Milo Manheim is a theater kid to his core. The cliche often gets maligned, but to him, it’s a serious compliment. Is he unabashed about his interests? Yes. Could he break out into song and dance at any second? Probably. But life is a performance, and whether the stage is obvious or not, it’s clear that Manheim wants to take on whatever the role is with as much enthusiasm as he can muster.

When the actor (who turns 24 today, March 6) walks into his MOMENT by Teen Vogue cover shoot in New York City, for example, his personality instantly fills the room. He wears a tan Simkhai suit and oversize brown sunglasses, and his long arms are stretched toward the first person in his path. He whips off his eyewear and calls out with a laugh, “Hug?!”

Photographed by Emily Malan

Even with his star-ready cocktail of charisma and zeal, Manheim will tell me later in our interview at our One World Trade Center studios that he didn’t think acting was a serious possibility for him. “I just know that it’s really hard to break [into],” he says earnestly. It wasn’t until someone noticed him in a school play that he truly built up the courage, at 15 years old, to audition for the film series that would change his life, the 2018 Disney cult musical hit, Zombies.

Fast forward to Manheim’s early 20s, and he is about to star in his fourth installment of the Zombies franchise, for which he’s also an executive creative producer. He’s also just finished his second season playing lovable ‘80s jock Wally in Paramount+’s School Spirits, alongside costar Peyton List.

Now, he’s back in New York City to star as Seymour in the off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors with Elizabeth Gillies. Shortly after our interview, I saw a preview of the show at the West Side Theater. Manheim’s charming, wacky disposition lends itself well to Seymour — he embodies the role with ease despite playing it pretty physical.

Excellent acting and singing aside, it’s clear even this early in the run that hordes of attendees have shown up just for him. He does a rockstar run during the final cast bow to touch hands with wooed fans, and on TikTok, there are already hundreds of thousands of views on videos of admirers waiting by the stage doors to meet him.

Throughout our conversation, it becomes evident that Manheim is a natural in the spotlight, and down for anything — even shoving his face into a blue frosted birthday cake during our shoot (nice clothing, be damned). He makes a point of spreading this energy around, constantly emphasizing the people who help build the worlds in which he operates, including the writers and directors, the drivers and teamsters, the sound engineers, his fellow cast mates. Manheim doesn’t want to be the center of attention, he just is. And now, as he graduates into a new phase of his career, it’s all coming into place.

We sat down with Manheim to learn more about the School Spirits season two finale, diving back into the world of theater for Little Shop of Horrors, his friendship with Sabrina Carpenter, and what’s next for his blossoming career. (Warning: Slight spoilers ahead for School Spirits season two.)

What’s the Milo Manheim origin story? Tell me about growing up.

I’m definitely an LA boy, but I feel more like a Venice Beach boy… I spent all of my schooling in Venice or Santa Monica, so I really feel like a beach boy at heart. But now that I’m here in New York.

You live here now?

I’m here doing Little Shop, but I went to NYU for a year, and I’ve been here doing little things. I feel like every time I land here, my anxiety just washes away. It’s interesting because I know that this city is so chaotic, but I feel like because of that, it distracts me from the dumb anxieties of life. In LA, you have to plan your days. You have to really think it all through. I feel like you can just live in New York. I feel alive here.

But that’s just my relationship with LA and New York. [More] about me? I love escape rooms. I love to solve things. I love game nights and hosting game nights.

You’ve said in the past that you grew up on sets with your mom [actress Camryn Manheim of Law and Order, Hannah Montana, Ghost Whisperer]. How did you feel about being in that environment as a child?

I liked watching the directors of my mom’s things… my mom had such a great base of people. They say it takes a village, and it really does. Every time I was on set, I would always be so in awe of how everybody has their job, and they do it so well. It’s such a well-oiled machine.

And when you’re watching a show, you never think about all that — and that’s what you’re going for. You want to be immersed, and you don’t want to think about the acting or the lighting. It should just be. Then when you’re there and you see all the work that goes into it, it gives you a newfound appreciation. When I was younger, looking at that, I was just in awe of it. Now that I’m doing it, while I’m still in awe of it, I have a much better understanding of it, and it’s even more beautiful for that reason.

