Leyla Milani
Encyclopedia
Leyla Milani is an Iranian-Canadian-born model, actress, TV host and fashion designer.
Milani, has appeared in the World Wrestling Entertainment Diva Search 2005
, Deal or No Deal
, Sleeper Cell, Las Vegas
, Rules of Engagement
, Attack of the Show!
, Curb Your Enthusiasm
, Entourage
, Stacked
, Desire
, Wanted
, Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Extra
and in the films Wrestlemaniac, Boys & Girls Guide To Getting Down
, Dr. Chopper. Maxim
magazine features Milani and her fellow Deal or No Deal briefcase models in their online Girls of Maxim gallery.
's 2005 Diva Search, finishing second out of 8,000 contestants worldwide. Following that, she made an appearance at Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
After School Special. After appearing on the WWE Raw
Diva search, she began using the stage name Leyla Milani.
She later appeared on one of the USA Network's WWE Raw Fan Nation commercials, which are a series commercials advertising WWE Raw, featuring people ranging from a stockbroker to Snoop Dogg
.
Milani is the former co-host of Jimmy Hart
's all-women wrestling show, Wrestlicious
TakeDown which debuted March 1, 2010. She was replaced by Brooke Lynn
on the March 31, 2010 episode, because of scheduling conflicts.
's prime-time game show Deal or No Deal from 2006 to 2009. She was best known for her "lioness-like" mane. She held case #13 since the beginning of the show. Although 13 is usually considered the unluckiest of numbers, she was often referred to on the show as "Lucky Leyla" or "Lucky 13," as many times her case contained 6 digit amounts and in eight instances contained the $1,000,000 top prize. Nonetheless, NBC once opened the show noting that by holding all the large amounts and not being picked at the beginning, case #13 was very unlucky during most of the first season. On at least one occasion during the second season, case #13 contained a seven-figure prize.
Milani and her fellow Deal or No Deal models won a Game Show Network Award for "Favorite TV Models." On June 6, 2009, Milani and 4 other models accepted this award on GSN. Deal or No Deal also won The People's Choice Award two years in a row for Favorite Game Show.
She was one of a handful of models chosen to make a special appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show
. Oprah picked Leyla's case (number 8 for this show). Oprah later chanted Leyla's name as her dog's name is also Leyla.
Milani made an appearance on the Style Network's show, Split Ends
, and on a celebrity episode of GSN's game show Catch 21
, alongside fellow DOND models Patricia Kara
and Marisa Petroro
. She announced on this show the launch of her own hair extension line, Milani Hair, due out early 2010.
as a celebrity looking for a charity to support. She hosted FOX Sport Net's Celebrity Golf tournament as well as Fuel TV
'S motorsport show, M80. Milani made a cameo appearance on LOGO channel series Noah's Arc as a woman applying for a job. She has also appeared on MTV
's True Life: I'm A TV Star, and My Fair Brady
.
Milani appeared in an online comedy web series for Experian Credit
alongside comedian Pauly Shore
; she played a bride-to-be with bad credit. Other stars who appeared on this web series included Vivica A. Fox
, Michael Madsen
and Danny Glover
.
She is in the independent horror film Wrestlemaniac
, where she plays "Dallas", and the docu-comedy Boys & Girls Guide to Getting Down where she plays "Brittany", the "Westside Persian".
She made an appearance on an episode of NBC
's Last Comic Standing
and Phenomenon
.
Capitalizing on her Deal or No Deal fame, Milani has managed to draw celebrity attention for Milani Hair's products. The company's website touts testimonials from Jeannie Mai
, Shar Jackson
, and Nicole Eggert
.
Milani, has appeared in the World Wrestling Entertainment Diva Search 2005
WWE Diva Search
The WWE Diva Search is a talent competition held by World Wrestling Entertainment. The first winner was Jaime Koeppe, but she did not receive a contract like subsequent winners of the contest. Other winners included Christy Hemme, Ashley Massaro, Layla El, and Eve Torres. In addition to the winners...
, Deal or No Deal
Deal or No Deal (US game show)
Deal or No Deal is the American version of the international game show of Dutch origin of the same name. The show was hosted by Howie Mandel, and premiered on December 19, 2005, on National Broadcasting Company . The hour-long show typically aired at least twice a week during its run, and included...
, Sleeper Cell, Las Vegas
Las Vegas (TV series)
Las Vegas was an American television series broadcast by NBC from September 22, 2003 to February 15, 2008. The show focuses on a team of people working at the ficticional Montecito Resort & Casino dealing with issues that arise within the working environment, ranging from valet parking and...
, Rules of Engagement
Rules of engagement
Rules of Engagement refers to those responses that are permitted in the employment of military personnel during operations or in the course of their duties. These rules of engagement are determined by the legal framework within which these duties are being carried out...
, Attack of the Show!
Attack of the Show!
Attack of the Show! is an American live television program shown weeknights on G4, G4 Canada and Fuel TV in Australia. The program is hosted by Kevin Pereira and Candace Bailey...
, Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm is an American comedy television series produced and broadcast by HBO, which premiered on October 15, 2000. As of 2011, it has completed 80 episodes over eight seasons. The series was created by Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, who stars as a fictionalized version of himself...
