Destiny Hope Cyrus was born 30 years ago in Tennessee, USA and is a singer, songwriter and actress.
Country music singer Billy Ray Cyrus is her dad whilst singer Dolly Parton is her godmother. As an infant, her parents used to call her ‘smiley’ since she smiled a lot and this nickname was abbreviated to ‘miley’, hence her current name.
At the age of 9, her father took her to see a theatrical production of ‘Mamma Mia!’ and afterwards she told him that she wanted to become an actress. So, she started attending an acting studio to take singing and acting lessons.
In 2001, her dad filmed the TV series ‘Doc’ and Miley experienced her first acting role. This was followed by another role 2 years later in the movie ‘The Big Fish’, for which she was credited for. Then, at 13 years old, Miley auditioned for the famous teen sitcom ‘Hannah Montana’ and succeeded in obtaining the leading role thanks to her acting and singing potential. This sitcom ran for almost 5 years, during which time Miley became a teen idol.
Regarding music, Miley states that she was inspired by several famous singers like Madonna, Dolly Parton, Britney Spears and Whitney Houston, to name a few, but her greatest influence was Elvis Presley. She is best known for her unique, husky voice and sings in various music genres including hip hop, rock, pop/country pop.
As ‘Hannah Montana’, Miley released 13 albums and 14 singles plus 10 albums, 52 singles and 4 EPs as herself. She also achieved an impressive 89 awards out of 246 nominations.
Miley is also a huge philanthropist and supports numerous charities. She also created the Happy Hippie Foundation, which mainly supports homeless, LGBTQ and other vulnerable adolescents.