In same year, she also played Cinderella's stepmother in the fairytale film *Dreams of Cindy*, which was the modern remake of classical fairytale. Since 2019, she plays the role of Joy in television series *Face's River*. During time in which she was playing in series, she also appeared in films including *Lipstick* (2019), *Head-On Collision* (2020), *A Small Town Full of Fear* (2020), and played major role in adventure film *Atlantis* (2022).

### Personal Life

From August 1988 until December 1990, she was married to Bruce Jacobson, who then was studying medicine. They were in the same class in high school and started dating at the end of eleventh grade. Jacobson filed for divorce in 1989, after Donna told him that they will move to Los Angeles to pursue her career in showbusiness. In mid 1992, she started dating actor Matthew Randolph, who played main role in Quirky Lovers. They were engaged in March 1993 and wed on August 5 of the same year. Couple separated in March 1994, and divorced in February 1995. Two months after divorcing Randolph, she started dating director Brendan Huff. He engaged to her on Christmas Day 1996, and they wed on February 26, 1997 in Jamaica. Couple have two children together son Jonathan Rex "Joey" Huff (b. January 19, 1998) and daughter Lola Daisy (b. August 28, 2001). She and Huff separated in May 2010, and were divorced amicably in April 2011. In 2013, she started dating equestrian Anthony Wilkins, whom she married on July 3, 2014 in Madrid, Spain. She is a stepmother of Wilkins' two sons. They live in Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles.
Her great-aunt was actress Meg Swan.