Wentworth Earl Miller III (born June 2, 1972) is an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
-born
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor; model and screenwriter who rose to stardom following his role as
Michael ScofieldMichael J. Scofield is the main protagonist in the American television series Prison Break. He is portrayed by Wentworth Miller. The character first appeared in the series pilot as a man who stages a bank robbery in order to get sent into the prison where his older brother, Lincoln Burrows , is...
in the Fox Network television series
Prison BreakPrison Break is an American television serial drama created by Paul Scheuring, that was broadcast on the Fox Broadcasting Company for four seasons, from 2005 until 2009. The series revolves around two brothers; one has been sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit, and the other devises an...
.
Early life
Born in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England, Miller is the son of
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
parents Joy Marie (née Palm), a special education teacher, and Wentworth Earl Miller II, a lawyer and teacher. Miller's father, a
Rhodes ScholarThe Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford. It was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships, and is widely considered the "world's most prestigious scholarship" by many public sources such as...
, was studying at Oxford at the time of Miller's birth.
Miller is of multiracial origin: his father is of African-American,
JamaicanJamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
,
EnglishThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
, German, Jewish and
CherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
descent, and his mother is of
RussianThe Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
,
FrenchThe French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
,
DutchThe Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
,
SyrianThe Syrian people are the inhabitants and citizens of Syria. Syrians are tied together by geography, linguistic heritage, religion, and similar Eastern Mediterranean ethnicities...
and
LebaneseThe Lebanese people are a nation and ethnic group of Levantine people originating in what is today the country of Lebanon, including those who had inhabited Mount Lebanon prior to the creation of the modern Lebanese state....
ancestry.
Despite his family's decision to move to
Park SlopePark Slope is a neighborhood in western Brooklyn, New York City's most populous borough. Park Slope is roughly bounded by Prospect Park West to the east, Fourth Avenue to the west, Flatbush Avenue to the north, and 15th Street to the south, though other definitions are sometimes offered. Generally...
,
BrooklynBrooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York, at the age of one, Miller retains dual citizenship. He has two sisters, Leigh and Gillian. Miller attended
Midwood High SchoolMidwood High School, at Brooklyn College, is a public, urban, co-ed high school located on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, New York City.Midwood High School was for many years the recipient of multiple accolades because of its competitive educational programs and for the achievements of its students...
in Brooklyn, New York. He was a member of
SING!SING! is an annual student-run musical production put on by some high schools in the Greater New York City area. It is a theater competition between the various grades, with the setup between grades differing from school to school SING! is an annual student-run musical production put on by some...
, an annual musical production that was started by Midwood. His family moved to Aleppo Township outside of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, where he graduated from Quaker Valley High School, in Leetsdale, Pennsylvania in 1990. He graduated from
Princeton UniversityPrinceton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
completing his
bachelor's degreeA bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in
English LiteratureEnglish literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
. While at Princeton, he performed with the
a cappellaA cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
group the
Princeton TigertonesThe Princeton Tigertones are an internationally-known all-male collegiate a cappella group from Princeton University. The group was founded in 1946 , and since then has produced thirty albums...
and was first a member of the Quadrangle Club, and later the Colonial Club.
Career
In 1995, he went to
Los AngelesLos Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
to pursue an acting career. He has stated about his rocky road to stardom that "it was a long time in the coming and there were a lot of upsets and a lot of failures and roadblocks, but I couldn’t walk away from it. I needed it like I needed air, it was just something I had to do."
Miller's first starring role was as the sensitive and introverted David Scott in
ABC'sThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
mini-series
DinotopiaDinotopia is a four-hour TV miniseries co-produced by Walt Disney Television and Hallmark Entertainment. It is based on the fictional world of Dinotopia, a utopia in which sentient dinosaurs and humans coexist, created by American author James Gurney...
