Miles Millar

Biography:

Miles Millar (born in 1967) is an Australian-British screenwriter, producer, showrunner, creator, and director. He is best recognized as the co-creator of Wednesday (2022), the Netflix live-action comedy-horror series based on the Addams Family and directed in part by Tim Burton. The series became Netflix’s most-watched English-language show in history.

Working alongside longtime collaborator Alfred Gough, Millar has co-created, written, and produced several popular television shows, including the superhero origin series Smallville (The WB/The CW), AMC’s martial arts dystopian drama Into the Badlands (2015), and MTV’s fantasy series The Shannara Chronicles (2016), based on Terry Brooks’ novels. Together, the duo also co-wrote several major films like Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Knights, Spider-Man 2, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the sequel to Tim Burton’s 1988 classic.

Millar was raised in Sydney, Australia, before moving to the UK at age 9. He studied at Claremont Fan Court School and later graduated from Christ’s College, Cambridge. He met Alfred Gough at USC’s Peter Stark Producing Program, where they began their creative partnership.

While still students at USC, Millar and Gough sold their first script—Mango, a buddy-cop film featuring an orangutan—to New Line Cinema for $400,000. Although the movie wasn’t made, the sale jump-started their careers.

The writing/producing duo has amassed over $1 billion in global box office revenue from their films. Their credits include Lethal Weapon 4, Herbie: Fully Loaded, and I Am Number Four, as well as Hannah Montana: The Movie, their first project under their Disney-based production label, Millar/Gough Ink.

Their television portfolio is equally notable. Smallville ran from 2001 to 2011 and became the longest-running live-action superhero TV series. Millar and Gough exited after seven seasons and later filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros., claiming they were denied profits from the show. The case was settled out of court in 2013.

In 2015, they developed The Shannara Chronicles for MTV, filmed in New Zealand. It ran for two seasons before being cancelled in 2018 but later developed a cult following on Netflix.

Also in 2015, the pair created Into the Badlands for AMC—a post-apocalyptic martial arts drama featuring Daniel Wu as a rare Asian-American lead in U.S. television. The show aired 32 episodes and became known for its elaborate fight choreography by Hong Kong veterans. Millar directed two episodes in season three.

In October 2020, Millar and Gough pitched and sold Wednesday to Netflix. Tim Burton served as executive producer and director of the first four episodes. The series, starring Jenna Ortega, was a massive success with over 1.7 billion viewing hours. It earned multiple accolades, including Emmy, BAFTA, and Golden Globe nominations, and won several awards including a Saturn Award and Kids’ Choice Award. Following this success, the creative team reunited for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, slated for a September 2024 release.

In May 2024, Netflix announced that Wednesday Season 2 had begun production in Dublin. Millar directed the promotional teaser featuring Thing delivering scripts and unveiling new cast members like Steve Buscemi, Joanna Lumley, Thandiwe Newton, Heather Matarazzo, and Evie Templeton, alongside returning stars Jenna Ortega, Emma Myers, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and others.

Millar and Gough also signed a first-look film development deal with Sony Pictures in April 2024 under their Millar/Gough Ink banner.

Earlier in their careers, they produced UPN’s The Strip (1999–2000) and ABC’s 2011 Charlie’s Angels reboot, though the latter was short-lived and ended with one episode unaired. They also produced the 2006 Aquaman pilot for The CW, which was released digitally as a standalone episode.