Photographed by Emily Malan

Did you always know you wanted to get into acting?

Even with my mom being an actress and being surrounded by lots of successful actors, I still just thought it was unrealistic. I loved doing it, and honestly, I don’t think I would’ve tried had someone not plucked me out.

I was doing a lot of musical theater at my school, and this [casting director] named Amber Horn came to see a show, and she said, “You should audition for this movie, Zombies.” Had she not been there, I never would’ve tried, and I probably would’ve ended up being a therapist or something.

Really? Why?

I love people. I like talking to people. I like problem-solving. And I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I’m emotionally inclined. I understand that within myself, and I have great friends that do, as well. I love those conversations about how to make these choices to better ourselves and our lives. So that would’ve been a really fulfilling thing for me to do in the sense of putting out into the world. But I also love making art, and this is a very fulfilling thing for me to do in this acting world. It’s very similar to me. It’s a connection with people. Great actors and great therapists probably have similar conversations.

True. Especially when tapping into the psychology of a character.

The deeper you can strip back the layers of your humanity, the more choices you can make. I feel like life is a video game, and every day you can just decide to try a new quest and see if it works for you.

Like… a simulation?

Honestly, I don’t hate the simulation theory at all. It’s a fun way to think about existence.

I don’t either, I guess.

People may think that this sounds nuts, but it’s not the wildest theory. I think it’s equally as amazing as a sentient being creating the Earth, or it just happening.

Why not both?

I think they’re all completely fair possibilities. [Smiling] I think you should choose the one that brings you the most happiness and fun.

That’s a lovely way to think about it. Let’s talk about School Spirits. Wally and Maddie’s story expands quite a bit this season. We all saw it coming, or we hoped for it, at least. How did you and Peyton prepare for this new storyline?

Me and Peyton got super close in the first season, and I think we both anticipated that our characters’ connections [were] going to get deeper this season. A lot of it was unspoken and it was a trust that we had with each other.

Peyton’s a great person to act alongside, and this season especially, we do a lot of really vulnerable stuff together. I’m just grateful that she’s so professional. It’s always a good vibe. And truly, not only is Peyton amazing, but the rest of the cast and the crew are as well. There are many things that would’ve felt really weird had we not felt incredibly comfortable with everybody in the room.

Other than that, when it comes to the emotional beats and the storyline, we don’t know what’s coming. The only thing I knew about this show when I signed on was what Wally had in episodes one and two of the first season, which was not very much. With every episode that came our way, I feel like every cast member was just relieved. We all had our ideas of where the show [was] going — we were all wrong. Their show is so much better than what any of us thought of. I thought season one was fantastic, and I think season two, especially the second half, really cements itself as a genius, brilliant show.

Photographed by Emily Malan

You really do have to pay attention, especially in season two.

And that’s a testament to great writing. They never make it in your face. If there’s something that’s important, it might just be a little slip-in, a line that you don’t even realize until later. I love those eureka moments. We get multiple an episode this season.

Have you watched the edit of the Ghost scene?

I haven’t yet. That’s episode seven. I’m very excited to see it.

I can imagine it’s hard when you have what are supposed to be teenagers doing those types of referential scenes.

It’s also really interesting because, yes, they are in “high schooler bodies,” but they have evolved so much.

Except Maddie.

Right, true. I would even say that Maddie is the reason Wally is beginning to evolve. He has been there for 40 years, but he really hasn’t aged 40 years. When she gets there, it’s like he really starts doing all of this adult thinking within a matter of a month, and it flips his world upside down. I think that they had the opportunity to evolve the whole time they’ve been in that afterlife, but they needed something. For Wally, it was Maddie. For Charley, it’s Yuri. And for Rhonda, it could be Quinn.

Speaking of Wally’s emotional intelligence, something interesting about this season is that he is obviously the comic relief — he has the silly lines and then the dance scene.

That one was fun.

But then he also has some of the harder emotional scenes, like everybody else experiencing their own death in the scars, but Wally watching his own death.