. After appearing in a few minor television roles, he moved on to co-star in the 2003 film
The Human StainThe Human Stain is a 2003 American romantic thriller film directed by Robert Benton. The screenplay by Nicholas Meyer is based on the 2000 novel of the same name by Philip Roth...
, playing the younger version of the
Anthony HopkinsSir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
character, Coleman Silk. He identified strongly with the core dilemma of the movie, being that of a man struggling with his heritage. Miller worked extensively on the role, not only in researching Anthony Hopkins, but by embarking on a 4 month regime to accurately portray Silk as a boxer.
Miller's first TV appearance was as student-turned-sea monster Gage Petronzi on
Buffy the Vampire Slayer ("
Go Fish"Go Fish" is episode 20 of season two of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.Xander goes undercover on the Sunnydale swim team after two members are seemingly eaten, leaving only their skins. Their coach has been giving them steroids combined with fish DNA, which turns them into sea...
", 1998).
In 2005, Miller was cast as Michael Scofield in
Fox Network'sFox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
televisionTelevision is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
drama
Prison Break. He played the role of a caring brother who created an elaborate scheme to help his brother,
Lincoln BurrowsLincoln Burrows, played by Dominic Purcell, is one of the main protagonists of the American television series, Prison Break. The plot of Prison Break revolves around Lincoln Burrows' setup for the murder of the vice president's brother and his brother's plan to help him escape his death sentence....
(
Dominic Purcell) escape death row after being found guilty of a crime he did not commit. His character had a full upper body (front and back) tattoo. Covering both the front of his torso and his back, along with both arms from shoulders to wrists, the special effects for the tattoo took over four hours to apply. His performance in the show earned him a 2005
Golden Globe AwardThe Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
nomination for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series.
He played a minor role of a doctor and friend of main character Michael Corvin in the movie
UnderworldUnderworld is a 2003 action-horror film about the secret history of Vampires and Lycans . It is the first installment in the Underworld series. The main plot revolves around Selene , a vampire who is a Death Dealer hunting Lycans...
.
Miller appeared in two
Mariah CareyMariah Carey is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut with the release of her eponymous studio album in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993...
music videoA music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s, "
It's Like That"It's Like That" is a song written by Mariah Carey, Jermaine Dupri, Manuel Seal, and Johntá Austin, and produced by Carey, Dupri, and Seal for Carey's tenth studio album, The Emancipation of Mimi . It borrows the hook "it's like that y'all" from the Run-D.M.C. tracks "Hollis Crew" and "Here We Go...
" as a party guest and "We Belong Together" as her love interest. Director
Brett RatnerBrett Ratner is an American film director, film producer and music video director. He is best known for directing the Rush Hour film series, The Family Man, Red Dragon, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Tower Heist. He was also a producer on the Fox drama series, Prison Break.- Early life :Ratner was...
, who directed the pilot episode of
Prison Break, was signed on to also direct the two Carey videos. Ratner brought up the idea to Carey about using Miller in the videos. After showing her Miller's picture, she agreed to use him. Since both the videos and the pilot episode of
Prison Break were being filmed at the same time, a special set was constructed on the set of the videos, so that Miller would be able to work simultaneously on both projects. He says, "Mariah's an international icon. The two days I spent working on her video did more for my career, gave me more exposure, than anything I had done before
Prison Break. I'm grateful for the opportunity."
Miller also guest starred on the season 11 premiere of
Law and Order: Special Victims Unit as Detective Nate Kendall, a detective from Precinct 24 of the NYPD. Miller starred in
Resident Evil: AfterlifeResident Evil: Afterlife is a 2010 Canadian-German 3D science-fiction horror action film written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. It stars Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Kim Coates, Shawn Roberts, Spencer Locke, Boris Kodjoe, and Wentworth Miller. The film marks Anderson's second time to direct in...
as
Chris Redfieldis a fictional character from Capcom's Resident Evil series.Chris is one of the two main protagonists in the first Resident Evil game, the other being Jill Valentine. Redfield returned as a playable character in Resident Evil Code: Veronica, where he must search for, and ultimately rescue, his...
