Milner, born in London, England auditioned for talent show The Voice UK in 2012. Before appearing on The Voice Milner had worked in musical theatre appearing in the UK tour of Footloose as Ren, and as Troy Bolton in the Asian tour of High School Musical, amongst other productions. On The Voice UK, Milner auditioned with a mash-up between The Beatles' "Come Together" and "Lose Yourself" by Eminem. The audition was met with a positive reception, with three coaches: Danny O'Donoghue, Jessie J and will.i.am all electing for Milner to join their teams—from which Milner selected O'Donoghue. During the battle rounds, Milner sung "Beggin'" by Madcon against twenty-three year old Bill Downs—with Danny crowning him the winner. In the second live show, Milner performed "Free Fallin'", originally by Tom Petty—finding himself in the bottom two alongside Hannah Berney; from which he was saved. In the fourth live show, Milner performed KT Tunstall's "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree", also incorporating elements of Ed Sheeran's "You Need Me, I Don't Need You"—finding himself in the bottom three alongside Aleks Josh and David Julien; from which O'Donoghue saved him for a second time. During the semi-finals, Milner performed The Police's "Every Breath You Take"—though he was eliminated from the competition in favour of twenty-eight year old Bo Bruce.