• Acting for Two: In the final season, when Miley fights with herself (literally) about revealing her secret.
    • Also true when she played Miley Stewart's evil lookalike cousin, Lu Ann.
  • The Danza:
    • Miley Stewart is played by Miley Cyrus. Averted at first, as the lead role was named Zoe Stewart, later changed to Chloe Stewart because Zoe was thought to be too similar to Zoey 101, and the character was established well before Cyrus came in. In fact, she originally auditioned (yes, auditioned) for the role of Lilly. It was changed to Miley as all of the aliases were becoming confusing to her in Real Life. Still an odd subversion because Miley wasn't her real first name—it's Destiny Hope Cyrus, and Miley was a nickname she got as a baby—but then she had her first name legally changed to Miley.
    • Played straight in the case of Heather Truscott, played by Heather Locklear.
  • Dawson Casting:
    • Jason Earles, who plays Jackson, was a real-life example of Vague Age, his year of birth variably being reported as either 1977, 1985 or 1988, until it was finally confirmed to be 1977, making him almost 29 years old when the show premiered. Averted with the rest of the young characters, who are played by real teenagers.
    • Of special note: In the episode which teased a Lilly/Jackson pairing, Emily Osment was 16 and Jason Earles was 31, or almost twice her age.
    • Season 4's recurring guest character Siena, implied to be around Jackson's age, is played by 26-year old Tammin Sursok.
      • Actually her age was never mentioned. There's no reason she can't be 26.
  • Defictionalization: Miley Cyrus' early music career consists entirely of songs from the show, including performances as Hannah Montana in real life. Arguably, this wasn't the original intention. Disney Consumer Products failed to produce any official Hannah Montana merchandise for the first holiday season following the show's initial airing in March 2006, indicating that they did not anticipate the popularity it would garner nor the demand it would generate.
  • Executive Meddling: Possible: In some of the episodes, there's an underlying feeling that the plot and even the show could have been brilliantly satirical, but that the Disney sitcom formula, as well as the target demographic being little girls, puts a limit on the writers' storytelling potential.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!:
  • Hey, It's That Voice!:
    • Jason Griffith as a radio announcer.
    • In the Japanese dub: Hannah Montana is Hayate Ayasaki. Incidentally, her voice actress dubs Miley Cyrus in Japanese in almost every other movie or TV series she appears in.
  • Mean Character, Nice Actor:
    • Moises Arias, who plays Rico, is not as selfish and rotten as his character. In fact he promoted penguin preservation with the Disney MMORPG, Club Penguin.
    • The girls who played Amber and Ashley aren't really mean in real life either.
      • Nor is Romi Dames, the actress who plays stuck-up socialite Traci Van Horn. Quite the opposite, in fact.
  • Old Shame: Judging from his comments to GQ magazine, Billy Ray Cyrus has blamed the show for destroying his family.
    • He retracted the statement not long after.
  • Reality Subtext: The fourth season deals with themes such as whether Hannah's audience would accept the change and growth in her work, Miley and Lilly growing up and out of the tastes and fashions they had when they were younger, and whether her fans would stay with her even after Miley stops being Hannah Montana and appears in public as the real Miley. This seems to reflect Miley's image change into a more adult and more edgy/personalized/reflective image and music style in Real Life, which began before the fourth season was filmed.
  • Real Life Relative: Miley Stewart's father Robbie Ray Stewart is played by Miley Cyrus' father, Billy Ray Cyrus. (Yes, that Billy Ray Cyrus).