Christa Miller
Encyclopedia
Christa Miller is an American
actress who has achieved success in television comedy
. Her foremost roles include Kate O'Brien on The Drew Carey Show
and Jordan Sullivan on Scrubs
(which was created by her husband Bill Lawrence
). She has also appeared on Seinfeld
and CSI: Miami
. Since 2009, she has a starring role in the ABC
sitcom Cougar Town
, also created by husband Bill Lawrence.
and attended the prestigious Convent of the Sacred Heart
. She is the daughter of model
Bonnie Trompeter; and is the niece of actress Susan Saint James
and NBC sports executive Dick Ebersol
. She has one brother, John. Miller was a model
as a child, appearing in a Wonder Bread
commercial when she was six months old, posing at three for Francesco Scavullo
in an Ivory
soap advertisement, and being photographed for the cover of Redbook
. Her days as a child model were curtailed after an operation for a benign bone tumor
. After attending Convent of the Sacred Heart
, she returned briefly to modeling, but soon took acting lessons, and gave up modeling when she moved to Los Angeles, California
, in 1990. She was cover model and had a pictorial in the first U.S. edition of Maxim
.
, which starred her real-life aunt, Susan Saint James
, whom she resembles. She then appeared in episodes of Northern Exposure
, Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Party of Five
. She had a small role in the horror film Stepfather III
(1992) with Priscilla Barnes.
Miller appeared twice on Seinfeld
, as two different characters. In the 1993 episode "The Sniffing Accountant
", she played the boss of George Costanza
. She had intended to be a dramatic actress, and this role proved to be a turning point for Miller, who realized how much she enjoyed comedy. Two years later she returned to Seinfeld in "The Doodle
" to play George's girlfriend, Paula. This episode proved to be a boon to her career, as she convinced co-creator Larry David
to provide her with a rough cut video of the still-unaired episode when she auditioned for The Drew Carey Show
, whose producers had initially thought she was too inexperienced. David's support helped Miller win over the producers of Drew Carey, who cast her as Kate O'Brien, whom she played from 1995 - 2002.
Miller was the voice of Cleopatra in the short-lived animated show Clone High
.
In 2001, Miller's husband, writer-producer Bill Lawrence
, conceived a new comedy-drama
, Scrubs
. Miller was given a guest role as Dr. Cox
's (John C. McGinley
) acerbic ex-wife Jordan Sullivan. Originally, the character was intended to appear in only one episode; in season 2, the role became recurring. When her young cousin Teddy Ebersol, son of Susan St. James and Dick Ebersol
, died in a plane crash in 2004, Scrubs dedicated the season 4 episode "My Lucky Charm
" to him.
Miller had a leading role in the 2008 two-part TV miniseries The Andromeda Strain
. She also appeared in the CSI: Miami
episode "Divorce Party
".
She now appears on Cougar Town
, a sitcom created and produced by her husband, which stars Courteney Cox
, with whom Miller worked in a three-part story-arc of Season 8 of Scrubs.
in 1999. They have three children, Charlotte Sarah (born June 8, 2000), William Stoddard (born January 3, 2003), and Henry Vanduzer (born October 8, 2006). Her last two pregnancies
were written into Scrubs
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress who has achieved success in television comedy
Television comedy
Television comedy had a presence from the earliest days of broadcasting. Among the earliest BBC television programmes in the 1930s was Starlight, which offered a series of guests from the music hall era — singers and comedians amongst them...
. Her foremost roles include Kate O'Brien on The Drew Carey Show
The Drew Carey Show
The Drew Carey Show is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from 1995 to 2004. The show was set in Cleveland, Ohio, and revolved around the retail office and home life of "everyman" Drew Carey, a fictionalized version of the actor....
and Jordan Sullivan on Scrubs
Scrubs (TV series)
Scrubs is an American medical comedy-drama television series created in 2001 by Bill Lawrence and produced by ABC Studios. The show follows the lives of several employees of the fictional Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital. It features fast-paced screenplay, slapstick, and surreal vignettes...
(which was created by her husband Bill Lawrence
Bill Lawrence (producer)
William Van Duzer Lawrence IV is an American screenwriter, producer, and director best known as the creator of Scrubs and co-creator of Cougar Town. Lawrence is married to the actress Christa Miller whom he cast in both television series; they have three children together...
