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Milo Ventimiglia told PEOPLE in an exclusive interview that fatherhood helps him with "understanding emotions," which he applies to his acting work

NEED TO KNOW

• The This Is Us star and his wife, Jarah Mariano, welcomed their first child, daughter Ke'ala, in January 2025

• They are currently expecting a second baby

Milo Ventimigliais opening up about how fatherhood has allowed him to bring more emotional depth to his acting performances.

Reflecting on his parenting journey in an exclusive PEOPLE in 10 interview, theThis Is Usstar said, "The well of understanding emotions and being able to convey them just bottoms out, and it's infinite."

"It's a pretty wild experience being able to take that new fatherhood and new family and plug it into my work," Ventimiglia, 48, added.

The actor and his wife,Jarah Mariano, welcomed their first child,daughter Ke'ala Coral, in January 2025. As Ke'ala celebrated her first birthday last month, the couple revealed that they are expecting their second baby together.

Photo by RochelleBrodinPhoto/Shutterstock; Jarah Mariano/Instagram

Ke'ala arrived shortly after Ventimiglia and Mariano, 42, were forced to evacuate from their home amid the devastating Los Angeles wildfires. The new mom detailed everything the family had been through in anInstagram postat the time as she announced Ke'ala's birth.

"Houseless, never homeless. Welcome back Ke'ala Coral Ventimiglia 🌈 1.23.25," she wrote. "Jan 7th my family & I evacuated from the Palisades Fire.We lost our homethat we were living in & everything we own, as well as our home under construction that we were about to move into. I take it as a gift that I was able to essentially do a practice run for what was inevitably to come."

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"My family & I are together, happy, healthy & safe, which is truly all that matters," she continued. "We are deeply grateful to all of the heroes who help battle fires, as well as care for everyone affected by the aftermath for years to come. This will be an extended process of rebuilding and grieving for many, but we are feeling optimistic & inspired to welcome all of the exciting newness of our fresh start!"

RochelleBrodinPhoto/Shutterstock

Ventimiglia, who stars in the new filmI Can Only Imagine 2, reflected on the emotional roller coaster he and Mariano experienced during the time, telling PEOPLE, "My wife and I, we lost our home to the fires in Los Angeles and two weeks later, our daughter was born. So you have these two completely opposite feelings."

"Just heartbreak with absolute joy," he added, noting that it "would have been impossible" not to put his personal experience into his performance as Tim Timmons, a Christian singer-songwriter who lives with terminal cancer, inI Can Only Imagine 2.

Mariano revealed the couple's latest pregnancy onInstagramon Jan. 24 as she celebrated daughter Ke'ala turning 1. Alongside a photo of herself showcasing her baby bump in a bikini as she held the toddler in the ocean in Hawaii, she wrote, "Happy 1 year baby girl. When you came into my life I had 2 distinct thoughts, one immediately after the other - I would die for you in a heartbeat, but now I also have to live as long as I possibly can to be around to make sure you're safe."

"This is the most unique love I've ever experienced, just as unique of a soul you are," she continued. "In a world with so much fear and hatred, I know that you will bring your radiating light everywhere you go to make it a better and brighter place for those around you."

I Can Only Imagine 2is in theaters now.

Read the original article onPeople

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Key points

• Will Forte tells EW that returning to Saturday Night Live "still makes me nervous" 16 years after leaving the show.

• The MacGruber actor says he didn't often reflect on the achievement of working at SNL during his time there: "You're just moving forward."

• The star explains how SNL50 provided a unique opportunity to recognize "what a special thing" it was to work at SNL: "What an honor!"

Will Forteloved his time onSaturday Night Live— but heading back to 30 Rock still gives him the willies.

TheMacGruberactor tellsEntertainment Weeklythat returning to Studio 8H inspires a wide range of emotions even 16 years after leaving the sketch show.

"It's great. It's so fun to be back," he says. "It still makes me nervous every time I enter that building. It's built into every cell of your body — you have this cellular memory that gets activated when you walk in the door."

Leon Bennett/Getty

He continues, "But also there are so many old friends that still work there behind the scenes and this wonderful continuity with this whole family that's there. And so that part is great. It's so fun to be back with this new cast."

Forte worked onSNLfrom 2002 to 2010. He recentlyreturned to the show with a new MacGruber sketchwhenGlen Powellhosted the show in October. Before that, he joined dozens of the show's famous alums for its 50th anniversary celebration in February 2025.

"The 50th anniversary was a very, very special time," Forte remembers. "'Cause when you're there, it's this amazing place with this tradition, and it's such an honor to be there, but you're grinding through each week and you're stressed out, and you get through the week and then you gotta just dive into the next week. And you have very little time to really take a big-picture look at what's going on. You're just moving forward."

