Buster Timothy Miller: The Private Life of Jonny Lee Miller’s Son

Buster Timothy Miller is the only child of celebrated British actor Jonny Lee Miller and American actress and former fashion model Michele Hicks. Born on December 3, 2008, in the United States, Buster entered a world where both sides of his family tree are deeply rooted in performance, storytelling, and screen work. His paternal great-grandfather, Bernard Lee, portrayed M in the first eleven James Bond films, making the Miller family one of the longest-running acting dynasties in British entertainment. Despite all of this inherited visibility, Buster has grown up remarkably far from the spotlight. His parents have made deliberate, consistent choices to shield him from media exposure, and as a result, he remains one of the most private celebrity children in Hollywood. This article brings together every verified detail about his life, his family background, and the extraordinary artistic lineage he carries.

Quick Bio

Who Is Buster Timothy Miller?

Buster Timothy Miller is the son of two accomplished entertainers who met and married in 2008, the same year he was born. His father, Jonny Lee Miller, is one of the most respected British actors of his generation, known internationally for films like Trainspotting and for starring as a modern-day Sherlock Holmes in the long-running CBS series Elementary. His mother, Michele Hicks, built her own career first as a high-fashion model appearing in Vogue Italia and walking runways for houses like Chanel and Gucci, and then as a television actress with memorable roles in The Shield, Mulholland Drive, and Mr. Robot. Despite having two parents who work in an industry that thrives on attention, Buster has been raised with an emphasis on normality. He does not appear on red carpets, does not maintain any social media accounts, and has never been the subject of a media interview. The occasional paparazzi photograph of him walking through New York City with one of his parents represents essentially the only visual record the public has of him.

His Father: Jonny Lee Miller

To understand the world Buster Timothy Miller was born into, it helps to understand the scope of his father’s career. Jonathan Lee Miller was born on November 15, 1972, in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England. He grew up in a household where acting was less a career choice than a family tradition. His mother, Ann Lee, was a theatre actress; his father, Alan Miller, was a stage actor who later became a stage manager at the BBC. Most remarkably, his maternal grandfather was Bernard Lee, the English character actor who originated the role of M, the head of MI6, in the James Bond franchise and played it across eleven films from Dr. No in 1962 through Moonraker in 1979.

Jonny attended Tiffin School, a selective grammar school for boys in Kingston upon Thames, where he performed in school plays and joined the school’s swing band. He was also a member of the National Youth Music Theatre, where he first met future collaborator Jude Law. He left school at the age of seventeen to pursue acting full time, and his instincts proved correct almost immediately. His early television work included small roles in EastEnders and The Bill, but by the mid-1990s he had landed two roles that would define his career.

The first was Dade Murphy in the 1995 cult film Hackers, where he starred alongside Angelina Jolie. The two began a relationship on set and married in 1996 in a famously unconventional Las Vegas ceremony. Although they separated after roughly eighteen months and formally divorced in 1999, they have remained on friendly terms. Jolie herself acknowledged the warmth of their relationship publicly as recently as 2024, noting at a film festival that they have sons of similar ages and maintain a wonderful connection.

The second defining role came just a year later in 1996, when Jonny played Simon “Sick Boy” Williamson in Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting, a performance so convincing that many viewers and critics assumed he was Scottish. He reprised the role in the 2017 sequel, T2 Trainspotting. Between those two landmarks, his filmography expanded to include Afterglow, Mansfield Park, Mindhunters, The Flying Scotsman, Melinda and Melinda, Aeon Flux, Dark Shadows, and Byzantium.

On stage, he alternated the roles of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature with Benedict Cumberbatch in Danny Boyle’s celebrated 2011 National Theatre production of Frankenstein. The performance earned both actors a shared Olivier Award for Best Actor. On American television, he led the ABC series Eli Stone from 2008 to 2009, played the villainous Jordan Chase on Season 5 of Dexter, and then starred as Sherlock Holmes in Elementary for seven seasons from 2012 to 2019, a role that made him a household name in the United States. In 2022, he portrayed former British Prime Minister John Major in Season 5 of Netflix’s The Crown.

Beyond acting, Jonny is an accomplished long-distance runner who completed the 2008 London Marathon in 3 hours, 1 minute, and 40 seconds, and has also finished a fifty-mile ultramarathon through Bear Mountain, New York, to raise funds for Sanfilippo syndrome research through the charity Jonah’s Just Begun. He co-founded the production company Natural Nylon alongside Jude Law and Ewan McGregor. He became a United States citizen in 2014. In 2019, he made his Muay Thai debut at Broad Street Ballroom in New York City, winning the fight by knockout in the final round.

His Mother: Michele Hicks

Michele Hicks was born on June 4, 1973, in Essex County, New Jersey. Before she became an actress, she was a successful fashion model whose sharp features, striking presence, and confident bearing made her one of the sought-after faces of the 1990s New York and European runway scene. She appeared in editorial spreads for Vogue Italia, Vogue US, Elle, and Harper’s Bazaar, and walked for major fashion houses including Chanel, Gucci, and Vivienne Westwood. She also appeared in the music video for the Bush song “Letting the Cables Sleep.”

