Miley Cyrus

Miley Ray Cyrus is an American musician and singer-songwriter. She is a former Disney child actor, known for having starred in the show Hannah Montana from 2006 to 2011. Cyrus has released several studio albums as both herself and the character Hannah Montana. She began as a pop artist but has since explored several other music genres, including country and rock. Cyrus began moving away from acting after Hannah Montana ended to focus on her career as a musician.

Cyrus was born Destiny Hope Cyrus on November 23, 1992, in Franklin, Tennessee. Her parents are Tish Cyrus and country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. She was given the name Destiny Hope because her parents hoped she would achieve greatness. Cyrus was raised in Thompson's Station, Tennessee. Her siblings are Brandi, Trace, Noah, and Braison Cyrus. Brandi and Trace are Cyrus's half-siblings from their mother's previous marriage. Her grandfather was former Democratic politician Ron Cyrus. Country singer Dolly Parton is Cyrus's godmother.

When Cyrus was eight, her family moved to Toronto for her father's acting role in the TV series Doc. One night during that time, he took her to see a production of Mamma Mia! While watching the first act of the show, Cyrus told him she wanted to become an actress. Her first acting role was in Doc alongside her father.

Cyrus as Hannah Montana.

Cyrus's career began with her first major acting role in Hannah Montana as the lead character: a teenage girl named Miley Stewart, who lived as a regular girl by day and an undercover pop star named Hannah Montana by night. Cyrus auditioned for the show when she was eleven, initially for the role of the lead's best friend; she was later asked to audition for the lead. The show also starred Billy Ray Cyrus as Miley's father, Robby Ray Stewart. Hannah Montana aired from 2006-2011 with four seasons. Hannah Montana: The Movie was released in 2009.

During the show's running, Cyrus embarked on the Best of Both Worlds Tour where she toured musically as both herself and Hannah Montana. The tour ran from October 2007 to January 2008, in promotion of the double-disc album Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus. During the Hannah Montana years, Cyrus released two more studio albums and an EP––Breakout, Can't Be Tamed, and The Time of Our Lives, respectively––under her own name. These albums, which had noticeably more mature themes and lyrics than her music as Hannah Montana, marked the shift in Cyrus's public image from a perceived innocent Disney child actor to a provocative young pop star. Her "child star gone bad" image has been likened to those of stars like Britney Spears, Amanda Bynes, and Lindsay Lohan.

The majority of Cyrus's acting gigs fell during the Hannah Montana era, from 2006 to 2012. During that time, she was a guest star on shows like The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, The Suite Life on Deck, and Two and a Half Men. In 2010, she starred in The Last Song, a Nicholas Sparks movie based on his book of the same title. She met her now ex-husband, Liam Hemsworth, on the set. In 2012, she starred in the movies LOL and So Undercover, both of which received negative reviews from critics. The Last Song was also poorly rated by critics, but well-received by audiences.

Cyrus performing with Robin Thicke at the 2013 MTV VMAs.

After Hannah Montana ended, Cyrus continued to pursue music and acting. Her controversial new image was greater defined by the release of her album Bangerz in 2013, which sold over 270,000 copies in the first week of its release and topped the Billboard 200 list. Cyrus was the subject of significant public attention and criticism for her performance with singer Robin Thicke at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. The performance, which involved Cyrus twerking in a nude bikini and other sexually suggestive acts, garnered mixed to negative reactions from critics and audiences. The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) received over 150 complaints regarding the performance. Shortly after the incident, Cyrus said critics were "overthinking it." She also stated, "I don't pay attention to the negative because I've seen this play out so many times." However, she later admitted the subsequent public shaming negatively affected her body image for several years. In 2018, Cyrus said of the event, “Not only was culture changed, but my life and career were changed forever.”

