There’s a lot of “new” happening in actress Toni Trucks’ life right now. Obviously, it’s a new year. Her starring role as Lisa Davis on the CBS hit series SEAL Team brings with it a new challenge every week. She’s becoming a new mom, which means experiencing a new body. There’s also the question of new priorities, given her new attitude with motherhood. But what isn’t new is Toni’s service-driven heart at the foundation of all that she does.

It seems befitting that someone who is service-oriented would be drawn to playing a military role, but the connection Toni initially made with Davis ran deeper. “Sometimes when I read too much shoot-’em-up stuff I just kind of zone out,” admits Toni. “What I loved about the SEAL Team script is I immediately cared about all the characters. And what I loved about Davis, in particular, is what an expert she was—there was no hesitation in her. She was just so confident, good at her job, and knew it. And not knowing a ton about women in the military, I’m like, ‘Yes, of course that’s who these women are.’ It just seemed like such a wonderful person to try on their shoes and see the world from their perspective.”

Every week, SEAL Team attempts to portray authentic stories about the United States military while showing reverence to the fact that it is a living, breathing, growing, and changing entity. As of 2020, the Council on Foreign Relations estimates that “women represent 16 percent of the enlisted forces and 19 percent of the officer corps.” “Obviously, that’s wildly outnumbered,” recognizes Toni. “I just thought, these are stories that we’re not telling, and they’re an important story to tell.”

Playing a servicewoman, Toni grasps that this minority has its own challenges. “The women have their own living, breathing obstacles within the military and I was so interested in seeing how one navigates that professionally, personally. The toll it’s taking on their body, their mind. And so, I was really excited to play Davis for all of those reasons and, hopefully, do these women proud around the world!”

Embodying Davis for five seasons has allowed Toni to reveal and better understand her character’s inner workings as well as her own. “Over time, I think I have seen, not dissimilarly from Davis, that the relationships that you make along the way can really serve you not just professionally, but they’re serving you and your health as a human being.” Serving others can be as helpful to them as it is gratifying to oneself, and Toni has always prioritized giving in various facets.

Among her many charitable works, the actress recently partnered with Military Made for the Toni Trucks’ Special Holiday Gift Box, which launched in October 2021 and partially benefits Hiring America Serves. Military Made’s “whole initiative is to engage, support veteran- and military spouse-owned small businesses,” she shares. “I think sometimes on TV and in movies, we get this really tunnel-vision view of what the military is, what it looks like, the people that are involved in it,” she imparts.

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“Women are often excluded from that narrative, and also the diversity is excluded. So when I was introduced to Military Made, I thought, ‘What a wonderful opportunity to celebrate people that have made the transition from military life into entrepreneurship!’ Also to highlight how wildly different they all are,” she emphasizes, in addition to “how their creativity is being harnessed post-military, active-duty. And some of them, actually, are still active-duty, but you see the interest and the creativity go so far. And I just love the whole concept, being able to, also, obviously support small businesses.”

The box featured a wide variety of products and fell under a family-centered theme designed to bring people together. Items for everyone included an outdoor game, a television gift card, a cookbook, and a children’s book with a matching stuffed animal.There were even pet treats! Not to mention, there were a couple of self-care indulgences for him and her, such as shaving soap and holiday-inspired tea. Military Made drives revenue back to the veteran and military community, yet the spirit of supporting small businesses reiterates Toni’s service-mindedness, too.

“I have a Midwestern spirit,” Toni explains. “I grew up in a tiny, tiny town called Manistee in Northern Michigan, and so much of, I think, our love language in the Midwest tends to be acts of service,” she rationalizes, referencing the “What can I do for you?” mentality. “You don’t come to a party empty-handed, you know? There’s lots of baking involved,” she chuckles. “Like, it’s really how you express yourself, and I’ve discovered that it is this balance of doing for others but then making sure you’re carving out time for yourself, and although my sort of automatic pilot is to do for others, I find that I require solitude to truly recharge my battery.”

