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Milo Ventimiglia Joins Gilmore Girls HBO Doc
The This Is Us star confirms he'll appear in Amy Sherman-Palladino's upcoming HBO Max documentary about Gilmore Girls, 26 years after joining the cast.
Milo Ventimiglia is in - sort of. The 49-year-old actor confirmed he'll appear in Amy Sherman-Palladino's upcoming HBO Max documentary about Gilmore Girls, though he hasn't recorded his segment yet and admits he has no idea what he's walking into.
"I have yet to record my part," Ventimiglia said. "I think the world of Amy, and Lauren [Graham], too. I have no idea what we're going to talk about. It was 26 years ago that I made the show."
The Jess Mariano Effect
Ventimiglia joined Gilmore Girls in season 2 as Jess Mariano, Rory's brooding on-again, off-again boyfriend, and reprised the role in the 2016 Netflix revival. Decades later, fans still approach him quoting specific scenes word for word - something he finds both flattering and a little absurd.
"I'll have people run up to me and be like, 'Hey, do you remember that time on Gilmore when you said this?'" he said. "I'm like, 'That was 26 years ago.' I'm like, 'Tell me something about your life from 26 years ago.' They're like, 'I wasn't born.'"
When he looks back on those years, it's not the episodes he remembers. It's the texture of being on set - shooting on the Warner Bros. back lot, hanging out with co-stars Alexis Bledel and Jared Padalecki, and small details like insisting a prop bag be filled with a sandbag because an empty one wouldn't look right for a character carrying his whole life around.
"The episodes are for an audience to pick apart, dissect," he explained. "For us to make it, [it's] the experience of making it. What were those days like on set?"
Life After the L.A. Fires
Ventimiglia also shared an update on his family after losing their home in the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. He and his wife, Jarah Mariano, are raising two young children together, and by his account the focus has shifted firmly to the kids and their day-to-day discoveries.
"Honestly, when the kids smile, it's the most wonderful thing," he said. "When they're seeing something for the first time and experiencing that life, and it's brand-new to them."
A Christmas Movie and a Soulful Dog
On top of the documentary news, Ventimiglia has a new Netflix Christmas film coming: A Dog's Perfect Christmas, based on W. Bruce Cameron's book and co-starring Dennis Quaid. He says it was the combination of Quaid, director Cathryn Michon, and - honestly - the dog that sold him on it.
His own dog, a soulful animal named Duke, apparently fits the film's theme well. "If you're having a bad day, he knows it," Ventimiglia said.
What to Watch For
The Gilmore Girls documentary doesn't yet have a release date, but with Ventimiglia now confirmed alongside other cast members, it's shaping up to be a proper reunion for fans of the original Stars Hollow gang. Given the show's enduring hold on its audience, expect the doc to generate plenty of buzz when it finally lands on HBO Max.
For Canadian fans who grew up watching Gilmore Girls on broadcast or streaming, this is the kind of nostalgic revisit that tends to hit hard - especially paired with a cozy Netflix Christmas movie dropping in the same season.