Wentworth Miller Says Acting Challenged Him to Address Social Bias
Published Jan. 24 2021, 3:12 p.m. ET
Actor Wentworth Miller landed Michael Scofield's role on Prison Break in 2005, and the rest was history.
The drama brought him international fame, paving the way for appearances on TV shows like Legends of Tomorrow, Madam Secretary, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Wentworth's professional achievements are well-documented — but what about his personal life? What's there to know about the actor's family background? Who are his parents?
Wentworth Miller and his parents moved to New York when he turned 1.
Wentworth was born in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, U.K, on June 2, 1972.
His father, Wentworth Earl Miller II, was studying at the University of Oxford at the time. He is a lawyer and educator, while his mother, Joy Marie Palm-Miller, is a special education teacher.
Wentworth and his parents relocated to Brooklyn, N.Y., roughly around the same time he turned 1.
"The beautiful thing about having grown up in Brooklyn is, because of the rich cultural and racial diversity there, no one seemed to give too much thought to where I fit on the racial spectrum," Wentworth previously told Interview Magazine.
"But there were times when I would run up against someone who was interested in figuring out what race was. That would come as a surprise, and in some cases, like a slap in the face," he added.
Wentworth hasn't talked that much about his upbringing, but he shared details about his background on several occasions. His father is African-American, Jamaican, German, and English, while his mother is Russian, Dutch, French, Syrian, and Lebanese.
As Wentworth told Interview Magazine, acting helped him open up about his experiences as a mixed-race person.
"Well, the backstory to anyone of mixed race is a lifetime spent being incorrectly perceived and choosing either to allow that misperception to continue or to correct it, so I am aware of identity and race as being much more fluid," he told Interview.
"And acting does challenge me to address those particular issues," he went on to say.
"Well, maybe I don't have to answer to any particular community, since I'm not really a part of any particular community. Maybe I only have to answer to myself. It makes you a kind of racial lone ranger," Wentworth explained in an interview with The Guardian.
Wentworth studied English literature before moving to Los Angeles.
Wentworth has two younger sisters, Gillian and Leigh.
The oldest in the family, he started studying English literature at Princeton University before relocating to Los Angeles in 1995 to launch his career as an actor.
Wentworth managed to secure some of the most promising roles out there from early on.
He landed one of his first roles in 1998, on Buffy The Vampire Slayer in 1998. In 2003, he featured in The Human Stain, a movie based on Philip Roth's novel with the same title. In the same year, Wentworth starred in Underworld alongside celebs like Kate Beckinsale, Bill Nighy, and Shane Brolly.
As a script-writer, Wentworth created movies like Stoker and The Disappointments Room.