When Hicks decided to transition from modelling to acting in the late 1990s, she did so with the same quiet determination that would later characterise her approach to motherhood and privacy. Her film debut came in 1999 with the independent drama Twin Falls Idaho, directed by the Polish Brothers, in which she played a compassionate character who befriends a pair of conjoined twins. The performance drew critical praise and established her within the independent film world. In 2001, she appeared in David Lynch’s surreal neo-noir Mulholland Drive, further cementing her reputation for choosing challenging, artistically ambitious projects.

Her television career proved equally substantial. She is best known for her recurring role as Mara Sewell Vendrell in the acclaimed FX police drama The Shield, appearing in twenty-six episodes between 2004 and 2008 across multiple seasons. She later took on recurring roles as Sharon Knowles in Mr. Robot and appeared in episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, CSI: NY, Cold Case, The Mentalist, Blue Bloods, Elementary (her ex-husband’s show), Orange Is the New Black, and Magnum P.I. She is also credited as a producer. Outside of acting, Hicks co-owned a pilates studio in New York called re:AB with author Brooke Siler, and she is known as an advocate for mental health services improvement. She is trained in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

His Parents’ Marriage and Divorce

Jonny Lee Miller and Michele Hicks married in June 2008. Their son, Buster Timothy Miller, arrived just months later on December 3 of that same year. The birth was announced by People magazine, which confirmed the baby’s full name. The couple appeared to settle into family life in New York City, where they were frequently spotted on casual outings with their young son, walking the dog, visiting parks, and attending family-friendly events such as the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation’s Kids 4 Kid Family Festival at Chelsea Piers in September 2014. Michele and Buster were also photographed together at the seventh annual Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic in Liberty State Park, New Jersey, in May 2014.

After a decade together, the couple divorced in 2018. Neither Jonny nor Michele has publicly discussed the reasons for their separation, and both have handled the transition with evident discretion and mutual respect. By all available accounts, they established a cooperative co-parenting arrangement focused entirely on Buster’s wellbeing. Both parents have been seen separately spending time with their son in New York City, sharing everyday moments that suggest a healthy, functional family dynamic despite the formal end of the marriage. Jonny has spoken in general terms about his desire to protect his son’s privacy, and Michele has taken the same approach, ensuring that Buster’s childhood remains as normal and pressure-free as possible.

Buster Timothy Miller’s Private Upbringing

The most notable thing about Buster Timothy Miller’s life is how deliberately unremarkable his parents have worked to keep it. In an era when many celebrity children have their own Instagram accounts, appear in magazine features, and attend high-profile events as toddlers, Buster has experienced none of that. He does not have any known public social media presence. He does not make scheduled public appearances. The handful of photographs that exist of him come exclusively from paparazzi captures during ordinary moments like neighbourhood walks or coffee runs, never from staged events or professional photo shoots.

This approach reflects a conscious, coordinated decision by both parents. Jonny Lee Miller, who is himself known for being one of the more private actors in the industry, has made it clear through his actions that his son’s right to a normal childhood takes precedence over any public curiosity. Michele Hicks, who has always preferred a low-profile existence despite her own career achievements, has reinforced this stance consistently. Together, they have created an environment in which Buster can focus on his education, his interests, and his personal development without the distortion that constant media attention would inevitably create.

As of 2026, Buster is seventeen years old, an age when many young people begin to explore their own identities and interests more seriously. Whether those interests will eventually lead him toward the entertainment industry that has sustained his family for generations, or toward an entirely different path, remains entirely his own decision to make. There is currently no public information suggesting he is pursuing acting, modelling, or any other public-facing career.

The Angelina Jolie Connection

One of the most frequently searched questions about Buster Timothy Miller involves his relationship, or more accurately, his lack of any meaningful relationship, to Angelina Jolie. The connection is indirect but simple to explain: Jolie was Jonny Lee Miller’s first wife, having married him in 1996 after they met on the set of Hackers. They divorced in 1999, nearly a decade before Buster was born in 2008. Jolie is therefore Jonny’s ex-wife but has no parental or step-parental relationship with Buster whatsoever. The two marriages, Jonny’s to Angelina and Jonny’s to Michele, occupy entirely separate chapters of his life.

What does exist, by all accounts, is a friendly and respectful dynamic between the adults involved. Jolie herself publicly acknowledged in early 2024 that she and Jonny maintain a wonderful relationship and that they share the coincidence of having sons of roughly the same age. This warmth between former spouses is notable in Hollywood, but it does not create any family tie between Jolie and Buster. Readers searching for a dramatic connection will not find one, because none exists.

The Miller-Lee Acting Dynasty

Buster Timothy Miller’s family tree reads like a compact history of British performing arts across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. His paternal great-grandfather, Bernard Lee, was born on January 10, 1908, and became one of the most recognisable character actors in British cinema. After training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and serving in the Second World War, Bernard built a career playing authoritative, trustworthy figures in films such as The Third Man, The Blue Lamp, The Battle of the River Plate, and Whistle Down the Wind. In 1962, he was cast as M in Dr. No, the first James Bond film, and went on to play the character in every Bond film through 1979’s Moonraker. He passed away from stomach cancer in January 1981, when his grandson Jonny was just eight years old.