, Entourage
Entourage (TV series)
Entourage is an American comedy-drama television series that premiered on HBO on July 18, 2004 and concluded on September 11, 2011, after eight seasons...
, Stacked
Stacked
Stacked is an American television sitcom that premiered on Fox on April 13, 2005. On May 18, 2006, Stacked was canceled, leaving five episodes unaired in the United States. The last episode aired on January 11, 2006...
, Desire
Desire (TV series)
Desire is an American telenovela which debuted at 8:00PM Eastern/7:00PM Central on September 5, 2006, on the American network MyNetworkTV, and ended on December 5. It was produced by Twentieth Television...
, Wanted
Wanted (TV series)
Wanted is a 2005 American primetime police drama television series broadcast on the TNT network. The series was created by Louis St. Clair and Jorge Zamacona, and executive produced by Aaron Spelling, E...
, Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Extra
Extra (TV series)
Extra is an American entertainment television news program covering events and celebrities which debuted on September 5, 1994 in syndication. It is produced at Victory Studios in Glendale, California by Telepictures Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television Distribution...
and in the films Wrestlemaniac, Boys & Girls Guide To Getting Down
Boys & Girls Guide To Getting Down
Boys & Girls Guide to Getting Downis an independent film directed by Paul Sapiano. Boys & Girls Guide to Getting down was the winner of 5 independent film awards at the Los Angeles Film Festival 2006.Features original music from Dirty Vegas, and Kava Kava....
, Dr. Chopper. Maxim
Maxim (magazine)
Maxim is an international men's magazine based in the United Kingdom and known for its pictorials featuring popular actresses, singers, and female models, sometimes pictured dressed, often pictured scantily dressed but not fully nude....
magazine features Milani and her fellow Deal or No Deal briefcase models in their online Girls of Maxim gallery.
Wrestling
Milani was a contestant in World Wrestling EntertainmentWorld Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
's 2005 Diva Search, finishing second out of 8,000 contestants worldwide. Following that, she made an appearance at Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla is a professional wrestling promotion that is run by wrestlers themselves as it was created by Southern California wrestlers Disco Machine, Excalibur, Joey Ryan, Scott Lost, Super Dragon, and Top Gun Talwar...
After School Special. After appearing on the WWE Raw
WWE RAW
WWE Raw ) is a sports entertainment television program for WWE that currently airs on the USA Network in the United States...
Diva search, she began using the stage name Leyla Milani.
She later appeared on one of the USA Network's WWE Raw Fan Nation commercials, which are a series commercials advertising WWE Raw, featuring people ranging from a stockbroker to Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg
Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. , better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as a rapper in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. Snoop Dogg was a Crip gang member while in high school...
.
Milani is the former co-host of Jimmy Hart
Jimmy Hart
James "Jimmy" Ray Hart is a professional wrestling manager, executive, composer, and musician currently signed with WWE. He is best known for his work in the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling under his nickname "The Mouth of the South." He has managed many professional...
's all-women wrestling show, Wrestlicious
Wrestlicious
Wrestlicious is an American all-female professional wrestling promotion based in Tampa, Florida. The company was founded by Jonathan Vargas, who won a Powerball jackpot of $35.3 million in 2008...
TakeDown which debuted March 1, 2010. She was replaced by Brooke Lynn
Becky Bayless
Rebecca Treston better known by her ring name Rebecca "Becky" Bayless, is an American professional wrestler, currently working for independent promotions such as Women's Extreme Wrestling, Wrestling Superstars Unleashed, Wrestlicious, and Women Superstars Uncensored...
on the March 31, 2010 episode, because of scheduling conflicts.
"Deal or No Deal" (2006–2009)
Milani was a model on NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's prime-time game show Deal or No Deal from 2006 to 2009. She was best known for her "lioness-like" mane. She held case #13 since the beginning of the show. Although 13 is usually considered the unluckiest of numbers, she was often referred to on the show as "Lucky Leyla" or "Lucky 13," as many times her case contained 6 digit amounts and in eight instances contained the $1,000,000 top prize. Nonetheless, NBC once opened the show noting that by holding all the large amounts and not being picked at the beginning, case #13 was very unlucky during most of the first season. On at least one occasion during the second season, case #13 contained a seven-figure prize.
Milani and her fellow Deal or No Deal models won a Game Show Network Award for "Favorite TV Models." On June 6, 2009, Milani and 4 other models accepted this award on GSN. Deal or No Deal also won The People's Choice Award two years in a row for Favorite Game Show.
She was one of a handful of models chosen to make a special appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
. Oprah picked Leyla's case (number 8 for this show). Oprah later chanted Leyla's name as her dog's name is also Leyla.
Milani made an appearance on the Style Network's show, Split Ends
Split Ends (U.S. TV series)
is a reality show aired on the . On the program, stylists swap salon locations and the drama unfolds....
, and on a celebrity episode of GSN's game show Catch 21
Catch 21
Catch 21 is an American game show centered around blackjack, created by Merrill Heatter and taped at the Hollywood Center Studios...
