Miley Stewart
Miley Ray Stewart is a fictional character and central protagonist of the Disney Channel television series Hannah Montana, portrayed by Miley Cyrus. She first appeared on television in the pilot episode "Lilly, Do You Want to Know a Secret?" on March 24, 2006, and made her last appearance on the series finale "Wherever I Go" on January 16, 2011. The character also appeared in the 2009 feature film Hannah Montana: The Movie. Miley is a normal teenage girl who, as her alter ego Hannah Montana, secretly leads a double life as a world-famous pop star.
Miley Stewart
"Lilly, Do You Want to Know a Secret?" (2006)
"Wherever I Go" (2011)
Miley Cyrus
Ryan Newman (young)
Mary-Charles Jones (young)
Miley Ray Stewart
Female
- Student
- singer-songwriter
- actress
- dancer
- spokeswoman
- Susan Stewart (mother)
- Robby Ray Stewart (father)
- Jackson Stewart (brother)
- Luann Stewart (twin cousin)
American
Conception and casting
The character was originally named Chloe Stewart but was changed to Miley Stewart.[1]
Cyrus learned about the casting for a new Disney show at the age of 11 through a Nashville talent agent. She sent in a tape auditioning for the show's best friend role, but received a call asking her to audition for the lead. After she sent in a tape and was flown to Hollywood for further auditions, Cyrus was told that she was too young and too small for the role. However, Cyrus' persistence and ability to sing in addition to act caused the show's producers to invite her back for further auditions. Producers eventually narrowed the large pool of candidates down to three actresses, including Cyrus and Taylor Momsen, and gave the part to Cyrus, then twelve.[2] According to Disney Channel president Gary Marsh, Cyrus was chosen because of her energetic and lively performance and was seen as a person who "loves every minute of life,"[3] with the "everyday relatability of Hilary Duff and the stage presence of Shania Twain."[4]
Cyrus' casting also led to the casting of her real life father, Billy Ray Cyrus, as the father of her character on the show. Cyrus was initially wary; according to her mother and co-manager, Tish Cyrus, "Miley's concern at the time was, oh my gosh, people are going to think I only got this part because of my dad."[2] However, worried that her family would otherwise have to be separated as they had been when her father first landed the lead in the television series Doc, Cyrus relented and helped audition her father for the part.[2]
Character
Backstory
Miley was born on November 23, 1992 (Cyrus' real birth date), in the fictional town of Crowley Corners in Buford County, Tennessee. Miley received a love for music from her father, who was a popular country music star. Her parents recognized Miley's potential and gave her a guitar on December 25, 2000. This event is shown in the episode "I Am Hannah, Hear Me Croak" when Miley views it on her laptop.[5]
By the time she was 12 years old, Miley had become a famous pop star under the stage name "Hannah Montana." She goes to great lengths to disguise herself as Hannah in order to keep her true identity a secret, because she is worried that if people knew her secret they would like her just because she's famous. Before revealing her secret in I'll Always Remember You, it is mentioned by Jackson, Sienna and Rico that the only people to know about her secret beside her family are Lilly and Oliver, her former bodyguard Roxy, her ex-boyfriend Jake, her current boyfriend Jesse, Sienna and all of Crowley Corners, Tennessee. However, in the episode "Hannah Montana to the Principal's Office" it is shown that the President of the United States knows her secret.
Family relationships
Miley is especially close with her father, from whom she receives much good advice and emotional support. She also values her relationships with her best friends Lilly and Oliver. However Miley is shown to be very uncomfortable with the fact that they're dating and even stops them from being a couple. Her relationship with Lilly occasionally suffers the occasional setback, but they always make up. In the episode 'What I Don't Like About You', Miley is asked to choose a side between a fight Lilly and Oliver had. But Miley, showing what a kind friend she was, made a mini-Indiana Joannie movie, which made Lilly and Oliver forgive each other. Miley's relationship with her brother Jackson is often hostile. The two siblings constantly fight and trash talk each other. However, in a few private conversations, both Miley and Jackson say that they love and appreciate each other, but they are both unwilling to admit this in public.[6]
Romantic relationships
Miley also has several dating relationships, many of which are short lived.
Oliver Oken (played by Mitchel Musso): Miley and Lilly's best male friend.
Leslie "Jake" Ryan (played by Cody Linley): Jake is a famous television star. Miley and Jake meet when he briefly attends Seaview Middle School. Jake is attracted to Miley because she is the only person at school who is not starstruck by his arrival.
Travis Brody (played by Lucas Till): Travis is a childhood friend from Tennessee.
Jesse (played by Drew Roy): Is a part of Hannah's band in episode "He Could Be The One". Hannah pretends to like Jesse, so that Robby will be thankful of Jake. But she starts to have real feelings for him.
Education
In the first season, Miley is an 8th grader at Seaview Middle School, and in the second season she enters Seaview High School. She became a sophomore in early episodes in Season 3 and later, a junior during the season before the beginning of Season 4. Despite her father offering her the option of homeschooling, Miley decided to attend public school in order to be a "normal kid," a decision she sometimes finds herself regretting.[7] Due to her double life, she is often in awkward positions and is forced to lie in order to keep her secret.
Hobbies and interests
Apart from her life as a pop star, Miley leads a very normal life. She is fond of camping[8] and hanging out at the beach, but is not at all athletic.[9] She has a fear of spiders[10] and visiting the dentist.[11] She also occasionally struggles with her schoolwork and her self-confidence. She often goes through over-the-top schemes to deal with her problems. Although she never plays instruments while performing as Hannah, Miley can play the piano and the guitar. She owns several acoustic and electric guitars, including a black strat copy she nicknamed "Whammy Bar Wally"[12] and a pink sparkle electric acoustic Stardust Series Daisy Rock guitar.[13] In Hannah Montana: The Movie, Miley plays a custom built Gibson acoustic guitar.
Beyond the series
Hannah Montana as a character has found fame beyond the television show, primarily as a recording artist and music performer. Three of the seven released soundtracks (Hannah Montana, Hannah Montana 2, and Hannah Montana: The Movie) topped the U.S. Billboard 200 chart as well as several singles credited to the character, charted on the Billboard Hot 100. "He Could Be the One" is the first, and thus far only single credited to Montana that reached the Top 10 on the Hot 100.[29] From September to October 2006, Miley Cyrus performed several songs from Hannah Montana during The Party's Just Begun Tour as an opening act for The Cheetah Girls. Then, from October 2007 to January 2008, Cyrus performed in a successful concert tour as Hannah Montana. The tour, called the Best of Both Worlds Tour, became a classic example of life imitating art as Hannah Montana's fictional popularity seen in the television show became a real-life fan base which bought out every concert. The popularity of Hannah Montana has also given Cyrus the opportunity to become a pop star in her own right.
Hannah also appears in Hannah Montana: The Movie, the Hannah Montana book series, and two other Disney Channel shows in cameo appearances. The character appeared in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody episode "That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana" along with Raven Baxter, and The Suite Life on Deck episode "Wizards on Deck With Hannah Montana" which also includes characters from Wizards of Waverly Place (although the characters from Wizards of Waverly Place and Hannah Montana never interact).