Ella and Mia Allan: The Relentless Work Ethic That Drives Success in Hollywood

As a part of my series about pop culture’s rising stars, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Ella and Mia Allan.

Ella and Mia Allan were born in Southern California. These young actresses have quite an impressive resume as the most sought-after twins in Hollywood. With a career spanning only 10 years, Ella and Mia have an unprecedented number of roles with some of the biggest names in the business. Together, The Allan Twins have 138 episodes of Network television, 1 movie, 3 pilots, 2 Voice Over episodes, and 3 national commercials. Their career began at just 6 months old playing Baby Thomas Teller on FX’s Sons of Anarchy starring Charlie Hunnam. That led to recurring roles on such long-running series as Parenthood playing Nora Braverman alongside Craig T. Nelson and Jane the Virgin starring Gina Rodriguez and Yael Grobglas which was their first role-playing twin sisters Ellie and Anna Solano. Ella and Mia played a young Marilyn Monroe alongside Susan Sarandon as well as guest-starring roles on Young Sheldon and The Cool KIDS not to mention voicing the roles of Ginger and Lavender on Disney’s Amphibia. Recently, they were series regulars on ABC’s hit comedy Single Parents starring as Brad Garretts’ precocious twins Amy and Emma. Ella and Mia will once again have the unique opportunity to play twins with their forthcoming roles as Lola and Lana Loud in the soon-to-be-released movie A Very LOUD Christmas, Nickelodeon’s live-action version of their hit cartoon The Loud House. Ella and Mia know the importance of giving back to the community. The twins lend their star power in support of such charities as Brad Garrett’s Maximum Hope Foundation, Pitt Hopkins Research Foundation, St. Jude’s, The Salvation Army, and Alex’s Lemonade. When not working or giving back, this dynamic duo enjoys collecting Squishmallows, drawing, experimenting with make-up and fashion, and riding their horse Chili.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

We technically grew up on set. My first job was when I was six months old on the Sons of Anarchy. But I’m very fortunate to have a great family that has always supported us in whatever we did.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

The intention was to get a few pictures for Old Navy or Gap as babies to have for memories. My mom got an email from our agent letting us know that Sons of Anarchy was holding a closed casting session and they asked if we were available to audition for the role of ‘Baby Thomas Teller” there were a few other sets of twins there and the creator of the show (Kurt Sutter) took a look around the room, pointed to us and said I’ll take those ones”….and that was that.

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your entertainment career?

This industry is full of interesting stories. For us, at least at the beginning of our career, we would get switched out playing one character. The thing is that Ella is Right-handed and Mia is Left-handed, so if you pay close attention, you will be able to see who is in the scene at that time. Working characters as twins have created very interesting dynamics as far as people getting us mixed up with the other.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Growing up on tv, you can imagine like anything it is a learning curve but probably one of the funnier things we have done is when we had to shoot a scene where our character was supposed to eat a snack or a meal. Either we have eaten the food so many times we get so full we could hardly eat another bite to finish the scene, on the other hand, we have been so hungry that the food or snacks in the scene are so good we can’t stop eating and sometimes we have our mouth too full to say a line.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?

We recently filmed a movie in Atlanta. The movie is called “A Loud House Christmas” It is a live-action film of the Nickelodeon hit cartoon called “The Loud House”. Holiday movies bring families together around the holidays. It will make people laugh and enjoy themselves, more than likely everyone can relate to at least one character.

Most young people your age don’t have to balance work and school. Can you tell us how you manage to balance your schoolwork, auditions, and time on set?

It creates its own set of challenges. At least so far, we have only been in a “real school” for about two weeks. On set we have what’s called a “Set Teacher”. The cool thing about that is it has been 1 teacher for both of us, so we get a lot of one-on-one help. Unless we show up to set early, the production tends to send us to school in between filming scenes. You just learn to adapt; it becomes second nature.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Our dad has been our acting coach so far and our mom has always been supportive and encouraging. Most of the time we help each other by running lines together and filming ourselves before we send in the audition. Also, it’s pretty hard not to learn from your director or other cast members.

Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s jump to the main part of our interview. What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Don’t be discouraged doing a ton of auditions and not booking something. Sometimes you may just not fit the part. It’s not a matter of if but when.

2. Booking the job is not the end it’s the beginning. Believe it or not, there are a ton of aspects about being on set that can be fun, but also remember it’s a job.

3. Just because you book something doesn’t mean you should stop working hard. Even A list celebrities work every day to get better, so they are ready when a really big role comes along. We practice every day reading scripts and scenes whether we are auditioning for the role or not.

4. You should love what you do and not do any of this to be “famous”. The public or your television role does not set your value as a person. Our parents always say God first, then family, then friends, then work.

5. How hard it is to be in a role for a while, creating bonds with the cast and crew, only to have the show end, whether it is a day on set, a season on set or a movie it’s just hard to see it end. Even if you keep in contact…it’s not the same.

You are people of enormous influence. How do you think you can use social media as a platform to be a positive influence to your fans, and for society at large?

My parents monitor and control our social media and we do love our fans! We also love having the opportunity to get the word out there about charities or events we have gone to for the charity to raise awareness. We also love to promote local businesses we have interacted with to support them or the product we believe in. We love to promote positivity, kindness, dignity, and respect. Lastly, we post for fun, dances, being silly, hanging out with our friends or just to keep people up to speed about things going on in our life.

If you had the ability to choose to work on any TV show or film, or work alongside any co-star, or with any director, what or who would that be, and why? You never know who might see this article, especially if we tag them. :-)

The show we’d love to work on is Stranger Things. We are a big fan of the show and cast, specifically Millie Bobby Brown. Dakota Fanning has always been an inspiration, at such a young age her acting was and is off the charts amazing! We love Rebel Wilson, and Will Ferrell. Their characters and comedic timing create so much laughter you actually have fun watching them. We also think they would be kind and have great personalities offset as well.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Instagram: @theallantwins

Twitter: @theallantwins

Cameo.com Search “The Allan Twins”

This was very meaningful, thank you so much!

About The Interviewer: Growing up in Canada, Edward Sylvan was an unlikely candidate to make a mark on the high-powered film industry based in Hollywood. But as CEO of Sycamore Entertainment Group Inc, (SEGI) Sylvan is among a select group of less than ten Black executives who have founded, own and control a publicly traded company. Now, deeply involved in the movie business, he is providing opportunities for people of color.

In 2020, he was appointed president of the Monaco International Film Festival, and was encouraged to take the festival in a new digital direction.

Raised in Toronto, he attended York University where he studied Economics and Political Science, then went to work in finance on Bay Street, (the city’s equivalent of Wall Street). After years of handling equities trading, film tax credits, options trading and mergers and acquisitions for the film, mining and technology industries, in 2008 he decided to reorient his career fully towards the entertainment business.

With the aim of helping Los Angeles filmmakers of color who were struggling to understand how to raise capital, Sylvan wanted to provide them with ways to finance their creative endeavors.