Biography
Ian "Mills" Miller was born in Bronx, New York, the son of Margo Miller, a respiratory therapist and a single mother. Growing up in a single parent household, he attended St. Johns private school from first to eighth grade. During that time he fell in love with the arts where he acted in numerous plays as Julius Caesar.
He attended John F. Kennedy high school, and later enrolled in New York City Technical College majoring in computer science with plans of playing basketball. When a low grade point average shattered those dreams, Ian found himself looking for a new direction. After attending two colleges, the direction was Gibbs College. Mr. Miller also studied acting at HB Studios, the famous Uta Hagen School for acting. While training as an actor, Ian's passion and vision morphed. His visual acuity began to develop as he explored this brief stint as an actor but it was while staring into the lens of the camera, Ian realized, he had a lot more to say than his lines. During his first year of study within the film and media studies program Ian won honorable mention in the music video category at the student Tribeca Focus Awards Film Festival and he lent a helping hand to his fellow classmate as he shared the first place narrative short competition win.
Before graduation from college in 2008, Ian landed an internship with the prestigious production company Partizan, NYC that houses directors such as Phillip Andelman and Michel Gondry. Who have worked with artists such as Lenny Kravitz, Janet Jackson and Kanye West. Mills worked alongside them for 7 months watching their every move with a keen eye. Mills ambition for directing grew when the executive producer at Partizan asked to see his reel after seeing a few of his videos online. Once the executive producer at Partizan saw his reel he placed Mills into the camera department for the Michel Gondry directed music video for Bjork's single "Declare Independence."
After finishing his internship, Ian graduated from college with a GPA of 3.9. Mills bypassed grad school and ventured right out into the field booking and shooting every artist he can put in front of his camera. Mills spec video for Kanye West "Streetlights" managed to reach the multi- platinum superstar by landing on Kanye West website Kanyewest.com. Kanye West quoted: "Yo I be mad honored when people do there own visuals for my songs!!! I really appreciate it!!'' The spec video made its way all the way to billboard.com garnering millions of views in the process, increasing Mills visibility on the internet as a upcoming director to look out for. Mills launched his production company Mills Miller Media in 2008 with the objective to build media for artist and housing other directors. His first television placement came when he directed a video for Panamanian artist Panama featuring Skyzoo, which aired on MTVU. Since then Mills has received many placements from Myspace featured videos to MTV Jams. In 2009, Mills chance came to direct major artists, when he was tapped on the shoulder by producers, Beatnick and K-Salaam to direct a video featuring Bun B, 88-Keys and Colin Munroe. Soon after Mills directed the single "Body Ya" for hip hop heavyweight Fabolous, which was nominated in 2010 for a MTV Sucker Free Summit Award. Shortly after that directing videos and promos for Fred The Godson, JadaKiss and The-Dream. In a two year span from graduation to 2010 Mills Miller has managed to work with veteran artists as well as his fellow emerging upcoming artists such as Fred The Godson, which single "So Crazy" also aired on MTV Jams. Mills and Kaven also premiered their highly anticipated featured length documentary named "Behind Those Books" at Tribeca Cinemas with two packed sell out shows.
Mills didn't stop there working with even bigger clientele and artist such as Akon, Marc Anthony and more recently Dj Mustard one of the hottest producers in the industry.
Recently directing and producing music videos on multiple projects including Lil Wayne, Swizz Beatz, Danny Gokey, Jordin Sparks, Alex Aiono, Bon Jovi, Sully Erna of Godsmack, and UK artist James TW among others. Mills Miller has created visuals on a variety of media platforms from advertising campaigns to artist branding, books, music videos and film.
Mills is dedicated to each artists project that he takes on and he makes sure that they are always represented the way they want, while still getting his own artistic point across. Mills never rests: constantly taking on projects that challenge his ability, so he can continuously improve as a director. Ian always says "You're only as good as your last project," so he makes every project better than his last.
