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of the casting people. They joked about my dad being a hunk. And my mom joked about how they should bring him out here to play my dad on the show. And then (as my mom tells it) everyone was like, “Wait, seriously?”
    My mom sat me down at the kitchen table to talk about it. I loved the idea of having Daddy around, but I was worried that if he got the part, people would think that he’d been cast first and I’d been hired because of him. (After all my hard work!) Dad worried about the same thing. He said, “This part is meant for you. What if I mess it up?”
    But we all really wanted to find a way for our whole family to be together. Dad had been in Canada for so long. He was always traveling back and forth. If the show was successful and they decided to make it into a series, then I’d have to move to L.A. Would we uproot the whole family? How was it all going to work? That’s when Mom said, “Well, we’ve talked a lot about how Hannah Montana is meant for you. What if Hannah’s dad is meant for Billy Ray?” We decided to leave it up to fate.
    They had already narrowed it down to two potential dads for me—or rather, Hannah Montana. Now they added Dad to the mix. He came in, took one look at the other dad actors, pointed at the best-looking one, and told the producers, “Hire that dude. Make my daughter’s show a hit.” But then they called him in to read lines with me.
    Sitting at the conference table with him was completely surreal. I mean, he’s my dad! We were joking around and laughing together. We did our handshake, which is very complicated and silly. We sang together—I think it was my dad’s song “I Want My Mullet Back.” My mom was out in the waiting room with the two other dads. She says you could hear me saying, “Dad, that isn’t the line!” and everyone rolling with laughter. But apparently it was during “I Want My Mullet Back” that the other dads looked at each other and said, “We’re doomed.”
    And they were right. Dad got the part. We’d been praying for a way to keep the family together, and here was the crazy, completely unexpected solution. We’d deal with rumors of who got what part first later. For now, we were just psyched to be in the same country!
    Dad’s being cast was great. But the rest of the characters had been determined, and now I had other castmates too. Chloe Stewart (Hannah’s alter ego) had a brother, Jackson (Jason Earles). And she had best friends, Lilly (Emily Osment) and Oliver (Mitchell Musso). And to be perfectly honest—in the beginning, I was intimidated by all of them. Emily had been in tons of commercials, TV shows, and the movie Spy Kids . Mitchell had been in a couple of TV shows and movies, including Life Is Ruff , which was Disney, so he knew the drill. I had done, um, a few episodes of my dad’s show Doc , which was a drama, and a couple of lines in a movie. Once—in Alabama. I’d never done any comedy whatsoever. So there I was trying to be funny and act and sing and dance and look cool and make it clear that my dad hadn’t gotten me the part, and attempting to befriend my costars while wearing Hannah’s cheap blond wig half the time. And guess what?—in no time, it all felt easier and much more natural than sitting in that sixth-grade cafeteria.
    Oh, and about Chloe Stewart. Doesn’t ring a bell, does it? There’s a reason. You see, my real name is Destiny Hope Cyrus. (More on that later . . .) Everybody called me Miley. My character’s name was Chloe Stewart. Her alter ego’s name was Hannah Montana. It was just way too many names. So they dropped the one that was easiest to let go. My character’s name changed to Miley Stewart. And people still get confused. I’m not confused. I’m Miley in real life. I’m Miley on my show (except when I’m Hannah). The only place I’m not Miley is on my original birth certificate, which is now defunct since I had my name legally changed. And when that glorious day comes, my driver’s