That was something I was curious about when we got the script, that Rhonda went in and experienced it. Like, “Shoot, am I going to have to go through this thing?” I think it’s so great that they did it this way for Wally, because his trauma wasn’t how he died, really. His trauma has been, since then, looking back on these things. He did it for his mom. He says in episode four, “When I died, I felt nothing, no fear or no pain.” But when he’s in the scar, he feels the pressure from his mom and the coach and the crowd. That is something that I felt, as Milo, in my life, and it was easy to draw from when doing that scene. But he’s so tragic. He’s such a good guy.

There’s the other scene where Wally is addressing his past homophobia, which I think is really interesting because the show plays on nostalgia so much, but it also proves how we see things from the past with a modern lens.

When I saw that this was a part of his past, which I was kind of dreading, my first thing was, Okay, this is going to be a big emotional journey for Wally. And when I shot that scene with Nick [Pugliese], it’s like Milo and Wally felt the same thing. This isn’t about me, this is about him, and this is about listening.

That was probably one of the most memorable scenes I’ve ever shot, because not only was Nick incredible in that scene, he would say to them, “This is not my experience, actually, and this is how I feel.” Nick is gay. Oliver Goldstick, our director at the time Craig [Johnson], and Nate [Trinrud], one of the writers of the show, it was really cool to watch the four of them sit and think about what message they really wanted to get across, and how I could aid that.

That scene was heartbreaking.

But I really was hoping that would happen this season. I can’t help but be a silly, goofy person, and I don’t want to betray Wally by completely losing that. But there is a big shift in his mind this season.

Photographed by Emily Malan

I want to talk about Wally’s final scene in season two. We’re seeing all these people trying to cross over, but ultimately, Wally is the one the door opens for. What do you think happened?

The whole season we had a feeling somebody would get the opportunity to. I never really thought it was going to be Wally.

I thought it would be Rhonda.

I don’t think that Wally’s thing to get over was so concrete. The things he was trying to face or the things he was looking for, he was kind of looking in the wrong places. When he stops trying and puts his focus on Maddie, these things just happened naturally: his conversation with Charley, his revisiting of his scar again.

And he doesn’t walk all the way through. We see the door, we see him breathe a sigh of relief, and he walks toward it.

That’s the thing that I love, is that they leave it there. Because I think that up until this past season, he would’ve run at that door…

It’s so awesome that Hannah [Macpherson] was the director that time. Hannah is one of my favorite people I’ve worked with. She had me do it so many different ways. We did one where it was scary, where it was almost scarier than the red room that this was happening. We did one where it was immediate excitement. We did one where it was disbelief. I’m curious to see which parts of which she chooses.

But yeah, I truly feel like a devout fan even though I lived it. Especially with these murder mysteries, they like to do that to us.

You do have a lot of undead experience.

Exactly, especially playing football!

Are you a football fan?

Huge. I think I’m the only person in the world that loves theater and football equally. But I am. I never really was vocal about that to anybody. I just happened to stumble into Zed who plays football, and Wally who plays football. I have run three fantasy football leagues. This is important information: I won the School Spirits fantasy football league this year. Huge. I did Wally justice.

Shocking!

I know. I really thought that Miles [Elliot] was going to beat me. But no, it was great. And I watched the Super Bowl last night with Nick and Sarah [Yarkin], my two other ghosts. Now I’m turning them onto football, so I feel like Wally is really creeping into my life a little bit.

Who were you rooting for?

Eagles. My whole family is from Philly. They have Eagles tattoos. I’m a Rams fan. I’m LA. I love Matthew Stafford. But this game almost felt political to me. It meant more to me than any other football game I’ve ever watched, and it was pure smiling from beginning to end.

It was a thrill. I don’t even watch football and I loved it.

I’m telling you, football is poetry. Football is theater. That’s why I love both. I believe this way about everything: The deeper you go into something, the more you’re going to get out of it. I think the reason I was able to convince Nick and Sarah to watch this game is because I was telling them every single thing about the player’s personal lives and who they are and why they’re awesome. And that made them love it even more. Romanticize your life, romanticize football!

You also have Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires coming out this year.

It’s such a blur, we did so many. I can’t believe that we [even] had Zombies 2.

What has it been like to be a part of a film franchise for almost 10 years?

I feel like I’ve lived multiple lives. It’s really cool because there’s been years in between each movie, so it’s like a checkpoint. It’s a great way to see how far you’ve come as a person. I feel like my biggest change was between 3 and 4.