This era also marked the near end of her acting career. In 2014, Cyrus stated, "I'm just not passionate about acting because I don't like to pretend to be somebody I'm actually not." She has held four acting roles since 2015, the latest being Black Mirror in 2019. Her next album, Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz, was released in 2015 for free on SoundCloud. It received mixed reviews, mostly negative. Negative reviews describe the album as "woozy," "nonsensical," "confusing," and "a huge mess." In March 2016, Cyrus announced she would be a new coach in season eleven of The Voice. She was also a coach in season thirteen.

The release of Cyrus's sixth studio album, Younger Now, in 2017 marked a new shift in image, one that was more positively accepted by critics than the Bangerz era was. Younger Now is a mix of pop-rock and country music described as "toned-down," "earthy," and "positive" in comparison to her previous two albums. In 2020, Cyrus said the album's era "didn't make sense" to her and that she lost her identity while working on the record.

A couple of years ago, it looked like I was living some fairy tale. It really wasn’t. At that time, my experimentation with drugs and booze and the circle of people around me was not fulfilling or sustainable or ever going to get me to my fullest potential and purpose… there’s an idea that during the Younger Now era, I was pure. The media likes to have my hair or what I look like be the point of reference for my sanity."––Miley Cyrus on the Younger Now era

Cyrus's next release was the extended play She Is Coming in 2019. She originally planned to release two more EPs that year to form a trilogy titled She is: Miley Cyrus, but decided not to release them after determining they had little relevance to her life anymore, after her home in California was destroyed in a wildfire. She Is Coming received mixed reviews. It was called "carefree" and "fun" in comparison to Cyrus's past records. Some critics described the album as a union of her past personas that depicted her true identity, while others criticized Cyrus for yet another "genre flip-flop."

Plastic Hearts, released in November 2020, was described as a rock album. Several songs on the album are collaborations with well-known rock stars, including Joan Jett, Stevie Nicks, and Billy Idol. The album received mostly positive reviews, and critics praised Cyrus for finding a new sound that worked for her. Plastic Hearts made history on iTunes when every track on the album reached number one on an iTunes chart in at least one country in the world. The Rolling Stones ranked it number twenty-three on their “Best Albums of 2020” list.

Attention: Miley Live is a live album by Cyrus released in April 2022. The album's tracklist is primarily made up of tracks from her past studio albums, as well as covers of other songs. Only two tracks on the album were unreleased originals. The live recordings are taken from Cyrus’s performance at the Bud Light Super Bowl Music Fest in February 2022. Like Plastic Hearts, Attention: Miley Live received positive reviews and praise for the continuation of Cyrus's new rock sound.

In January 2008, Cyrus legally changed her name to Miley Ray Cyrus. Miley is a derivative of her childhood nickname Smiley, and Ray was the middle name of her grandfather Ron Cyrus.

Cyrus married actor Liam Hemsworth in December 2018. The two had been dating on and off since meeting on the set of The Last Song in 2008. In August 2019, the couple announced their divorce, which was finalized in January 2020.

• Big Fish (2003)
• Bolt (2008)
• Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009)
• Sex and the City 2 (2010)
• The Last Song (2010)
• So Undercover (2012)
• LOL (2012)
• The Night Before (2015)

• Doc (2001-2003)
• The Suite Life of Zack and Cody (2006)
• The Replacements (2007)
• The Emperor's New School (2007-2008)
• The Suite Life on Deck (2009)
• Hannah Montana (2006-2011)
• Two and a Half Men (2012)
• Stone Quackers (2015)
• Crisis in Six Scenes (2017)
• Black Mirror (2019)

• Meet Miley Cyrus (2007)
• Breakout (2008)
• Can't Be Tamed (2010)
• Bangerz (2013)
• Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz (2015)
• Younger Now (2017)
• Plastic Hearts (2020)

• The Time of Our Lives (2009)
• She Is Coming (2019)

• Hannah Montana (2006)
• Hannah Montana 2 (2007)
• Hannah Montana 3 (2009)
• Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009)
• Hannah Montana Forever (2010)