, "Claire's brother and popular character from the game series".
Screenwriting
Miller wrote a screenplay for a film
StokerStoker is an upcoming 2012 drama film directed by Park Chan-wook and written by Wentworth Miller. It stars Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman, and Matthew Goode.-Cast:*Mia Wasikowska as India Stoker*Nicole Kidman as Evelyn Stoker...
, as well as a prequel
Uncle Charlie. He used the
pseudonymA pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Ted Foulke, later explaining "I just wanted the scripts to sink or swim on their own." Miller's script was voted to the 2010 "Black List" of the 10 best unproduced screenplays making the rounds in Hollywood. The film is about a teenage girl who must deal with a mysterious uncle following the death of her father. Miller described it as a "horror film, a family drama and a psychological thriller." Although influenced by
Bram StokerAbraham "Bram" Stoker was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula...
's
DraculaDracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
, Miller has clarified that
Stoker is not a vampire story. Hitchcock's
Shadow of a DoubtShadow of a Doubt is a 1943 American thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten. Written by Thornton Wilder, Sally Benson, and Alma Reville, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story for Gordon McDonell...
also influenced the film but after a jumping-off point, the story takes a different direction.
Park Chan-wookPark Chan-wook is a South Korean film director, screenwriter, producer, and former film critic. One of the most acclaimed and popular filmmakers in his native country, Park is most known for his films Joint Security Area, Thirst and what has become known as The Vengeance Trilogy, consisting of...
will direct, with
Mia WasikowskaMia Wasikowska is an Australian actress. After starting her career in Australian television and film, she first became known to a wider audience following her critically acclaimed work on the HBO television series In Treatment...
set to play the teenager,
Nicole KidmanNicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...
as the mother, and
Matthew GoodeMatthew William Goode is an English actor. His notable films have included Match Point, Watchmen, Brideshead Revisited, Leap Year, Imagine Me and You and A Single Man.-Early life:...
in talks to play the uncle.
Filmography
Film
| Year |
Film |
Role |
Notes |
| 2001 |
Room 302 |
Server #1 |
Short Film |
| 2003 |
The Human Stain The Human Stain is a 2003 American romantic thriller film directed by Robert Benton. The screenplay by Nicholas Meyer is based on the 2000 novel of the same name by Philip Roth...
|
Young Coleman Silk |
|
UnderworldUnderworld is a 2003 action-horror film about the secret history of Vampires and Lycans . It is the first installment in the Underworld series. The main plot revolves around Selene , a vampire who is a Death Dealer hunting Lycans...
|
Dr. Adam Lockwood |
|
| 2005 |
The Confession |
The Prisoner/Tom |
Short Film |
StealthStealth is a 2005 American science fiction action film starring Jessica Biel, Josh Lucas, Jamie Foxx, and Sam Shepard. The film was directed by Rob Cohen, director of The Fast and the Furious and xXx....
|
EDI |
Voice |
| 2009 |
Prison Break: The Final Break Prison Break: The Final Break is a 2009 television movie of the Prison Break franchise. It serves as the series finale of Prison Break. The movie aired May 27 in the United Kingdom on Sky1. In the United States and Canada, the movie was first released on DVD and Blu-ray on July 21, 2009...
|
Michael ScofieldMichael J. Scofield is the main protagonist in the American television series Prison Break. He is portrayed by Wentworth Miller. The character first appeared in the series pilot as a man who stages a bank robbery in order to get sent into the prison where his older brother, Lincoln Burrows , is...
|
Straight-to-DVD |
| 2010 |
Resident Evil: Afterlife Resident Evil: Afterlife is a 2010 Canadian-German 3D science-fiction horror action film written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. It stars Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Kim Coates, Shawn Roberts, Spencer Locke, Boris Kodjoe, and Wentworth Miller. The film marks Anderson's second time to direct in...
