Entertainment TV All About Millie Bobby Brown’s Parents, Robert and Kelly Brown Robert and Kelly Brown did everything they could to help Millie Bobby Brown become a star By Ilana Frost Ilana Frost Ilana Frost is a contributing writer at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2023. Her work has previously appeared in Elite Daily, Bustle and The List. People Editorial Guidelines Published on October 8, 2023 04:00PM EDT Millie Bobby Brown and her parents, Robert and Kelly, at The 23rd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards Cocktail Reception in 2017. Photo: John Sciulli/Getty From the time Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown was a little girl, her parents, Robert and Kelly Brown, recognized her enormous potential. During a 2016 interview with the Daily Mail, Robert recalled: “My other children would watch cartoons, but Mill watched musicals — Chicago, Moulin Rouge, Annie and Bugsy Malone. She’d belt out a tune. She was performing from day one.” Millie’s parents were determined to help her become an actress. When an agent recommended they move from Florida to California for her career, they packed their bags. However, times were tough in California — although the Enola Holmes star began to book small roles here and there, the family ran out of money after a while and eventually moved in with a relative back in England. Soon after they returned to the U.K., Millie booked Stranger Things, and their lives changed forever. Throughout the intense journey, the actress, her parents and her three siblings havee all remained incredibly close. Millie has even referred to Robert and Kelly as her “best friends.” So who are Robert and Kelly Brown? Read on to learn all about the parents of Millie Bobby Brown and their relationship with the Emmy nominee. Robert worked in real estate and they had a teeth-whitening business Millie Bobby Brown on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2022. Todd Owyoung/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Millie’s parents made ends meet in a variety of ways before the actress got her big break. Robert was a real estate agent in England and Spain, where Robert’s parents lived and where the family moved before Millie was born in 2004. The family moved back to the U.K. in 2008, and when Millie was 8, the Browns launched a teeth-whitening business in Orlando, Florida, according to the Daily Mail. Millie’s acting journey started when she was bothering Robert Robert Brown and Millie Bobby Brown at the 2014 BAFTA Los Angeles TV Tea. Kevork Djansezian/BAFTA LA/Getty “I was annoying my father one Saturday and he said, ‘We need to find you something fun to do,’ ” Millie told the Daily Mail. And he did; her parents enrolled her in acting classes. According to the actress: “It was acting, dancing, singing four hours every Saturday. There was a showcase and an agent said she wanted to represent me.” From there, the agent suggested the Browns move to California, and they took her advice. Robert had a friend introduce Millie to Melanie Greene, who became her manager. They almost went bankrupt trying to support Millie Robert and Kelly sacrificed everything they had to move to Hollywood and make Millie’s dreams come true. “It was very hard,” Millie recalled to the Daily Mail. “There were lots of tears along the way.” Greene even lent the family money when things got especially rough. Although she earned several small parts in TV shows like Modern Family and Grey’s Anatomy, Millie wasn’t booking lead roles in any projects. The actress recalled: “My older sister left. She didn’t want to [live in the U.S.] anymore. It was tears, tears, tears. We went through tough times.” Eventually, the Browns moved in with Millie’s aunt back in England. “I was devastated,” Millie shared. “I wasn’t getting work. I thought I was done.” But soon she booked Stranger Things, and her family moved back to the U.S. They have four children Robert Brown, Millie Bobby Brown, and Paige Brown attend the premiere of 'Enola Holmes 2'. Monica Schipper/Getty Robert and Kelly have four children. Millie has an older sister, Paige; an older brother, Charlie; and a younger sister, Ava. The tightknit family work with and support Millie. Paige produces films with Millie under their production company, PCMA Productions, and the sisters worked on Enola Holmes and Enola Holmes 2 together. Millie’s brother, Charlie, is a photographer and has collaborated with the actress on a variety of projects, including her cover stories for Who What Wear and Glamour U.K. Their youngest sibling, Ava, has played an important part in Millie’s clean makeup brand, Florence by Mills. Ava inspired the brand’s “Ava’s Mini Essentials Kit” and posed for a promotional Instagram photo. Kelly didn’t want Millie to shave her head for Stranger Things STRANGER THINGS, Millie Bobby Brown. Everett Kelly was not in favor of Millie shaving her head for Stranger Things. “My mom’s like, ‘No! That’s not happening,’ ” Millie recalled to Elle in August 2016. “And I was like, ‘Mom. You need to chill out; it’s gonna grow back.’ My mom was against it. And me and my dad were like, ‘Come on. It's fine!’ ” Robert made headlines in 2016 for demanding money from agencies In 2016, Robert raised eyebrows in the entertainment industry when he demanded an up-front cash payment of $100,000 for Millie to sign with an agency, per The Hollywood Reporter. Traditionally, actors pay agents to get them work — not the other way around. According to a rep for the Browns, Robert asked for the money based on “ill advice from someone outside the industry that was said in jest." Robert wants to keep Millie grounded Millie Bobby Brown and Robert Brown at the 2018 Time 100 Gala. Kevin Mazur/Getty Despite her fame and success, Robert has prioritized keeping his daughter grounded. “It’s important for Millie not to feel under pressure,” he told the Daily Mail. “She’s a kid. She has to do her homework and chores. Everything else is a bonus.” They encouraged her to go back to school Millie Bobby Brown at Osaka Comic Con 2023. Jun Sato/WireImage Millie’s parents value education and encouraged her to go back to school, even after Stranger Things took off. “I’m a UNICEF ambassador and so I take that role really seriously,” she explained during a September 2023 appearance on ITV’s Lorraine. “And so I wanted to go back to school just to be able to learn more about economic and cultural issues, just so I could have that information in a broader perspective so that I could really bring something to the role.” The actor added: “I think that's something, also, my parents put in me because I think they were like, ‘If you are passionate about this, you need to know about it.’ And that’s with everything I do." In August 2022, Millie shared with Allure that she was studying human services online through Purdue University. They spend time with Millie and her fiancé Robert Brown, Ava Brown, Millie Bobby Brown, Jake Bongiovi at the premiere of season 4 of 'Stranger Things' in 2022. Nina Westervelt/Variety/Penske Media/Getty Robert and Kelly often spend time with Millie and her fiancé, Jake Bongiovi. In June 2023, they went to dinner together at Don Angie in New York City’s West Village. Millie’s Stranger Things costar Noah Schnapp and Pretty Smart actor Gregg Sulkin also joined the group at the Italian restaurant. Millie calls her parents her “best friends” Millie gushed about her parents on Lorraine. “My parents are the best thing ever,” she said. “I’m best friends with them.” The actress shared that she even still asks them to accompany her to work. “When I turned 18, I said, ‘You’re still going to come with me, right?’ ” she recalled. “I always needed a chaperone and I said, ‘I still need you.’ So they travel everywhere with me, and they are a huge part of my life and a reason that I am where I am today.” Millie opened up about her close relationship with her mother in a May 2020 Instagram video, too. “My mum and I are really close,” she shared. “She’s like my other half. I talk to her about everything, including my career and personal life. She’s my best friend. I have the best mum in the world.”