I produced Zombies 4, which was a whole new experience. I was able to look at it from a whole new lens. Not only am I looking through Zed’s eyes, but I’m looking at the entire story. I’ve always been an actor who thinks outside of his character. I feel like actors are one way or the other — and each way is completely respectable — but I have always been so invested in the whole thing. I mean, on season one of School Spirits, I was literally trying to solve this thing in my room, hours at a time.

Being a creative producer is a position that is very fulfilling to me. Especially on Zombies, I feel like me and Meg [Donnelly] understand zombies better than most people on this planet. I think that our input was valued, and that was really nice. And to work with these younger kids that I think — and truly hope — will take on this franchise, it was so cool to see so much of ourselves reflected in them. There’s five main new ones, and I felt like I was a big brother for the first time. It was beautiful.

That’s cool. How do you feel about your Disney class? Do you look to one another for guidance? Do you feel like you even have a Disney class?

Disney is like a high school. When I came in there, I had beautiful seniors welcoming me in, like Dove Cameron and people like that. And then we’re the seniors — I mean, I feel like I’ve graduated now — but we were welcoming in the freshmen.

A lot of those kids don’t go to high school, so it really is their high school experience. We even have a prom at Disney. It’s like a new [theme] every year. We’re all in the same boat… we’re here for each other.

I love Disney, and if I can speak honestly, I feel like a lot of people oftentimes go through Disney and feel like they’re put in a box, and, I think, sometimes justly and sometimes unjustly resent Disney. I never wanted to become that. I’ve always had such great experiences with the people at Disney, and I’m grateful that they were able to launch me this way. I know what I can do as a person and actor, so I’ve never felt restricted by them. This is why I think — honestly, and I thank my team for this — I can do both. I balance both.

Zombies 4 hasn’t come out yet. I just did a horror movie. I did a movie about Jesus. I did School Spirits. In this new time, you don’t have to be one thing anymore. And hopefully, one day if I win an award for something, I hope to thank Zed for starting it all.

Is that the goal?

The goal is to make amazing art, and I think a green flag and a good byproduct of that is to win an award. But I’m not in this industry to win awards. I’m in the industry to make art, and I think an award is a nice little stamp of approval from your peers. I just want equal, likeminded actors that I admire to feel the same way about me as I feel about them.

One of the coolest things that just happened to me — I just did the musical American Idiot in LA, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson was there, who was on Modern Family. He’s been a family friend for a little bit. But after the show, he texted me, “It was so amazing watching you, you were great and you shined.” I was watching Modern Family at that time, and I was like, “This is one of the coolest moments of my life. I am sitting here admiring your art, and you sat there admiring my art for the night.” It was just such a beautiful moment.

How was the Deaf West Theatre revival of American Idiot?

That’s a loaded question. It was fantastic. I wish I had the words to explain how passionately I feel about that show. The two greatest things I got out of it were: A) making deaf friends, learning about the deaf community, and learning sign language; and B) revisiting Green Day’s wonderful music that I grew up on, loving the sound of it back then and now loving the message of it, and rediscovering Billie Joe Armstrong’s genius in a new way. That’s the best I could do without rambling.

Photographed by Emily Malan

Photographed by Emily Malan

You did great! How did Little Shop of Horrors come about? How are you preparing for it?

This is a great segue. American Idiot on Broadway was directed by Michael Mayer, originally. He came to see the show in LA. After seeing it, he understood that maybe I might work in his new Little Shop of Horrors. We talked about it. I was just dying to get to New York and do some theater. Now that I’m here, we’ve started the process.

It has been going fantastically so far. I got sick, so I was out for the first week, which really scared me because we didn’t have much time, but they were so not worried. They’re so collaborative. I know [the show] has such a rich history and I want to honor it, but I think the best way to do that is to make it your own.

I think me and Liz [Gillies] have a similar vision for how we want the show to be, and we want it to be grounded and true — although it’s a very over-the-top show. But I saw this production five years ago, and it was one of the most magical nights of my life. I’m still figuring it out.

I mean, seriously, I’ve [done] in-person rehearsals once, so I will let you know how it continues to go. But I’m very hopeful, and grateful that I had the American Idiot experience before, because I feel like I have just leveled up enough to be here now.

