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Miles Caton

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Miles Caton
Born2004 or 2005 (age 20–21)
Brooklyn, New York City, United States
Genres
Occupations
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • guitar
Discography"This Ain't It" (2023, single)
Years activec. 2007–present

Miles Caton (born c. 2005) is an American actor and musician. Caton has been active as a singer for nearly all his life and first came to national prominence on Little Big Shots in 2018. Caton is most famous for his acting role as Sammie Moore in the 2025 film Sinners.

Biography

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Miles Caton was born in Brooklyn, New York City,[1] and came from an "extremely musical family" where every member "can sing or play some type of instrument."[2] Singers in his family include his mother Timiney Figueroa and his aunt Anaysha Figueroa-Cooper.[3] Caton began singing at the age of two,[4] and performed a Sam Cooke song at the Lakeview, New York branch of the NAACP's 24th Annual Freedom Fund Awards Gala in October 2010.[5]

Caton became widely known in 2017 after a video of him singing "Feeling Good" went viral and was sampled in the montage video for rapper Jay-Z's song "4:44".[6] In March 2018, Caton appeared on the season three premiere of the NBC variety show Little Big Shots, which 2paragraphs singled out as "the one act the audience will never forget".[7] Caton was popular enough to return for the Little Big Shots holiday special in December, where he performed "O Holy Night".[8] On Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2019, Caton performed live on The View alongside gospel singer Yolanda Adams, singing her song "Never Give Up" in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his dream of racial equity and justice.[9]

In 2022, Caton toured with H.E.R. and attracted notice as a baritone background vocalist.[10] In 2023, Caton relased his long-anticipated debut single "This Ain't It", featuring "a clean vocal performance reminiscent of legends Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway".[11]

Toward the end of his tour with H.E.R., Caton got a call from her encouraging him to audition for a film role as "a young kid playing the guitar," an instrument which he did not know how to play at the time.[12] The role was Sammie Moore, a central character in the then-upcoming period film Sinners.[13] While Caton had previously filmed a short film and performed in a school play, he lacked experience acting in a major film.[13] Caton drew upon his past as a "family clown" entertaining and amusing his family to prepare for film acting.[14] Caton sent in his audition tape, about which Sinners director Ryan Coogler remarked, "You could just tell the kid was special — like, as a person ... I was like, 'Oh, man, we've gotta bring this kid in."[13] Speaking about his singing to Digital Spy, Sinners co-star Wunmi Mosaku said, "I do think his voice is like no other, it literally moves you. I know music will send the vibrations through, but there's something about his vibrations that really get you right there in the gut."[2] Caton was unaware of the centrality of vampires to the film's story when he signed on to appear in it, and only had two months to learn how to play blues guitar.[14]

After Sinners debuted in theaters, Caton told Vanity Fair that he wished to continue acting and felt like he was in an "incredible moment."[14] When asked by Variety about his future acting ambitions, he announced that he was interested in appearing in a Marvel film, and when asked about which superhero he would wish to play, he remarked, "I mean, my name is Miles..."[13]

References

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Citations

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  1. ^ Jenkins 2025.
  2. ^ a b Sandwell & Silvers 2025.
  3. ^ Kaloi 2025.
  4. ^ Simmons 2023; Jenkins 2025.
  5. ^ Grieco 2010.
  6. ^ TRO Essex 2017; 2paragraphs 2018.
  7. ^ 2paragraphs 2018.
  8. ^ Silva 2018.
  9. ^ Jackson 2019.
  10. ^ Hall 2022.
  11. ^ Simmons 2023.
  12. ^ Konwar 2025.
  13. ^ a b c d Caton (Variety) 2025.
  14. ^ a b c Caton (Vanity Fair) 2025.

Bibliography

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