Ezra Miller

Ezra Matthew Miller (born September 30, 1992) is an American actor. Their feature film debut was in Afterschool (2008), which they followed by starring in the dramas We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012).

After a supporting role in the comedy Trainwreck (2015), Miller played Credence Barebone in the Fantastic Beasts fantasy films Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018), and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022). In 2020, they had a recurring role on the miniseries The Stand. From 2016 to 2023, Miller played the Flash in the DC Extended Universe, primarily in the films Justice League (2017) and The Flash (2023).

Miller's off-screen life has been marred with multiple controversies and legal issues. Since 2022, they have been accused of committing assault, burglary, disorderly conduct, harassment, and grooming of minors, resulting in multiple widely publicized arrests, citations, and restraining orders.

Early life

Ezra Matthew Miller was born in Wyckoff, New Jersey, on September 30, 1992. They have two older sisters named Saiya and Caitlin. Their mother, Marta Miller (née Koch), is a modern dancer. Their father, Robert S. Miller, was senior vice president and managing director of Hyperion Books, and later became a publisher at Workman Publishing. Miller's father is Jewish; their mother is of Dutch and German descent. Miller identifies as Jewish and "spiritual". At the age of six, they started to train as an opera singer to overcome their stuttering. They have sung with the Metropolitan Opera, and performed in the American premiere of Philip Glass's opera White Raven. Miller attended Rockland Country Day School and The Hudson School, dropping out at age 16 after the release of the film Afterschool. Miller attended Bard College for six months before dropping out to pursue an acting career full time.

Career

Miller's career in film began in 2008 with Antonio Campos' Afterschool, in the role of a teenager at a boarding school who accidentally films the drug-related deaths of two classmates, and is then asked to put together a memorial video. The following year, they appeared in City Island with Andy García, Julianna Margulies, and Steven Strait. In 2010, Miller portrayed the lead of Beware the Gonzo and had a supporting role in Every Day, both of which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. They next appeared in the BBC Films drama We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), alongside Tilda Swinton and John C. Reilly, which was adapted and directed by Lynne Ramsay from American author Lionel Shriver's 2003 novel of the same name. In television, Miller played Damien on the Showtime hit comedy series Californication. They then appeared on Royal Pains as Tucker Bryant for two seasons. In the 2012 film adaptation of the novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Miller played Patrick, alongside Logan Lerman and Emma Watson.

Miller has been credited with singing, drumming and percussion on musical recordings by the band Sons of an Illustrious Father as early as 2011. The band is a trio that features Lilah Larson (vocals, guitar, bass and drums), Josh Aubin (bass, keyboards, guitar, vocals), and Miller. In 2019, the band released a cover of "Don't Cha" by the Pussycat Dolls and Miller appeared in its music video.

Miller played Credence Barebone in the 2016 film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a spin-off of the Harry Potter film series. They reprised the role in the film's sequel, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, which was released in November 2018, and in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, released in April 2022.

Miller portrays Barry Allen as the Flash in Warner Bros.' DC adaptations, first appearing in cameos in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad, and continuing the role as one of the leads in Justice League. They played the character in the standalone film The Flash, which was released in 2023; this made them the first openly nonbinary person to play the lead role in a major superhero franchise film.

Miller attended Middle East Film and Comic Con in 2018, representing their character in the DC Comics franchise film Justice League. In 2020, they reprised the role of the Flash for a cameo appearance in the Arrowverse crossover event, Crisis on Infinite Earths.

In December 2020, Miller portrayed Trashcan Man in the Paramount+ television miniseries The Stand, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name.

In May 2025, it was reported that Miller would be the main character in a vampire movie that is in development and will be directed by Lynne Ramsay.

Personal life

In 2010, Miller dated Zoë Kravitz, both of whom starred in Beware the Gonzo. Miller later became engaged to a woman named Erin; they began dating in 2016, but called it off after a spiritual advisor told Miller that Erin was a "parasite".

Miller came out as queer in 2012, but later said they avoided the use of the label "queer". They also said in 2018, "Queer just means no, I don't do that. I don't identify as a man. I don't identify as a woman. I barely identify as a human." Miller uses they/them pronouns, which GQ wrote in 2020 was "a pointed refusal to be gendered". They previously used all pronouns interchangeably; as of 2022, Miller uses they/them, it, and zir pronouns. Having expressed an interest in "kissing boys" at a young age, Miller said, "The way I would choose to identify myself wouldn't be gay. I've been attracted mostly to 'shes' but I've been with many people and I'm open to love whatever it can be." Miller also commented on having "a lot of really wonderful friends who are of very different sexes and genders. I am very much in love with no one in particular."

In 2018, Miller showed support for the #MeToo movement and revealed a personal experience concerning a Hollywood producer and a director, both of whom were left unnamed: "They gave me wine and I was underaged. They were like, 'Hey, want to be in our movie about gay revolution?' And I was like, 'No, you guys are monsters.'"

In November 2018, Miller announced that they were in a polyamorous relationship with multiple people, including their bandmates in the rock band Sons of an Illustrious Father.

Following their parents' divorce in 2019, the status of Miller's mental health began to deteriorate, although their spokesperson denied that it was caused by the divorce. According to Insider, Miller began to travel while wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying at least one firearm in early 2022, following fears that they were being followed by members of the Ku Klux Klan and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Tokata Iron Eyes, an associate of Miller, later referred to their bulletproof vest as "a fashionable safety measure in response to actual attacks and received death threats".

On January 27, 2022, Miller posted a video on Instagram that seemed to threaten members of the Ku Klux Klan operating in Beulaville, North Carolina. In response, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported no knowledge of recent Klan activity in Beulaville.

On August 15, 2022, a representative of Miller released a statement to Variety in which Miller apologized for their past behavior, stating that they had recently "gone through a time of intense crisis" and had begun treatment for "complex mental health issues". A September 2022 article in Vanity Fair quoted others as saying Miller has claimed to be Jesus, the devil, and the next Messiah. It also reported that they believed their relationship with Iron Eyes would bring about the apocalypse and Freemasons were sending demons to kill them.

Legal issues

Disorderly conduct

On June 28, 2011, in the midst of filming The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Miller was a passenger in a vehicle that was pulled over in Pittsburgh for a broken brake light; police discovered 20 grams of marijuana in Miller's possession. The actor was initially charged with drug possession, but the charge was later dropped by a judge. They instead faced a penalty of $600 for two citations of disorderly conduct. They later remarked, "I don't feel like there's any need to hide the fact that I smoke pot. It's a harmless herbal substance that increases sensory appreciation."

Strangulation incident

On April 6, 2020, a video surfaced in a since-deleted tweet that appeared to show Miller strangling a woman and throwing her to the ground. The video was confirmed by Variety to have taken place at Prikið Kaffihús, a bar in Reykjavík, Iceland, that Miller frequents when in the city. A bar employee identified the person in the video as Miller, who was escorted off the premises by staff after the incident.

In September 2022, a representative for Miller claimed that the supposed strangulation was a "spontaneous reaction" spurred by "a group of teenagers" taunting Miller over their mixed martial arts skills, and that they did not strangle the woman but "went at her collarbone".