Born to country singer/actor Billy Ray Cyrus and his wife Leticia "Tish" Cyrus, Miley Cyrus was named Destiny Hope Cyrus upon her parents' hopes that she would accomplish great things in life. Frequently smiling as a youngster, she then obtained the nickname of "Miley" which was directed from the word "smiley." And so, people began to notice the young, beautiful and talented star simply as Miley Cyrus.

She later changed her birth name to Miley Ray Cyrus in honor of her father. Born in Franklin, Tennessee on November 23, 1992, the girl was raised on her parents' farm in the backwoods of Nashville. She initially attended Heritage Middle School before having a private tutor. She has a younger brother, Braison, a younger sister, Noah Cyrus, who is also an actress, two older half-brothers, Christopher Cody and Trace Cyrus and an older half-sister named Brandi Cyrus.

Finding herself interested in acting at mere age of nine, Miley had her acting debut in an episode of her father's television series "Doc" in 2003, playing the guest role of a girl named Kylie. In the same year, she got a small role in Tim Burton-directed film "Big Fish" in which she played Young Ruthie.

Developing an interest in music prior to her acting career, Miley, who began writing songs and learning to sing while still a preteen, got a chance to explore her music skills when she was tapped to be featured in Rhonda Vincent's music video for "If Heartaches Have Wings" and to appear on "Colgate Country Showdown," a TV program which her father was hosting.

It was not until she was cast on Disney Channel's original series, "Hannah Montana", that she gained her nationwide popularity for playing a teenage girl with a double life. She was 12 when she auditioned for the role. Besides landing her eyes on the titular character, Miley aimed for the best friend's role. But because she was deemed too small by the executives, she failed the first round. Nevertheless, the execs changed their mind and cast the girl who "loves every minute of her life" as Hannah Montana.

Debuted on Disney Channel on March 24, 2006, the children's TV series quickly became an immediate success among viewers and was soon followed with the release of a soundtrack CD, "Hannah Montana", on October 24 via Walt Disney Records. The set featured Miley as Hannah Montana, singing eight songs from the show along with five related tracks, including a duet with her father Billy Ray on "I Learned from You". The compilation was another success, named the eighth best-selling album of the year in the U.S., with nearly 3.2 million copies sold worldwide.

The actress/singer spent the rest of the year serving as the opening act for a girl group The Cheetah Girls on 20 dates of their 39-cities tour. In March the following year, "Hannah Montana" was reissued in a special edition featuring a bonus DVD, not long after the show's theme song, "The Best of Both Worlds", was released as a single.

Miley had her first LP, a double album titled "Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus", hit the market on June 26, 2007. Debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 326,000 copies sold in its first week, the set racked up about 1.5 million copies worldwide by mid-year and thus was certified Platinum.

In the peak of her career, scandal hit her when a series of her racy pictures leaked out on the Internet. As a role model for teens, Miley was criticized for setting a bad example. This would be put on scrutiny more when she posed for Vanity Fair half-naked, although she apologized later on.

Due to her enormous success, Miley was granted the title of the 59th "Most Influential People" list made and released by Time magazine in May 2008 as well as landing herself at No. 35 on the list of "2008 Forbes Celebrity 100" with an estimated earnings of $25 million during June 2007 to June 2008. Her wax figure on Madame Tussauds was also unveiled in March 2008.

Miley's career was just in the making though. A plan on big screen version of "Hannah Montana" was quickly developed and Miley, reprising her role, would star in "Hannah Montana: The Movie". Before the movie project came to public, Miley released a second studio album called "Breakout". Its first single "7 Things" made an impressive chart performance. It debuted at No. 84 on Billboard Hot 100 before climbing up to No. 10 in its third week.

During her Disney days, Miley met other child stars like the Jonas Brothers, Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato. She once dated the young JoBros, Nick Jonas. After splitting from Nick, she moved on with underwear model Justin Gaston, but their relationship didn't last long. In 2009, while filming "The Last Song", she met Liam Hemsworth and later became his girlfriend. In June 2012, the couple announced their engagement. Though being repeatedly hit with breakup rumors, they were still together by mid-year of 2013.

Two years after "Breakout", Miley released a more mature album appropriately titled "Can't Be Tamed" in an effort to shed her squeaky-clean image. It peaked at No. 3 on Hot 200 with the title track reaching No. 8 on Hot 100. Then, a tour to promote the album was announced and so she was busy traveling North America for live concerts.

She was back on the big screen with "LOL" and "So Undercover" in 2012, but it didn't really perform well partly because of the lack of promotion on the movie studio's part. Slowly but sure, her new album came together. While working on it, she treated fans by assisting other artists on several collaborative songs including Snoop Dogg's "Ashtrays and Heartbreaks" and will.i.am's "Fall Down".

Prior to releasing her fourth album, Miley offered a solid introduction with lead single "We Can't Stop", which became her second-highest charting single after 2009's "Party in the U.S.A." The music video broke the Vevo record for most views in 24 hours, garnering 10.7 million views and beating out Justin Bieber's "Beauty and a Beat".

In 2013, Miley worked with music producer such as Mike WiLL Made It and Pharrell Williams on her fourth studio album "Bangerz". The songstress nabbed her third No. 1 album on Billboard 200 chart with the set. On the same day with the release of "Bangerz" hit song "Wrecking Ball", Miley performed with Robin Thicke at the 2013 MTV Video Award. Her performance gained backlash and resulted in media scrutiny as her simulated sex acts with a foamy finger were considered "disturbing" and "cringe-worthy."

After months of speculation, in September 2013, a rep for Miley announced that she and Liam Hemsworth had decided to call off their engagement, ending their four-year relationship. However, the split didn't seem to faze Miley. She stayed focus on her music career which then led her to be named as Artist of the Year by MTV later that year.

In support of "Bangerz", Miley hit the road in 2014 for her controversial "Bangerz Tour". The trek surprisingly received positive reviews, although some shows were rescheduled due to Miley's allergic reaction to antibiotic cephalexin which forced her to be hospitalized in Kansas City. Luckily, she managed to be fully recovered and continue the tour several days later.

Following "Bangerz Tour", Miley began working on her fifth album with Wayne Coyne. At that time, she said she was taking her time to focus on music, and that the album would not be released until she felt it was ready. Wayne said the music on the new album would be "a slightly wiser, sadder, more true version" than Miley's previous pop songs.

During the time she was recording for the album, Miley was dating actor Patrick Schwarzenegger. She also played as cameo in some films like "The Night Before" and "A Very Murray Christmas". Miley was recruited as the host of the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards, during which she delivered a surprise performance of new song "Dooo It!".

Shortly after, Miley revealed that her fifth album "Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz" was available for free streaming on SoundCloud. The project was written and produced primarily by Miley herself. The music had been called psychedelic experimental as it was strikingly different from Miley's typical pop music.

There's no stopping Miley once she started making music, as in the following year, the singer/actress began working on her sixth studio album. In March, it was confirmed that Miley had rekindled her romantic relationship with Liam Hemsworth. Miley later signed on as a judge for the eleventh season of "The Voice" as a replacement for Gwen Stefani.

Getting serious, Miley confirmed that she was engaged to Liam in October 2016. In her cover story for Billboard in the following year, Miley announced that she would release a new single called "Malibu" in tribute to her fiance. On May 11, 2017, she premiered the song which serves as the lead single off her sixth studio album which is expected to arrive later this year.