Early Life

She entered the world as Destiny Hope Cyrus, a name reflecting her parents’ optimism about her future. Her childhood nickname was Smiley because she smiled so often; Smiley became Miley, and in 2008 she legally changed her name to Miley Ray Cyrus. The middle name honored her paternal grandfather, Kentucky politician Ronald Ray Cyrus.

Cyrus grew up on a farm in Thompson’s Station, south of Nashville, in a household where show business was both glamorous and practical. Her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, had become a country star with “Achy Breaky Heart,” but the family also understood the travel, scrutiny and instability that accompany entertainment careers. Her mother, Tish, became a central figure in managing Miley’s early professional life.

Acting first took hold while Billy Ray was making the television drama “Doc” in Toronto. Miley appeared in the series and studied acting there. Her first film role followed in Tim Burton’s “Big Fish,” where she was credited under her birth name. Music remained inseparable from family life, particularly through her godmother Dolly Parton, who later appeared on Hannah Montana and recorded with her.

At 11, Cyrus submitted an audition for the role of Lilly, the lead character’s best friend, in a proposed Disney Channel series. Producers redirected her toward the central role but initially considered her too young. Her persistence, comic timing and singing ability eventually won them over. By the time Hannah Montana premiered in 2006, the lead character had been renamed Miley Stewart, bringing performer and part unusually close together.

Family

Parents

• Billy Ray Cyrus — country singer, songwriter and actor
• Tish Cyrus-Purcell — producer and former manager

Siblings

• Brandi Cyrus — older maternal half-sister, adopted by Billy Ray; television personality and podcast host
• Trace Cyrus — older maternal half-brother, adopted by Billy Ray; musician associated with Metro Station
• Christopher Cody Cyrus — paternal half-brother
• Braison Cyrus — younger brother, musician and actor
• Noah Cyrus — younger sister, Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter

Career

Hannah Montana was built around a fantasy of compartmentalized fame: an ordinary teenager could put on a blond wig, become a superstar and still return to school. For Cyrus, the boundary was never so tidy. The series became a global Disney franchise, its soundtracks topped charts, and the Best of Both Worlds Tour generated such intense demand that a 3D concert film was rushed into theaters. Before she was old enough to vote, Cyrus was carrying a television series, recording albums, selling merchandise and performing for arenas filled with children and parents.

Her first decisive step away from the character came with 2008’s “Breakout,” her first album not attached to Hannah Montana. It was followed by the enormous single “Party in the U.S.A.,” the film “The Last Song” and the more adult-minded album “Can’t Be Tamed.” That transition was commercially uneven, but it established a pattern: Cyrus would rather risk overcorrecting than remain trapped in an image that had become comfortable for everyone except her.

The transformation reached its loudest point in 2013. “We Can’t Stop,” the “Wrecking Ball” video and her much-discussed MTV Video Music Awards performance made the “Bangerz” era impossible to ignore. The uproar often obscured the music. Produced with figures including Mike Will Made-It and Pharrell Williams, “Bangerz” moved her decisively into contemporary pop and hip-hop production. “Wrecking Ball” became her first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1, while its exposed vocal performance demonstrated that spectacle was not the only reason people were watching.

Instead of repeating that formula, Cyrus swerved again. She released the psychedelic, deliberately unruly “Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz” for free after hosting the 2015 VMAs. Created in close collaboration with members of the Flaming Lips, the album confused part of her mainstream audience but expanded her creative independence. “Younger Now” followed in 2017 with country-pop textures and the reflective single “Malibu.” Neither era had the sustained commercial force of “Bangerz,” yet both helped dismantle the assumption that Cyrus could be understood through one genre.

Her plans for a three-part project beginning with the 2019 EP “She Is Coming” were disrupted by personal upheaval, the loss of her Malibu home in the Woolsey Fire and vocal-cord surgery. The abandoned rollout became another turning point. When she returned with “Plastic Hearts” in 2020, the raspy depth of her voice finally had an album designed around it. Billy Idol, Joan Jett and Dua Lipa appeared as collaborators, and Cyrus’s covers of songs by artists such as Blondie, the Cranberries and Metallica reinforced her credibility as a live rock vocalist. The record reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart.

