Who is Miley Cyrus? Miley Ray Cyrus (born Destiny Hope Cyrus) is a 20-year-old singer and actress. The daughter of '90s one-hit wonder/country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, she shot to fame upon landing the part of Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana in the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana, where she played a normal teenager who moonlights as an international pop star. The series became one of the most successful family-oriented shows of the 2000s, and helped to launch Cyrus into a successful music career outside of the show's universe. Her fourth studio album Bangerz was released today (October 8) on RCA Records, and it represents the latest, largest step in Cyrus' multi-year image transformation, a dramatic shift from wholesome teen idol to a provocative pop icon.

Wait, wait. So you're telling me that before all the dancing with molly and the naked wrecking ball riding and the omnipresent, taunting tongue, she was just another Disney kid? Yes! I know it's hard to believe, which is probably a testament to the strength and consistency of Cyrus' recent image flip. Hannah Montana debuted in March 2006 when Cyrus was just 13 and was an immediate, massive success, with the series premiere setting a Disney Channel viewership record. While the series continued to pull impressive ratings throughout its four-season run, its cultural impact was exponentially amplified by Disney's promotional savvy. Soundtracks, movies, tours, novelizations, dolls, clothing, you name it: by the end of its run, Hannah Montana was more machine than TV show, and it was minting millionaires left and right. Cyrus was banking nearly unfathomable sums of money long before she could legally drink.