Wentworth Earl Miller III was born on June 2, 1972, in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England, to American parents, Joy Marie (Palm),a special education teacher, and Wentworth Earl Miller II, a lawyer educator. His father, of Afro-Jamaican and African-American descent, and his mother, of Dutch, French, Swedish, Lebanese/Syrian, Austrian, and Rusyn ancestry, moved the family to Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York, when Miller was just a year old.
Miller attended Midwood High School in Brooklyn, where he was a member of Sing!, an annual musical production, and later transferred to Quaker Valley Senior High School in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. He was a straight A student in high school and was involved in the AV club and school newspaper.
After graduating from high school in 1990, Miller attended Princeton University, where he was a cartoonist for the school paper and a member of the A Capella group, The Princeton Tigertones. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in English Literature in 1995 and moved to California.
Miller's early career was marked by working as a temp at several production companies before landing guest roles on shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ER, and Popular. He also starred in the Hallmark series, Dinotopia, playing the character, David Scott.
His breakthrough role came in the feature film, The Human Stain (2003),alongside Nicole Kidman and Sir Anthony Hopkins, where he played the younger version of Anthony Hopkins' character, Coleman Silk. The film did not fare well in movie theaters, but it was well received by viewers and critics, further catapulting Miller to bigger stardom.
Miller's subsequent roles included appearances in the movies Underworld and The Human Stain, as well as guest-starring in the series finale of CBS' Joan of Arcadia. In 2005, he appeared in the pilot of Ghost Whisperer and eventually starred on FOX network's Prison Break, playing the role of Michael Scofield, a character helping his brother, Lincoln Burrows, escape death row.
Miller's performance in Prison Break earned him a Golden Globe nomination, a Saturn award nomination, as well as three Teen Choice Award nominations. He also appeared in two of Mariah Carey's music videos, "It's Like That" and "We Belong Together," as Mariah's love interest.
In addition to his acting career, Miller is also a writer. In 2013, he returned to his writing roots, linking up with acclaimed director Park Chan-wook and penning the screenplay for the film Stoker, which he submitted under an alias, Ted Foulke. He has also written a screenplay for a prequel called Uncle Charlie.
Miller describes himself as a very private person who likes to spend time just relaxing at home when he's not working. He enjoys swimming, reading, taking naps, and going to different restaurants every week. He also enjoys spending time at The Art Institute of Chicago because he believes that music, painting, movies, and theater can all contribute to the work of an actor.
