Sienna Miller Biography

Sienna Rose Miller was born on 28th December, 1981, in New York City to Jo and Ed Miller. Her mother, Jo Miller, who is South African, ran the Lee Strasberg drama school in London, and was once David Bowie’s secretary; her father, Ed Miller, was an American banker and later became a Chinese art dealer.

When she was six, Sienna’s parents divorced. Her father went on to marry the English interior designer, Kelly Hoppen, but this marriage also ended in divorce 15 years later. Ed Miller has gone on to marry twice since this. As a result of this extensive family, Sienna has one sister, Savannah, who is a fashion designer, two half brothers, Charles and Stephen, and a stepsister, Natasha, who is the daughter of Hoppen.

At just eighteen months old, Sienna moved with her family to London, England, where she was raised in Parson’s Green, South West London. She attended Heathfield St. Mary’s School, a prestigious all girls boarding school in Ascot, Berkshire. At school she was noted as outgoing and mischievous, apparently beating the boarding school blues by making lots of friends and engaging in numerous school girl pranks. Sienna then went on to enrol in the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York for a year, where she studied acting under the accomplished actor Michael Margotta.

Before she broke into professional acting, Sienna began her career as a photographic model. She was discovered by Tandy Anderson, the owner of top model management Select, who signed the budding star up. Sienna proceeded to model for Coca-Cola, Italian Vogue, Prada and the 2003 Pirelli calendar. Indeed, as her fame has grown, so has her modelling career: Sienna signed a deal with Pepe Jeans London, which spanned from 2006 to 2008; in 2007 she became the spokesperson for Italian fashion label Tods – the first time the brand had used a celebrity face – and she has appeared on numerous magazine covers, including the December 2004 and February 2006 issues of British Vogue and the September 2007 issue of US Vogue, all of which show she still pursues modelling somewhat alongside her acting career.

Acting is the profession Sienna is best known for, however. She began her career acting in various amateur plays in New York City, including Anthony Minghella’s Cigarettes & Chocolate. It was in 2005, though, that Sienna made her professional stage debut in a West End production of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, in the role of Celia and as the understudy for Helen McCrory’s Rosalind, which she performed once when McCrory was ill.

Sienna Miller’s film career has arguably been her most famous platform. Her first film role came in 2001, when she starred in South Kensington with Rupert Everett and Elle Macpherson. Following this, she had small acting stints in movies such as High Speed and Joy Ride, It was in 2004 that she got her real break in the film industry, when she played against Jude Law in the remake of the 1966 film Alfie. Following Alfie, Sienna starred in the 2004 film Layer Cake with Daniel Craig and Michael Gambon. 2005 saw her play a lead role in Casanova, which was closely followed by her portrayal of Edie Sedgwick, the stunning companion of Andy Warhol, in the 2006 production Factory Girl. This performance received huge critical acclaim, with Miller subsequently seen as a competent leading actress.

Later films in 2007 have included Stardust and Interview, and upcoming projects include The Edge of Love with good friend, Kiera Knightley, and Hippie Hippie Shake, which is set in 1960s America and also stars Cillian Murphy.

On top of her acting career, Sienna Miller’s personal life has also been a great subject for top gossip magazines and newspapers. Most famously, Sienna dated Jude Law for approximately two years, on and off between 2004 and 2006. The two became an item after meeting on the set of the film Alfie, when Law was already an internationally famous movie star and was just coming out of his divorce with fashion designer Sadie Frost. Despite poor timing, Miller and Law were smitten with each other and officially became a couple.

During their relationship, the glamorous couple were often hounded by the paparazzi and had their every move documented by the press. Yet, despite the invasion of the media, the couple seemed to be coping and became engaged on Christmas Eve, 2004.

The honeymoon period was short-lived. In 2005, their ideal relationship faltered, when it was revealed that Law was supposedly having an affair with his nanny, Daisy Wright, who looked after the children he had with former wife, Sadie Frost. The controversy was named ‘Nannygate’ by the newspapers and received incredible attention as Britain’s golden couple encountered a rocky patch. Despite Law making a public apology, Miller called off the engagement, which only increased the public sympathy towards her and antagonised Law further. This was followed by a reunion with Jude Law, another break-up and a final reconciliation before the couple separated for good in 2006.

After her break-up with Jude Law, Miller encountered rumours of budding romance with almost every male co-star she worked with, including Daniel Craig and Hayden Christensen, though none of these were confirmed. Since 2007, Miller has been dating actor Rhys Ifans, best known for his role as Spike in Notting Hill, and there have been rumours of their engagement, though it has not been confirmed.

In addition to the attention her romantic life attracts, Sienna’s influence as an actress and model has permeated into an obsession with her eclectic fashion sense. Sienna’s style has been dubbed as ‘boho chic’, a combination of bohemian free spirit and celebrity glamour. She is good friends with the designer Matthew Williamson and is often the subject of a coveted effortlessly glamorous style in fashion magazines and newspapers. She designed limited edition t-shirts for the ‘Little Tee Campaign,’ which raises money for breast cancer research, and is currently working on a fashion design label with her sister, Savannah, called Twenty8Twelve, which debuted in New York City in 2007 and has a branch in London’s Notting Hill.