Seven years ago, when Georgia Miller took her son Jaden on a tour of Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, he was enamored with the film studio and imagined what it would be like to work at such a place. However, his mother had already recognized his potential.
“I said, ‘Listen, he’s going to work with Tyler soon, so I’m taking him there so he sees what it’s like,’” Georgia Miller said. “So [that] day, when it’s time for him to work and he walks through that gate, he will remember when he came here just looking from outside [in].”
Jaden Lucas Miller is now a sophomore at North Carolina A&T State University with a burgeoning acting career. The 20-year-old psychology major is juggling online courses while also portraying some of the biggest roles of his career so far, in the new daytime soap opera “Beyond the Gates” and in Perry’s latest TV series, “Divorced Sistas.”
“Beyond the Gates,” which premiered on CBS in February, is centered on the affluent Dupree family, and Miller plays Tyrell Richardson, one of the family’s adopted children. Created by veteran TV writer Michele Val Jean, “Beyond the Gates” is the first daytime television soap opera to focus solely on a Black family and feature a predominantly Black cast. Val Jean also wrote for the former NBC soap opera “Generations,” which centered on a Black family and a white family.
“Michele Val Jean, she does a wonderful job with the writing, so it’s very easy to honestly bring the emotions to life,” he said. “And going to set every day doesn’t feel like work … but it’s more of like we get to finally do the craft that we’ve been working so hard for.”
On “Divorced Sistas,” Miller plays Laz, the son of a pastor. This role represented a full-circle moment for him, having transitioned from visiting Perry’s film studio years ago to now working with Perry.
“He paved the way for us, like the fact that he has his own studio and we’re able to come there and work and have a space to create and be able to play,” Miller said. “He’s very much an actor’s director, so he cares about his actors and he gives you a lot of motivation and encouragement.”
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Georgia Miller noticed her son’s talent at his 1st birthday party as he was dancing to a Chris Brown song. She said that’s when God told her that her son would be a performer.
“I stopped, and I literally heard a voice say to me, ‘He’s an entertainer.’ … [Then] the voice spoke to me again,” she said. “I remember I paused and I watched him. … I said, ‘Oh, my son [is] going to be a star.’”
He started taking theater classes at age 5. He began auditioning for various roles at 9 years old, with his mother driving from their hometown in Raleigh, North Carolina, to Atlanta every weekend for acting classes.
“We started driving to Atlanta, 12 hours in a day, and came back to school on Monday,” he said.
Years of auditions and hearing plenty of “nos” led Miller to one of his most pivotal roles, working with actors such as Jamie Foxx, Mickey Rourke, Tisha Campbell and Kevin Daniels in the 2024 comedy “Not Another Church Movie.”
Despite his growing career, Miller’s aspirations for higher education have never wavered. He took classes on campus until he booked his role with “Beyond the Gates” and eventually switched to online courses.
Miller said psychology helps him embody his characters.
“With the psych major, I now know how to dive deep into characters. I started looking at it as a case study. And my mother, she’s in psychology, so I’ll even go to her to ask questions,” Miller said.
North Carolina A&T professor Yolanda Williams was supportive of Miller’s acting career. He was a student in her English 100 composition class last year while auditioning for “Beyond the Gates.”
“He told me about the audition. … There’s some things that you just can’t teach. Not only is he intelligent, but he has charisma,” Williams said. “So I told him, ‘Listen, just bring you to the interview. Show up for yourself. If this is something that you want and that you’ve been working hard for, then just show up for it with your entire self. Don’t hold anything back. Just go in there and be you.’”
Miller is just getting started on all that he wants to accomplish in acting.
“Having a college behind me as well, being supportive as they are and it being a HBCU, I’m honored. I’m grateful. I’m blessed to have that,” Miller said.
With his education as his anchor, he hopes to pursue writing, directing and producing films, as well as exploring book opportunities.
“It’s a blessing to have this career and be where I’m standing right now and to be on two shows in the same year,” Miller said. “I just want to be able to impact a lot of people and be an advocate.”