Teen star Miley Cyrus is the daughter of Leticia and Billy Ray Cyrus the country musician. She was born on November 23 1992 with the name Destiny Cyrus, but got the nickname Miley because she was always smiling!

Miley began acting when she was only nine years old when she starred in her dad’s TV show “Doc” and then later in the Ewan McGregor movie “Big Fish” directed by Tim Burton.

At the age of 12 Miley auditioned for two roles on Disney’s new show Hannah Montana - both for the lead role of Hannah Montana and also as the lead character’s best friend. But Disney casting directors thought she was too young and too small for the role.

But Miley was detirmined to land one of the parts and begged the Disney executives to re-consider casting her. After some discussion, the executives decided to overcome their previous concerns and cast Miley in the lead role of Hannah Montana. They even cast Miley’s real dad Billy Ray as her dad in the show too!

In the show, Miley stars as Miley Stewart, who has a secret life as international pop princess Hannah Montana. Only her family and two best friends know about Miley’s secret double life!

The Hannah Montana show on the Disney Channel has allowed Miley to rise from a Hollywood nobody to an international celebrity in only three years! Since starring in the show, Miley has starred in the TV movie “The Emporer’s New School” and her first major role was as the voice of Penny in Disney’s huge new animation “Bolt.” She also had a cameo appearance in “High School Musical 2.”

Since beginning the show, Miley has also starred in the recent Hannah Montana concert-movie “The Best Of Both Worlds” and performs as Hannah Montana at huge live concert events all around the world.

For the future, Miley has lots of acting projects under development. Some include a movie-length Hannah Montana film (based on the show’s characters not the music) and a sequel to the 70s movie “Adventures in Babysitting” which is due out in 2010 starring another teen star Raven-Symone!

Now that Miley is growing up, she is keen to shake off her “family” image that she gained from “Hannah Montana” and take on more serious acting and music projects. Only time will tell whether Miley will make it as a long-term success!