Hannah Montana: What Happened To Lilly Truscott Actress Emily Osment?
On March 24, 2026, Disney+ debuted a special celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Disney sitcom "Hannah Montana." Given that even some of the other best Disney Channel shows haven't had big 20th anniversary specials, the enduring legacy of "Hannah Montana" is obviously a strong one. For the special, Miley Cyrus led a group of most of the show's main cast members and interacted with some famous family and friends. However, there were two notable absences: Mitchel Musso, who played Oliver Oken, and Emily Osment, who played Lilly Truscott.
Though there are tragic details about Musso that could explain his not being part of the reunion, Osment not showing up made less sense. And that's because she's remained incredibly active in the entertainment industry since playing Lilly, even working for Disney and various Disney-owned brands. Let's check out some of the things Osment has been up to since "Hannah Montana," both on screen and off.
She went to college to study theater
While plenty of actors dropped out of college, others made a point to get postsecondary education even though they were already established in their careers. Emily Osment was 19 years old as "Hannah Montana" was wrapping up, which is the perfect age to embark on a college career — and that is exactly what she did, studying theater at Occidental College.
However, things weren't easy for the now-famous Osment adjusting to life as a normal college student. "I went to a little college and I knew everyone there. There were some people who were a little weird...and things got kinda weird," she told Teen Vogue.
Even so, the experience gave her a newfound perspective on her career and colleagues. In an interview with Decider, Osment explained, "I studied theater in college and the theater community that you have is so important [...] I have so many friends that are actors that there is no competition and I feel like having the ability to suggest friends for things is such a wonderful aspect of my job."
She started a music career
On "Hannah Montana," Miley's pal Lilly wasn't a singer. In fact, one of Lilly's running jokes was her massive lack of musical ability. So it might come as a surprise to learn that Emily Osment is not only a singer in real life, but a good enough one that she's maintained an entire second career as a musician. Technically, she had already started before she was even done with "Hannah Montana," having already released her own solo EP — one that charted, no less — in 2009.
A year later, Osment released "Fight or Flight," her first full-length studio album. She also headlined her own tour that year in support of that album. After that, she shifted focus back to acting for awhile and put music on the backburner. But in 2019, she began a new phase of her musical career — this time, under the alias Bluebiird and with an indie rock sound and more personal songwriting as opposed to the poppy direction of her earlier work. As recently as 2024, she was still writing and releasing music under that alias.
She beefed up her voicework portfolio
Just before and during her stint on "Hannah Montana," Emily Osment had added animated voice work to her repertoire, with minor roles in the "Ice Age" short film "Surviving Sid" and the direct-to-video Disney sequel "Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch." But it wasn't until after "Hannah Montana" ended that she started to land noteworthy roles in that regard. She played Pep Cortez in "Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2" and "Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3," and was one of the voices for the official English dub of Studio Ghibli's 2013 film "From Up On Poppy Hill."
On television, Osment played a recurring role on "Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil," and began a long-running stint as Ruth Cochamer on "Family Guy" who she's voiced on and off since Season 12. In 2022, she starred in the criminally underrated Netflix animated series "Dead End: Paranormal Park," which unfortunately only got two seasons.
She continued to play lead roles on television
As it turns out, "Hannah Montana" wasn't Emily Osment's only lead role on a major television show. She has actually amassed an impressive number of lead or major recurring credits, and that's not even considering the many series she showed up on for an episode or two.
In 2013, she starred as an assassin in "Cleaners," an action comedy series that aired on now defunct streaming service Crackle. From 2014 to 2018, she was the main protagonist of the Freeform sitcom "Young & Hungry." Between 2019 and 2021, Osment appeared in "Almost Family" and "Pretty Smart," respectively, two single-season shows on which she was a main cast member.
Expanding into recurring roles also adds "Mom" and "The Kominskey Method" to Osment's list of post-"Hannah Montana" shows. However, it wouldn't be long until she was brought into the orbit of Chuck Lorre and joined one of the biggest television franchises of the 21st century.
She joined the Big Bang Theory cinematic universe
Emily Osment joined the cast of "The Big Bang Theory" spin-off prequel "Young Sheldon" in Season 5, where she played the recurring role of Mandy McCallister. Mandy began dating Georgie Cooper (Montana Jordan), and before being upgraded to a main cast member for the show's final two seasons. But that wouldn't be the end of Osment's time in "The Big Bang Theory"-verse.
Just a few months after "Young Sheldon" came to an end, the "TBBT" spin-off got its own spin-off. "Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage" is a series that follows the eventually-doomed union, as the future version of Georgie (Jerry O'Connell) we meet in the original "TBBT" — which canonically takes place after the events of both spin-offs — stated that he was single. Even though the writers may not know how the couple will break up yet, it hasn't stopped the show from going strong. As of this writing, Season 2 of "Georgie & Mandy" is still ongoing and has been confirmed for another season.