Taking care of others starts with taking care of oneself—on whatever level or in whatever manner one so requires. In true introvert fashion, Toni possesses an innate ability to recharge from within, but prioritizing necessary me-time is what allows that to happen. For Toni, self-care includes embracing quiet solitude as much as favorite products. Pregnancy entails giving up a lot of things that would traditionally fall under the self-care umbrella, yet Toni’s wellness routine hasn’t changed much, as she has followed an ingredient-conscious beauty regimen for some time.

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“I already was using a very clean brand by a woman named Linda Ross for my normal everyday skincare. Linda Ross really heavily, heavily vets everything for just extra junk in products,” explains Toni. “At work, we use pretty clean products. And in my everyday life, I’m not a person that normally wears makeup every day, so it hasn’t been too hard of a transition,” Toni goes on. She’s a “wash my face, do the moisturizing, and then put on some Fresh [brand] lip gloss,” kind of gal.

I spend so much of my day where people are kind of manipulating me,” she says, referring to getting prepped with the hair, makeup, and wardrobe departments on-set. “They spend an hour on my face. They spend an hour on my hair. And then I’m wearing somebody else’s clothes all day. So there is this kind of wonderful relief on days off, where I really go off the model of leaving myself alone.” Even Toni has to remind herself, “You are just fine the way you are today. You don’t need any extra zhuzhing.”

Toni clearly embraces her person—mind and body—in countless ways. An avid Pilates-goer, she has taken to prenatal Pilates in recent months. “I love Pilates so much! It just makes me feel strong and stretchy. And to go into Pilates and to realize that some new force in your body has come in and stolen all of your core muscles is shocking to me!” she laughs. Even after graduating to the point of needing help to put on socks and shoes (which Toni humorously refers to as her real-world Cinderella moment), she’ll miss this nine-month chapter of her life.

“It’s been great! I haven’t had any wild food cravings. I have just been really enjoying it. And now, as I approached the end here, I am … really going to miss this. I really want to enjoy this time. It’s nice to never be alone, in a way. I know that kind of goes against what I said before,” she acknowledges, “but I’ve got this new normal of even when I’m alone, I’m not alone. I’ve got another heartbeat in me. This little boy moves around. He does a somersault every once in a while, and it’s a really wild, wonderful, magical experience.”

Toni and her boyfriend, actor and comedian Brandon Phillips, have learned firsthand that new babies come with a lot of new equipment, so her compulsive list-making tendency is making the preparation process a bit more manageable. “We’re checking off a lot of lists, but I don’t know if it’s truly sunken in how our lives are going to change,” she concedes. The couple discovered an app that’s basically the Tinder equivalent for finding baby names. “So you keep getting names, and swiping left or right on them, and if you and your partner match, they let you know, which is so funny!”

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The anticipation of meeting her little boy is something she’s truly relishing. “You always hear people say that everything will change in an instant,” Toni begins. “I always think of the Grinch, at the end of The Grinch, where they say his heart grew. I just keep waiting, and I’m excited about that. I’m excited for my mind and my heart to be totally blown. Like that whole perspective shift … I’m excited about that sort of paradox shift. Your whole world changes, and I think all of the relationships in your orbit change.”

At the start of a new calendar, in Toni’s experience, “everybody says, ‘What are your resolutions? What do you want to do different?’” Speaking of one of her cousins, “we send each other our resolutions with some sort of loose accountability that’s never panned out.” But this year, “I am really looking forward to … emotionally having it not be about me and going into a new space that is more family-centered,” the new mom shares.

“I think also, as an actor, we are the sum of our experiences. So you’re always getting better because we always have new experiences to draw on. This is a monumental experience that I would have never been able to truly draw on from before. So, I’m very much looking forward to how this shift will impact my work, as well—how I’ll grow as an entertainer and as an artist because of what’s going to happen so soon into this new year. New year, new attitude, new energy. I think you just can’t help but be changed by that, and I’m really choosing to have all those changes be an exciting notion.” The year 2022 will certainly give love a new meaning for Toni Trucks.

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Features Editor Elisabeth Ross
Photographer Rowan Daly
Production Marque PR
Stylist Michelle Wu
Hair Diane Dusting
Makeup Saisha Beecham