, alongside fellow DOND models Patricia Kara
Patricia Kara
Patricia Kara is a model, actress, and TV personality.She began her career in Chicago, before moving to Miami, New York City, and finally, her current home in Los Angeles, California...
and Marisa Petroro
Marisa Petroro
Marisa Petroro is an American actress and model.-Biography:Marisa was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey. When she was 4 years old, Marisa first started to perform in beauty pageants...
. She announced on this show the launch of her own hair extension line, Milani Hair, due out early 2010.
Other appearances
Milani has made multiple appearances on the Fox News' conservative satire show The Half Hour News Hour, and RedeyeRedEye
The RedEye is a daily publication put out by the Chicago Tribune geared toward 18 to 34-year-olds. RedEye was created due in part to the loss of readership among young people of the Chicago Tribune and other major newspapers...
as a celebrity looking for a charity to support. She hosted FOX Sport Net's Celebrity Golf tournament as well as Fuel TV
Fuel TV
Fuel TV is a U.S. cable and satellite specialty channel that launched on July 1, 2003. It focuses on the cultures of such extreme sports as skateboarding, snowboarding, wakeboarding, motocross, surfing, BMX and FMX. It is a unit of Fox Cable Networks and is currently available to 26-million...
'S motorsport show, M80. Milani made a cameo appearance on LOGO channel series Noah's Arc as a woman applying for a job. She has also appeared on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
's True Life: I'm A TV Star, and My Fair Brady
My Fair Brady
My Fair Brady is a celebrity reality television show on VH1 that follows Christopher Knight, who played Peter Brady on The Brady Bunch, and Adrianne Curry, who won the first season of America's Next Top Model, a year after they met and fell in love on the reality show The Surreal Life.The show...
.
Milani appeared in an online comedy web series for Experian Credit
Experian
Experian plc, formerly known as CCN Systems, is a global credit information group with operations in 36 countries. The company employs 15,500 people with corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland and operational headquarters in Nottingham, England and Costa Mesa, California, US...
alongside comedian Pauly Shore
Pauly Shore
Paul Montgomery "Pauly" Shore is an American comedian and actor who starred in several comedy films in the 1990s and hosted a video show on MTV in the late 1980s and early 1990s...
; she played a bride-to-be with bad credit. Other stars who appeared on this web series included Vivica A. Fox
Vivica A. Fox
Vivica Anjanetta Fox is an American actress and television producer. She is best known for her roles in the films Independence Day, Set It Off, Soul Food, Why Do Fools Fall In Love,Kill Bill and Juwanna Mann....
, Michael Madsen
Michael Madsen
Michael Søren Madsen is an American actor, poet, and photographer. He has appeared in more than 150 films, most of them small independent films, though he has starred in central roles in such films as Reservoir Dogs, Free Willy, Donnie Brasco, and Kill Bill, in addition to a supporting role in Sin...
and Danny Glover
Danny Glover
Danny Lebern Glover is an American actor, film director, and political activist. Glover is perhaps best known for his role as Detective Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film franchise.-Early life:...
.
She is in the independent horror film Wrestlemaniac
Wrestlemaniac
Wrestlemaniac is an Mexican Independent Horror movie by director Jess Baget. The movie stars Mexican professional wrestling star Rey Misterio Sr-Plot:...
, where she plays "Dallas", and the docu-comedy Boys & Girls Guide to Getting Down where she plays "Brittany", the "Westside Persian".
She made an appearance on an episode of NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Last Comic Standing
Last Comic Standing
Last Comic Standing is an American reality television talent show that has aired from 2003 through 2010.The goal of the program is to select a comedian from a group, who will receive a development contract with the NBC network, and a television special first to air on the cable-TV network Comedy...
and Phenomenon
Phenomenon
A phenomenon , plural phenomena, is any observable occurrence. Phenomena are often, but not always, understood as 'appearances' or 'experiences'...
.
Milani Hair
In 2009, Leyla Milani founded Milani Hair, an online boutique specializing in, “premium, 100% human clip-in or (clip-on) hair extensions,” citing Milani's own hair woes as the company's inspiration. Based in Irvine, California, the company is part of Kosh Milani Enterprises LLC. As of 2009, the company was known to have 5 employees.Capitalizing on her Deal or No Deal fame, Milani has managed to draw celebrity attention for Milani Hair's products. The company's website touts testimonials from Jeannie Mai
Jeannie Mai
Jeannie Mai is an American makeup artist, fashion expert, actress, and TV personality. She is most known for her work as the host of Style Network's "How Do I Look?", and USA's "Character Fantasy"...
, Shar Jackson
Shar Jackson
Sharisse "Shar" Jackson is an American television and film actress, reality television personality and rapper/singer best known for her portrayal of Niecy Jackson on the UPN show Moesha.-Early life and career:...
, and Nicole Eggert
Nicole Eggert
Nicole Elizabeth Eggert is an American actress. Notable roles include Jamie Powell in the television series Charles in Charge and Summer Quinn in the TV Series Baywatch. She was most recently a contestant on the VH1 reality show Celebrity Fit Club.-Early life:Eggert was born in Glendale,...
.