I feel like there’s a moment happening in theater, with actors of your age group especially: Rachel Zegler, Sadie Sink, Kit Connor…

I hope so. It’s so cool, because I love Rachel. I hope to see her while I’m here. Even Charli D’Amelio, I was so excited for her to go to Broadway because I know that she loves that so much. And I got here and I realized, Wow, I have a couple friends living the dream here right now! I’ve been sick for most of the time I’ve been here. But now that I’m better, I’m excited to go share that passion with all those people that you just named, and hopefully make new friends through it.

I’ve always had a part of me, deep down, that has been screaming to get back to theater. I love film and I love learning about it, but there is an energy to theater that’s incomparable. Theater is that remedy for me, and it just brings that baseline happiness to my life. It’s great for everybody.

There’s something about being together, I think, especially with the past five years we’ve had as a society. I’ve been watching the archive of Little Shop of Horrors; I’m trying to study it. It’s great, but then when I went to go see it a few days ago, it was just completely different. There was something about being there physically that does something to you, and I think we need that as people. You can’t find that anywhere else.

It’s exciting that you’re going to be part of this really great theater resurgence happening right now.

The reason theater is making a comeback is because the world knows that we need it right now. My mom always told me, “Theater has been dying since the day it was born.”

That’s so true.

I am going to do my best for the rest of my life to keep reviving it because I love it. It brings me so much joy, and it brings people joy. And I love theater people. Theater kids get a bad rep.

Photographed by Emily Malan

I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you what it was like to be one of the few honored men killed by Sabrina Carpenter in a music video.

Sabrina can kill me anytime she wants. I love Sabrina… She texted me a couple days before [like], “Are you around to do this?” I agreed, having no idea what it was that I was going to do. I trusted her, and I knew that her vision was going to be dope.

The director that she was working with, Mia [Barnes], is so awesome. I’ve been following her work, as well. Sabrina’s killing it, as always. That is a really cool relationship that honestly started at Disney, where I just feel so proud seeing her climb. It really makes me so happy because I know she is genuinely a beautiful person inside and out.

Did you watch the Grammys?

I did. I texted her right after. I told her she killed it. She’s going to come see Little Shop too. I hope that we continue lifting each other up for the rest of our lives. That is a testament to Sabrina’s success as well. She makes people feel good. People always remember how you make them feel. There are a few celebrities that have made it that are not nice people. You hear those stories sometimes. But genuinely, I think the reason that she’s exploding is because she is so genuine and kind.

All of those girls that are killing it right now — Olivia [Rodrigo] is killing it right now — they’re all such kind hearted people. And I think we all just are realizing, as a world, that we need that right now.

What’s the dream for the next five years? I know we’ve got a couple immediate things happening, but what are you looking to do?

This is going to sound really philosophical.

Go for it.

This is an anecdote that changed my perspective on life. There are two fishermen, and they’re about to go fishing. One of the fishermen says to the other, “What’s the weather tomorrow?” The other one says, “Oh, it’s my favorite weather.” And he asks, “What is it?” And he goes, “I don’t know, but it’s going to be the perfect weather.” I love [the idea] that whatever the day brings tomorrow, whether it’s rainy or sunny, [you can] make it your favorite thing.

If you asked me this question a couple years ago, I would’ve given you a really structured schedule of how I wanted my life to pan out. But now, every day I have a different thing. I’m a big believer of: Live your life, the universe will bring things to you. That is how this all happens.

This is why I’m doing Little Shop right now. We’ll see what the world calls me for, and I’ll hopefully step up to the plate if it sounds like something that will bring me purpose.

Lastly, why is this your moment?

I don’t mean to challenge the question, but I’m not sure if I see this time in my life as “my moment” any more or less than my past and future moments. I don’t see this as a peak, just another step in a journey that I hope lasts a lifetime. It’s easy to get caught up in what the world thinks of you and feel the need to adjust accordingly, but I’m learning how to put my blinders on and just do my thing. Rick Rubin said that the best way to serve your audience is to forget they’re there, and I think it makes it sweeter that way when the world seems to resonate with you. Every day is a possibility to make it your moment, and I’m grateful with every win.