Prison Breaker

Background:

"I'm kind of a dork. I don't have much game. I'm not particularly comfortable in bars or clubs. I much prefer being home playing Scrabble, having dinner with a couple friends, going to see a movie, or losing a whole weekend to Season 14 of Law and Order or The Simpsons." Wentworth Miller.

London-born, Brooklyn-raised actor Wentworth Miller had his first starring role as the sensitive and introverted David Scott in ABC's mini-series "Dinotopia" (2002). Afterward, he made a major breakthrough while portraying a younger version of Anthony Hopkins’ character in Robert Benton's critically-acclaimed adaptation of Philip Roth's novel, The Human Stain (2003; also starring Nicole Kidman, Ed Harris and Gary Sinise). He currently played the lead role of Michael Scofield, a structural engineer who creates an elaborate plan to break his older brother (played by Dominic Purcell) out of jail, on the Fox Network's television series “Prison Break.” The role has handed him nominations at the Golden Globes and Saturn Awards.

The 6' 1" tall, who has two different colored eyes (his right one is hazel and his left one is green), is part African-American, Jamaican, English, German, French, Dutch, Syrian and Lebanese. In 2005, he appeared in Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together" and "It's Like That" music videos. He was one of Entertainment Weekly's 2003 "It" list, Insider Magazine’s "TV's Hottest New Face" (the week of October 24-30, 2005) and People Magazine's “Sexiest Men Alive” (2006). He also has campaigned against drug-use appeared in anti-drug ads.

"With success, money and power, you'll either become a monster or an even better person." Wentworth Miller.


Multiracial Family

Childhood and Family:

"My father is black and my mother is white. Therefore, I could answer to either, which kind of makes me a racial Lone Ranger, caught between two communities." Wentworth Miller.

Born in England, UK, on June 2, 1972, Wentworth Earl Miller III (his name originated from a character in a Jane Austen novel named Captain Wentworth) was raised in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York. He is of African, Jamaican, English, and German descent on his father's side, and of Russian, French, Dutch, Syrian and Lebanese descent on his mother's side. His mother, Roxann, is a special education teacher, and his father, Wentworth E. Miller II was a Rhodes Scholar and Brooklyn assistant district attorney. Both of his sisters, Gillian and Leigh, are also lawyers.

"When I got to college, acting suddenly seemed like a very risky proposition and all my friends were going to law school or med school or Wall Street." Wentworth Miller.

Spending his first three years of high school at Midwood High School in Brooklyn, Wentworth later transferred to Quaker Valley High School in his senior year when his family moving to Sewickley, Pennsylvania. Finishing high school in 1990, Wentworth went to study English Literature at Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, and graduated in 1995.

Wentworth, nicknamed Stinky, Went or Miller, is a fan of board game Scrabble. He is allergic to cats and dogs as well as certain foods.


The Human Stain

Career:

"You might look at my CV and see I've had 12 jobs, but I've been to over 450 auditions so I've heard 'no' a lot more than I've heard 'yes'. So if I go in looking only to meet my own standards, then that will make taking that rejection a little bit easier. And when I do get that job it will seem like icing on the cake." Wentworth Miller.

Beginning his public performance with his campus’ cappella group called The Princeton Tigertones, Wentworth Miller subsequently headed to Los Angeles, California, to pursue a career in showbiz. In the new destination, he found job as a lowly production assistant for several TV projects, including the CBS miniseries "Gone in the Night" and the CBS movie Vows of Deception (both in 1996).

After joining a string of auditions, Miller eventually landed his first screen role as a guest in a May 1998 episode of The WB-UPN's critically acclaimed cult television series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” He followed it up with a recurring role as Nelson on the short-lived Fox series “The Time of Your Life,” a spin-off from “Party of Five,” and a guest appearance as a high school quarterback injured in a student riot in an episode of NBC medical drama “ER.” He also had another recurring role, as Adam Rotchild Ryan, on the WB's teenage dramedy “Popular” in 2000, and appeared in Erma Elzy-Jones' 28-minute film, Room 302 (2001), which was featured in Showtime’s 9th annual Black Filmmaker Showcase.

2002 saw Miller playing his first major role, as the fearful David Scott, half of the Scott brothers (another Scott brother was played by Tyron Leitso) whose small aircraft crashed near an uncharted island, in "Dinotopia," a four-hour TV mini-series produced by Hallmark Entertainment based on James Gurney's work. The next year, he made a major breakthrough after being cast as a younger version of Anthony Hopkins’ character who has been a master of deception and self-reinvention throughout his life, in Robert Benton's critically-acclaimed adaptation of Philip Roth's novel, The Human Stain (also starring Nicole Kidman, Ed Harris and Gary Sinise).

Also in 2003, Miller had a small supporting role as Dr. Adam Lockwood in Len Wiseman's horror/action movie about the secret history of vampire and werewolves, Underworld, starring Kate Beckinsale and Scott Speedman. After being jobless in 2004, Miller returned in 2005 with appearance in Mariah Carey’s music video “We Belong Together,” in which he steals the songstress away from Eric Roberts at the alter. He then appeared in two episodes of CBS fantasy/family drama "Joan of Arcadia" and starred in Ash's unusual and thought-provoking short film, The Confession (2005).

Miller kept busy during 2005. He provided voice for EDI, the onboard computer of a runaway aerial combat plane, in Rob Cohen's colossal box office bomb Stealth, an action/adventure thriller starring Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel and Jamie Foxx. He also appeared in the Pilot of CBS supernatural drama "Ghost Whisperer," starring Jennifer Love Hewitt.

"When I walked into my studio test (for Prison Break), I'd temped for maybe a third of the room. It's like 30 network executives sitting there, and some of them recognized me from the copy machine.” Wentworth Miller.

That year also marked Miller with his most popular role to date, as Michael Scofield, a structural engineer who creates an elaborate plan to break his older brother (played by Dominic Purcell) out of jail, on the Fox series “Prison Break.” Premiered on August 29, 2005, the action-thriller-drama is currently undergoing its second season, which premiered on August 21, 2006. The fictional protagonist character later earned Miller nominations at the Golden Globes and Saturn Awards.

"My experience is that I find myself having to constantly define myself to others, day-in, day-out. The quote that's helped me the most through that is from Toni Morrison's Beloved where she says, "Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined" - so I find myself defining myself for other people lest I be defined by others and stuck into some box where I don't particularly belong." Wentworth Miller.


Awards:
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