Then came a quieter form of domination. “Flowers,” released in 2023 as the lead single from “Endless Summer Vacation,” did not depend on shock or reinvention. It paired a self-sufficient lyric with an understated disco-funk arrangement and one of the most assured vocals of her career. The song spent eight nonconsecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and earned Cyrus her first Grammy victories, for Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance. The wins mattered because they represented industry recognition for an artist who had been famous for nearly 20 years but was frequently discussed more as a cultural event than as a musician.

Her collaborative instincts have remained broad. She has worked with Dolly Parton, Mark Ronson, Stevie Nicks, Elton John, Metallica, Pharrell Williams and Beyoncé. Her duet with Beyoncé, “II Most Wanted,” won the 2025 Grammy for Best Country Duo/Group Performance, linking Cyrus’s pop career back to the country environment in which she was raised.

The 2025 album and visual project “Something Beautiful” extended her interest in creating complete worlds rather than simply releasing collections of singles. Its cinematic presentation also brought together several strands of her career: music, performance, fashion and direction. Against that backdrop, the Hollywood Bowl concert felt less like a comeback from obscurity than a return to a part of the job she had deliberately made rare.

Television

• Doc (2001–2003) — Kylie
• Hannah Montana (2006–2011) — Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana
• Saturday Night Live (2011–2021) — Host and musical guest
• Two and a Half Men (2012) — Missi
• The Voice (2016–2017) — Advisor and coach
• Crisis in Six Scenes (2016) — Lennie Dale
• Black Mirror (2019) — Ashley O
• Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party (2021–2023) — Co-host, performer and executive producer
• Endless Summer Vacation (Backyard Sessions) (2023) — Performer and executive producer

Filmography

• Big Fish (2003) — Young Ruthie
• Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert (2008) — Herself/Hannah Montana
• Bolt (2008) — Penny
• Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009) — Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana
• The Last Song (2010) — Ronnie Miller
• LOL (2012) — Lola Williams
• So Undercover (2012) — Molly Morris
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) — Mainframe
• Drive-Away Dolls (2024) — Tiffany Plastercaster
• Miley Cyrus: Something Beautiful (2025) — Herself; co-director

Awards & Honors

• 2009 — Golden Globe Awards (Best Original Song – Motion Picture) — Nominated
• 2014 — MTV Video Music Awards (Video of the Year) — Won
• 2015 — Grammy Awards (Best Pop Vocal Album) — Nominated
• 2024 — Grammy Awards (Record of the Year) — Won
• 2024 — Grammy Awards (Best Pop Solo Performance) — Won
• 2024 — Grammy Awards (Song of the Year) — Nominated
• 2024 — Grammy Awards (Album of the Year) — Nominated
• 2024 — BRIT Awards (International Song of the Year) — Won
• 2025 — Grammy Awards (Best Country Duo/Group Performance) — Won
• 2025 — Golden Globe Awards (Best Original Song – Motion Picture) — Nominated

Business Ventures

• Cyrus and her mother, Tish, launched HopeTown Entertainment in 2009. The company was involved with projects including “The Last Song.”
• She has served as an executive producer on music specials, New Year’s Eve broadcasts and visual projects connected to her albums.
• Cyrus collaborated with Converse on footwear and apparel collections, including a campaign supporting LGBTQ inclusion.
• She became a prominent face of Gucci Beauty’s Flora fragrance line, appearing in campaigns for Gucci Flora Gorgeous Gardenia.
• Her Backyard Sessions performance format developed from intimate online videos into a recognizable platform for collaborations, album promotion and charitable visibility.

Philanthropy

• Cyrus founded the Happy Hippie Foundation to support young people experiencing homelessness, LGBTQ youth and other vulnerable communities.
• At the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards, she sent youth-homelessness advocate Jesse Helt to accept the Video of the Year award, directing attention toward services for homeless young people.
• Through Happy Hippie, the Backyard Sessions have paired music with fundraising and awareness campaigns involving artists including Joan Jett, Ariana Grande and Laura Jane Grace.
• After Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth lost their Malibu home in the 2018 Woolsey Fire, they donated $500,000 through Happy Hippie to the Malibu Foundation.
• She performed at the 2017 One Love Manchester benefit following the bombing outside Ariana Grande’s concert.
• Cyrus performed “The Climb” at the 2018 March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C., supporting student-led efforts against gun violence.
• She has also supported organizations and campaigns associated with Make-A-Wish, AIDS research, disaster relief and food insecurity.