|
Chris Redfield is a fictional character from Capcom's Resident Evil series.Chris is one of the two main protagonists in the first Resident Evil game, the other being Jill Valentine. Redfield returned as a playable character in Resident Evil Code: Veronica, where he must search for, and ultimately rescue, his...
|
|
| 2011 |
The Mourning Portrait |
Photographer |
|
| 2012 |
The Loft The Loft is an upcoming American thriller film directed by Erik Van Looy. It is a remake of the original Belgian film with a similar title . The script was written by Bart De Pauw and adapted by Wesley Strick...
|
Luke Seacord |
|
Television
| Year |
Title |
Role |
Notes |
| 1998 |
Buffy the Vampire Slayer |
Gage Petronzi |
2x20: "Go Fish" |
| 1999 |
Time of Your LifeTime of Your Life is an American drama series starring Jennifer Love Hewitt. The series is a spin-off of Party of Five, and features the character Sarah Reeves Merrin whom Hewitt portrayed on Party of Five.-Plot:...
|
Nelson |
1x06: "The Time the Truth Was Told"
1x11: "The Time They Got E-Rotic" |
| 2000 |
Popular Popular is an American teenage comedy-drama on The WB Television Network in the United States, created by Ryan Murphy and Gina Matthews, starring Leslie Bibb and Carly Pope as two teenage girls that reside on polar opposite sides of the popularity spectrum at their high school, but are forced to...
|
Adam Rothschild Ryan |
1x16: "All About Adam"
1x19: "Hard on the Outside, Soft in the Middle" |
ERER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
|
Mike Palmieri |
7x01: "Homecoming" |
| 2002 |
Dinotopia Dinotopia is a four-hour TV miniseries co-produced by Walt Disney Television and Hallmark Entertainment. It is based on the fictional world of Dinotopia, a utopia in which sentient dinosaurs and humans coexist, created by American author James Gurney...
|
David Scott |
Miniseries |
| 2005 |
Joan of ArcadiaJoan of Arcadia is an American television fantasy/family drama telling the story of teenager Joan Girardi , who sees and speaks with God and performs tasks she is given. The series originally aired on Fridays, 8-9 p.m...
|
Ryan Hunter |
2x21: "Common Thread"
2x22: "Something Wicked This Way Comes" |
Ghost WhispererGhost Whisperer is an American television supernatural drama, which ran on CBS from September 23, 2005 to May 21, 2010.The series follows the life of Melinda Gordon , who has the ability to see and communicate with ghosts...
|
Sgt. Paul Adams |
1x01: "Pilot" |
| 2009 |
Family GuyFamily Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
|
Jock #4/ Popular Kid #2 |
7x13: "Stew-Roids" |
| 2005–2009 |
Prison Break Prison Break is an American television serial drama created by Paul Scheuring, that was broadcast on the Fox Broadcasting Company for four seasons, from 2005 until 2009. The series revolves around two brothers; one has been sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit, and the other devises an...
|
Michael ScofieldMichael J. Scofield is the main protagonist in the American television series Prison Break. He is portrayed by Wentworth Miller. The character first appeared in the series pilot as a man who stages a bank robbery in order to get sent into the prison where his older brother, Lincoln Burrows , is...
|
Nominated: Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series — Drama |
| 2009 |
Law and Order: Special Victims Unit |
Nate Kendall |
11x01: "Unstable" |
| 2011 |
HouseHouse is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...
|
Benjamin |
8x03: "Charity Case" |
Video games
| Year |
Game |
Role |
Notes |
| 2010 |
Prison Break: The Conspiracy Prison Break: The Conspiracy is an action-adventure video game based on the first season of the Fox television series Prison Break, released for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3....
|
Michael ScofieldMichael J. Scofield is the main protagonist in the American television series Prison Break. He is portrayed by Wentworth Miller. The character first appeared in the series pilot as a man who stages a bank robbery in order to get sent into the prison where his older brother, Lincoln Burrows , is...
|
Voice |
External links