Bernard’s daughter, Ann Lee, followed him into theatre, performing on the London stage. She married Alan Miller, who worked as a stage actor before becoming a stage manager at the BBC. Their son, Jonny Lee Miller, inherited the family passion and took it to international heights. The result is that Buster Timothy Miller is the fourth generation of a family for whom storytelling through performance has been a consistent thread. Whether or not he continues that thread is a question only he can answer, but the legacy he carries is one of genuine artistic substance.

Life in New York City

While Buster was born in the United States and holds American nationality, much of his childhood appears to have been spent in New York City, where both of his parents maintained their primary residence during and after their marriage. Jonny Lee Miller lived in New York throughout his Elementary years, as the show filmed in the city, and Michele Hicks has long been associated with the New York scene through both her modelling career and her acting work. The couple even purchased a downtown New York walk-up apartment together, as reported by Variety in 2015. After their divorce, both parents continued to be based in the city, which allowed Buster to maintain stability and continuity in his daily life, his school, and his friendships regardless of which parent he was spending time with.

Why People Search for Buster Timothy Miller

Public interest in Buster Timothy Miller falls into a pattern common among celebrity children: people encounter his father’s name while watching Trainspotting, Elementary, The Crown, or another project, read about Jonny’s personal life, and then search for details about his son. A secondary wave of curiosity arrives through the Angelina Jolie connection, since any mention of Jonny’s romantic history inevitably leads to questions about his subsequent family. A third, smaller group arrives simply through curiosity about celebrity offspring and whether they follow their parents into entertainment.

What these searchers consistently find is very little, because Buster’s parents have succeeded in their goal of keeping him out of public discourse. The absence of social media accounts, public appearances, or media interviews means that responsible coverage is limited to the facts that have been confirmed through birth announcements, event photographs, and the public statements of his parents. This article has gathered those facts in one place so that readers can satisfy their curiosity without relying on the speculation and filler that dominate many celebrity aggregation sites.

Privacy, Accuracy, and Public Information

It is important for readers to understand what is reliably known about Buster Timothy Miller and what is not. His date of birth, his parents’ identities, his parents’ marriage and divorce dates, and his extended family connections are all documented through news outlets like People magazine, Wikipedia entries for his parents, architecture and entertainment publications, and public event records. By contrast, his current school, his personal interests, his daily routine, and any specific details about his living arrangements post-divorce are not part of the public record, and this article does not invent them. Similarly, no credible source reports a personal net worth for a teenager who has no known professional career; any website presenting such a figure is guessing. Buster Timothy Miller is a minor whose parents have chosen privacy, and responsible journalism respects that choice while still providing accurate information about the public dimensions of his family story.

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FAQs

Who is Buster Timothy Miller?

Buster Timothy Miller is the only child of British actor Jonny Lee Miller, known for Trainspotting and Elementary, and American actress and model Michele Hicks, known for The Shield and Mr. Robot. He was born on December 3, 2008.

How old is Buster Timothy Miller?

As of 2026, Buster Timothy Miller is seventeen years old. He was born on December 3, 2008.

Who are Buster Timothy Miller’s parents?

His father is Jonny Lee Miller, an acclaimed English actor, and his mother is Michele Hicks, an American actress and former fashion model. They married in 2008 and divorced in 2018.

Is Angelina Jolie Buster Timothy Miller’s mother?

No. Angelina Jolie was Jonny Lee Miller’s first wife from 1996 to 1999, nearly a decade before Buster was born. She has no parental relationship with him. His mother is Michele Hicks.

Does Buster Timothy Miller have any siblings?

No, Buster is the only child born from the marriage of Jonny Lee Miller and Michele Hicks. There are no publicly known half-siblings either.

Is Buster Timothy Miller on social media?

No. As of 2026, Buster Timothy Miller has no known public social media accounts. His parents have deliberately kept him away from online visibility to protect his childhood.

Is Buster Timothy Miller pursuing an acting career?

There is currently no public information to suggest that Buster is pursuing acting or any other entertainment career. He appears to be focused on his education and personal life.

Who was Buster Timothy Miller’s great-grandfather?

His paternal great-grandfather was Bernard Lee, the English actor who famously played M in the first eleven James Bond films from 1962 to 1979.

Buster Timothy Miller occupies a unique position at the intersection of genuine Hollywood legacy and intentional obscurity. He is the descendant of an actor who defined one of cinema’s most iconic supporting roles, the son of a man whose own career spans cult classics, prestige television, and the national theatre stage, and the child of a woman who built her own path through high fashion and critically acclaimed drama. Yet despite all of that inherited visibility, the most defining feature of his story so far is the privacy his parents have given him. In an industry and a culture that often treats celebrity children as extensions of their parents’ brands, Buster has been allowed to simply be a teenager. Whatever he chooses to do next, he will do so with a family name that carries genuine artistic weight and with the freedom to define what that name means on his own terms.