‘Start pumping up the party now!’ The biggest Disney series EVER

Miley had beaten Taylor Momsen of future ‘Gossip Girl’ fame and Daniella Monet, who later starred on ‘Victorious’, to the part of Hannah by “owning the room”, according to the show’s creator. With Miley cast, producers cast her real-life father Billy Ray to play her on-screen dad and manager after seeing their natural chemistry by chance when he accompanied her to an audition.

The cast was completed by Jason Earles as her older brother Jackson, along with Emily Osment and Mitchel Musso as her best friends Lilly Truscott and Oliver Oken.

The series premiered in March 2006 with the episode ‘Lily, Do You Want to Know a Secret?’ and became the highest-rated launch ever for the network, with 5.4 million viewers.