Current Projects

• “Something Beautiful,” her ninth studio album, continues her movement toward cinematic, album-length storytelling rather than a singles-only pop campaign.
• The companion film “Miley Cyrus: Something Beautiful” places Cyrus behind the camera as a co-director as well as in front of it as the central performer.
• Her Hollywood Bowl appearance marks a renewed live chapter, although her recent career has favored selective performances and specials over a conventional, continuous arena tour.
• Her award-winning collaboration with Beyoncé on “II Most Wanted” has strengthened the country connection running beneath her pop and rock catalog.

Interesting Facts

• Her birth name was Destiny Hope Cyrus. The nickname Smiley was shortened to Miley, which became her legal first name in 2008.
• The name Ray honors her grandfather Ronald Ray Cyrus, a Kentucky politician known publicly as Ron Cyrus.
• She originally auditioned to play Lilly, Hannah Montana’s best friend, rather than the lead role.
• Disney executives initially considered her too young for Hannah Montana before bringing her back into the casting process.
• Dolly Parton is her godmother and played the recurring character Aunt Dolly on Hannah Montana.
• Cyrus was credited as Destiny Cyrus for her small role in Tim Burton’s “Big Fish.”
• She co-wrote and performed “I Thought I Lost You” for “Bolt,” earning a Golden Globe nomination while still in her teens.
• “Wrecking Ball” was her first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1, arriving seven years after Hannah Montana premiered.
• Her 2015 album “Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz” was released online for free immediately after the MTV Video Music Awards.
• The Black Mirror song “On a Roll” reworked elements of Nine Inch Nails’ “Head Like a Hole” with the approval of Trent Reznor.
• Cyrus underwent vocal-cord surgery in 2019. She has since discussed adjusting her technique to protect the distinctive lower register of her adult voice.
• The 2018 Woolsey Fire destroyed the Malibu home she shared with Liam Hemsworth and also consumed recordings and personal archives.
• “Plastic Hearts” became her first No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart.
• “Flowers” reached 100 million Spotify streams faster than any song had previously done at the time of its release.
• She waited until 2024 to win her first Grammy despite having been a major recording star since the mid-2000s.
• At 31, Cyrus became the youngest recipient of Disney Legend status in 2024.
• Her 2025 Grammy for “II Most Wanted” joined the country heritage of her childhood with the pop careers of Cyrus and Beyoncé.
• The visual film for “Something Beautiful” lists Cyrus as a co-director, extending her role beyond singer and on-screen performer.

Why ShowBiz Selected This Entertainer

Miley Cyrus is featured this week because her emotional Hollywood Bowl concert was more than a high-profile night out. It was a rare opportunity to see her reclaim the scale of a solo concert after years in which major live appearances had become increasingly selective.

The setting also revealed the unusual breadth of her audience. Adults who once took children to Hannah Montana concerts now stood alongside listeners who know Cyrus chiefly as the singer of “Flowers.” Songs associated with radically different public identities can now coexist in one set because she has outlasted the arguments about which version of Miley Cyrus was supposed to be authentic.

That is the significance of her return. She no longer needs to destroy an old image every time she introduces a new one. The Disney performer, country-raised songwriter, pop provocateur, rock interpreter and Grammy-winning vocalist have become parts of the same career. At the Hollywood Bowl, the emotion came not only from being back onstage, but from hearing two decades of reinvention settle into a coherent body of work.

Watch Next

• Hannah Montana — selected early episodes and the series finale show the role that created the phenomenon.
• Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert — a record of her first arena-scale peak.
• The Last Song — her most important early attempt to establish herself as a dramatic film lead.
• Miley: The Movement — an MTV documentary capturing the pressure and planning behind the “Bangerz” transformation.
• Black Mirror: “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too” — a pointed use of her child-star history in a story about manufactured pop.
• The 2012 Backyard Sessions performance of “Jolene” — an early showcase for the rock and country power of her adult voice.
• Plastic Hearts performances and covers — the clearest introduction to her rock era.
• Endless Summer Vacation (Backyard Sessions) — a restrained companion to the album that produced “Flowers.”
• Miley Cyrus: Something Beautiful — the visual expression of her latest studio era.