Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus catapulted to fame early on in her life and became one of the undebatable capital-p pop stars of the early 21st century. Her career trajectory, from squeaky clean Disney kid to raunchy drugged out weirdo was a familiar one, but at the end of the day, she was just being Miley. Born Destiny Hope Cyrus on November 23, 1992 in Franklin, TN, Cyrus was the daughter of country music singer Billy Ray Cyrus and Tish Finley. Due to her infectious happiness as an infant, she soon earned the nickname Smiley, which was eventually shortened to Miley. A year after her birth, Billy Ray and Tish were secretly married, against the advice of his management, who feared his female fan base would revolt.

Cyrus spent most of her childhood in Thompson's Station, TN. In 2001, the family moved to Ontario, CA, after Billy Ray was cast in the TV medical drama "Doc" (Pax TV, 2001-2004). While attending a live production of "Mamma Mia!" with her father at the Royal Alexandra Theater in Toronto, Cyrus decided that she wanted to be an actor. She soon landed a brief cameo on an episode of "Doc," and was next cast as "Young Ruthie" in Tim Burton 's domestic fairy tale " Big Fish" (2003). With mother Tish serving as her manager, Cyrus signed with Mitchell Gossett of Cunningham Escott Slevin Doherty for her acting career, and Jason Morey of Morey Management Group for her music career.

In 2003, Cyrus auditioned for a new series in development with Disney Channel called " Hannah Montana" (Disney Channel, 2006-2011 ), but at 11 years old, she was initially turned down for being too young. However, after being unable to find another young performer with her acting and singing chops, producers cast her in the role of Miley Stewart, a normal high school student by day who lives a double life by night as the titular pop sensation. Upon its debut in 2006, the show was an instant smash, becoming one of the highest rated series on basic cable.

Cyrus embarked on a tour as Hannah Montana with the Cheetah Girls , and Walt Disney Records released an album "by Hannah Montana'' in October of 2006. The following year, Cyrus signed with Hollywood Records to distribute music under his own name. Her debut album, "Meet Miley Cyrus" (2007) was a double album, with disc one by "Hannah Montana" and disc two credited to Cyrus. The album went triple platinum, and the ensuing world tour was a resounding success, resulting in the 3D concert film "Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert" (2008).

Cyrus's first album outside of the Disney machine was aptly titled "Breakout" (2008), and came alongside her first of many brushes with controversy: a hacker leaked photos of Cyrus in her underwear, and an erroneous story was reported that the fifteen-year -old had posed topless for a Vanity Fair photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz (in reality, she was wrapped in bedsheets.) The controversy helped propel the album to the top of the Billboard 200. Next up was the highly successful release of " Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009).

Cyrus unexpectedly scrapped all of the material and ended her relationship with Hollywood Records. She also turned heads by cutting off her long brown hair in favor of a bottle blonde pixie cut. 2013 was arguably the biggest year of Cyrus's career: she signed withBritney Spears's manager, Larry Rudolph , and entered into a new contract with RCA Records. Hoping to take her music in more of a hip-hop influenced direction, Cyrus began recording her next album with producers such as Pharrell Williams and Mike Will Made It . The album's first two singles, "We Can't Stop" and "Wrecking Ball" were both huge hits, but her pre-release performance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, which saw a scantily-clad Cyrus performing fellatio on a foam finger, twerking with her tongue out, and grinding against guest performer Robin Thicke, caused all sorts of outrage and derision. But once again, the controversy worked in her favor, turning her fourth album, "Bangerz" (2013) into a smash hit.

Cyrus just kept letting her freak flag fly, following up "Bangerz" with a collaboration with the weirdo psych rock act The Flaming Lips . This began with Cyrus appearing on the band's full album cover of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," but eventually turned into a full-length collaborative album, "Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz" (2015), which Cyrus released on her own label, Smiley Miley. Inspired by Pink Floyd and Portishead, the album was met with confusion and derision by Cyrus's teen fanbase. While promoting the record, Cyrus sported dreadlocks, which drew accusations of cultural appropriation. Cyrus closed out the year by coming out as pansexual, and establishing the Happy Hippie Foundation to support homeless and LGBTQ+ youth.

2016 was a strange year for Cyrus: she spent it working on her fifth album, appearing on the reality competition " The Voice " ( NBC, 2011-) and co-starring in Woody Allen's much maligned Amazon TV series "Crisis in Six Scenes" ( Amazon Studios, 2016). In September of 2017, Cyrus released her fifth album, "Younger Now" (2017). Inspired by 60s and 70s pop and country, the album was met with lukewarm reviews and sales.

Cyrus continued to branch out, starring in an episode of the anthology horror series "Black Mirror " (Channel 4, 2011-2013/ Netflix, 2014-), marrying her on-again-off-again beau Liam Hemsworth, and recording her sixth album, "She Is Miley Cyrus" (2019), which was released as three separate EPs: "She Is Coming," "She Is Here," and "She Is Everything." Less than one year after their marriage, she and Hemsworth divorced, and Cyrus released two singles addressing the end of their relationship: "Slide Away" and "Don't Call Me Angel." She has since performed in many television specials, including "Miley's New Year's Eve Party" (NBC, 2022) with her godmother, Dolly Parton.