SNL50, he says, was different. "The 50th was a really fun time to actually get a chance to really go, 'Wow, what a special thing I got to be a part of,'" Forte explains. "One of my biggest goals going into comedy was getting onSNL. So to have been a part of it — what an honor!"

The comedian describes the festivities as a somewhat overwhelming experience. "It was a lot to take in and it was really fun and special," he says. "You really got to reflect a little bit, which wasn't always the case. Every once in a while while I was there, it would dawn on me: 'Oh my God, I'm atSaturday Night Liveright now! My dream job!' But most of the time you're just stressed out. 'Oh God, what, what are we gonna do this week?' So this was a time when you could really relax and have fun."

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But the celebration also provided new opportunities for nervousness.

"Everywhere you turned, there was a new exciting person. So many people who I was fans of from the show that I never got to meet," Forte says. "I've been nearBill Murrayso many times, but never had the courage to go up and introduce myself. I still get starstruck around people, and I get really quiet and shy. Even around people who are incredibly easy to talk to, likeMartin Short— couldn't be a nicer person than Martin Short, and I still get really quiet. I just turned into a dummy. So people are very patient with me."

Forte still has to remind himself that he's enmeshed with the same legacy as so many of his heroes. "I'm starstruck around so many of those people," he explains. "It was really fun because I kept seeing these really fun people that I'm a fan of, and I'm like, 'Oh, that's right, I'm part of this thing too. Geez, wow. What a cool thing.'"

SNL/YouTube

Forte recently partnered with Teva to launch a campaign raising awareness for Huntington's disease. The actor's brother-in-law, Douglas, was diagnosed with the condition, which is an inherited disorder in which the brain's nerve cells decay over time, affecting movement, cognitive ability, and mental health.

Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with ourEW Dispatch newsletter.

"More people have Huntington's than have ALS, but everybody knows ALS, so that's why we're trying to get the word out about it," Forte says. "We're trying to get some support and a bigger community going to support the people who have Huntington's, and to teach the people who don't have it about it."

The actor emphasizes the importance of openly discussing the condition. "The more you can be there to support your loved ones who are going through it and create a big community around them, the better," he says. "And to talk about it. Just talk about it. The more you talk about it, the better. 'cause It's easy to just get scared about, 'Oh, am I gonna say the right thing? What do I say?' But saying anything is better than saying nothing."

You can learn more about Forte's family's experience with Huntington's disease on theHonestlyHD website.

Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly

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NEED TO KNOW

• Maitreyi Ramakrishnan revealed she uses an unusual fake name when ordering at coffee shops

• The actress, 24, said she does it because people often mispronounce her actual name

• Maitreyi also shared her personal goal for the coming year

Maitreyi Ramakrishnanrevealed she that often gives an unexpected fake name to baristas when ordering at coffee shops.

TheNever Have I Everstar caught up with PEOPLE exclusively before the release of herPokémon Super Bowl commercial. During the conversation, she shared that almost no one pronounces her actual name correctly.

The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!

"One hundred percent story of my life, especially with my first name," Ramakrishnan, 24, said. "I had acouple of viral tweetswhen I like first got famous. Just spelling out my name as like, My-Tray-Yee as a pronunciation."

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan/Instagram

She added, "But then, see my thing is with my last name — I didn't feel like I ever needed to do that. 'Cause my last name is just [said like it's read]: Ramakrishnan. But then I get a lot of people saying Rama-Chrishtian, like Christianity. And I'm like, there's no 'T.' This is yet again, a reading comprehension issue."

"This is why we need to invest in education," she quipped.

Ramakrishnan then shared that she now often gives a different name altogether when she's grabbing coffee to avoid the hassle.

"I usually just say my name is Blue at like a coffee shop. I'll just say Blue," she revealed.

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Later in the conversation, PEOPLE asked theFreakier Fridayactressif she has any specific goals for the coming year, to which she said she hopes to feel more comfortable with the things in life that are outside her control.

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan/Instagram

She continued, "My brain doesn't like to know that it's not in control of everything, you know?" she explained. "Like, I understand that there's many things in my life that are out of my control completely, but my brain doesn't like to know that, and keeps fighting …  even though logically I understand that as a concept."

"So, all of this to say, I think, at least in my near future …  I want to try and embrace the fact that, yeah, not everything is in my control. I have to really just narrow in and focus on what is, you know, tangible, and [what] I actually have influence over," she added.

She said she does, however, know that there's one thing in life very much in her control: thepeople with whom she surrounds herself.

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE's free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

"I know that I have good people around me. That's like super, super important," she said, adding, "I don't like to put myself in a social circle that makes me feel like I'm second-guessing myself. Not that I need a bunch of yes men … I need people that are real."

"I mean, life is short, it's a blip. Gotta make it count. Might as well have a good cast of people, you know?" she added.

Read the original article onPeople