). She has also appeared on Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
and CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami is an American police procedural television series, which premiered on September 23, 2002 on CBS. The series is a spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation....
. Since 2009, she has a starring role in the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
sitcom Cougar Town
Cougar Town
Cougar Town is an American television sitcom that premiered on ABC on September 23, 2009. The series focuses on a recently divorced woman in her forties facing the often humorous challenges, pitfalls and rewards of life's next chapter, along with her son, ex-husband, and friends who together make...
, also created by husband Bill Lawrence.
Early life
Miller was born in ManhattanManhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
and attended the prestigious Convent of the Sacred Heart
Convent of the Sacred Heart (New York)
The Convent of the Sacred Heart is a Roman Catholic all-girl school in the Manhattan borough of New York City. Teaching grades from pre-kindergarten through twelve, it is located on Manhattan's Upper East Side at East 91st Street and Fifth Avenue....
. She is the daughter of model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
Bonnie Trompeter; and is the niece of actress Susan Saint James
Susan Saint James
Susan Saint James is an American actress and activist, most widely known for her work in television during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.-Early life:...
and NBC sports executive Dick Ebersol
Dick Ebersol
Duncan "Dick" Ebersol is an American television executive and a senior adviser for . He had previously been the chairman of NBC Sports, producing large scale television events such as the Olympic Games and National Football League broadcasts....
. She has one brother, John. Miller was a model
Child modeling
A child model refers to a child who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art, such as photography, painting and sculpture.-Practice:...
as a child, appearing in a Wonder Bread
Wonder Bread
Wonder Bread is the name of three North American brands of white bread: One produced by George Weston Bakeries in Canada, another by Hostess Brands in the United States, and the third by Grupo Bimbo in Mexico.- United States :...
commercial when she was six months old, posing at three for Francesco Scavullo
Francesco Scavullo
Francesco Scavullo was an American fashion photographer best known for his work on the covers of Cosmopolitan and his celebrity portraits.-Biography:...
in an Ivory
Ivory (soap)
The name "Ivory" refers to a series of products created by the Procter & Gamble Company , including varieties of a white and mildly fragranced bar soap, that became famous for its pure content and for floating in water. Over the years, the bar soap has been altered into other varieties...
soap advertisement, and being photographed for the cover of Redbook
Redbook
Redbook is an American women's magazine published by the Hearst Corporation. It is one of the "Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines.-History:...
. Her days as a child model were curtailed after an operation for a benign bone tumor
Bone tumor
A bone tumor refers to a neoplastic growth of tissue in bone. Abnormal growths found in the bone can be either benign or malignant .-Classification:...
. After attending Convent of the Sacred Heart
Convent of the Sacred Heart (New York)
The Convent of the Sacred Heart is a Roman Catholic all-girl school in the Manhattan borough of New York City. Teaching grades from pre-kindergarten through twelve, it is located on Manhattan's Upper East Side at East 91st Street and Fifth Avenue....
, she returned briefly to modeling, but soon took acting lessons, and gave up modeling when she moved to Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, in 1990. She was cover model and had a pictorial in the first U.S. edition of Maxim
Maxim (magazine)
Maxim is an international men's magazine based in the United Kingdom and known for its pictorials featuring popular actresses, singers, and female models, sometimes pictured dressed, often pictured scantily dressed but not fully nude....
.
Career
Miller's first role on television was in Kate & AllieKate & Allie
Kate & Allie is an American television situation comedy which ran from March 19, 1984 to May 22, 1989. Kate & Allie first aired on CBS as a midseason replacement series and only six episodes were initially commissioned, but the favorable response from critics and viewers alike easily convinced CBS...
, which starred her real-life aunt, Susan Saint James
Susan Saint James
Susan Saint James is an American actress and activist, most widely known for her work in television during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.-Early life:...
, whom she resembles. She then appeared in episodes of Northern Exposure
Northern Exposure
Northern Exposure is an American television series that ran on CBS from 1990 to 1995, with a total of 110 episodes.-Overview:The series was given a pair of consecutive Peabody Awards: in 1991–92 for the show's "depict[ion] in a comedic and often poetic way, [of] the cultural clash between a...
, Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Party of Five
Party of Five
Party of Five is an American teen drama television series that aired on Fox for six seasons, from September 12, 1994, until May 3, 2000.Critically acclaimed, the show suffered from low ratings and after its first season was slated for cancellation...
. She had a small role in the horror film Stepfather III
Stepfather III
Stepfather III is a 1992 slasher film directed and written by Guy Magar and starring Robert Wightman and Priscilla Barnes...
(1992) with Priscilla Barnes.
Miller appeared twice on Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
, as two different characters. In the 1993 episode "The Sniffing Accountant
The Sniffing Accountant
"The Sniffing Accountant" is the sixty-eighth episode of the sitcom Seinfeld, being the fourth episode of the series' fifth season. It aired on NBC on Thursday, October 7, 1993....
", she played the boss of George Costanza
George Costanza
George Louis Costanza is a character in the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Jason Alexander. He has variously been described as a "short, stocky, slow-witted, bald man" , "Lord of the Idiots" , and as "the greatest sitcom character of all time"...
. She had intended to be a dramatic actress, and this role proved to be a turning point for Miller, who realized how much she enjoyed comedy. Two years later she returned to Seinfeld in "The Doodle
The Doodle
"The Doodle" is the one hundred and sixth episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 20th episode for the 6th season. It aired on April 6, 1995.-Plot:...
" to play George's girlfriend, Paula. This episode proved to be a boon to her career, as she convinced co-creator Larry David
Larry David
Lawrence Gene "Larry" David is an American actor, writer, comedian and producer. He is best known as the co-creator , head writer, and executive producer of the television series Seinfeld from 1989 to 1996, and for creating the 1999 HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, a partially improvised sitcom in...
to provide her with a rough cut video of the still-unaired episode when she auditioned for The Drew Carey Show
The Drew Carey Show
The Drew Carey Show is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from 1995 to 2004. The show was set in Cleveland, Ohio, and revolved around the retail office and home life of "everyman" Drew Carey, a fictionalized version of the actor....
, whose producers had initially thought she was too inexperienced. David's support helped Miller win over the producers of Drew Carey, who cast her as Kate O'Brien, whom she played from 1995 - 2002.
Miller was the voice of Cleopatra in the short-lived animated show Clone High
Clone High
Clone High is a Canadian-American animated television series that aired for one season on MTV and Teletoon....
.
In 2001, Miller's husband, writer-producer Bill Lawrence
Bill Lawrence (producer)
William Van Duzer Lawrence IV is an American screenwriter, producer, and director best known as the creator of Scrubs and co-creator of Cougar Town. Lawrence is married to the actress Christa Miller whom he cast in both television series; they have three children together...
, conceived a new comedy-drama
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...
, Scrubs
Scrubs (TV series)
Scrubs is an American medical comedy-drama television series created in 2001 by Bill Lawrence and produced by ABC Studios. The show follows the lives of several employees of the fictional Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital. It features fast-paced screenplay, slapstick, and surreal vignettes...
. Miller was given a guest role as Dr. Cox
Dr. Cox
Percival "Perry" Ulysses Cox, M.D. , is a fictional character played by John C. McGinley on the American television comedy-drama Scrubs....
's (John C. McGinley
John C. McGinley
John Christopher McGinley is an American actor, most notable for his roles as Perry Cox in Scrubs, Bob Slydell in Office Space, Sergeant Red O'Neill in Oliver Stone's Platoon and Marv in Stone's Wall Street. He has also written and produced for television and film...
) acerbic ex-wife Jordan Sullivan. Originally, the character was intended to appear in only one episode; in season 2, the role became recurring. When her young cousin Teddy Ebersol, son of Susan St. James and Dick Ebersol
Dick Ebersol
Duncan "Dick" Ebersol is an American television executive and a senior adviser for . He had previously been the chairman of NBC Sports, producing large scale television events such as the Olympic Games and National Football League broadcasts....
, died in a plane crash in 2004, Scrubs dedicated the season 4 episode "My Lucky Charm
My Lucky Charm (Scrubs)
"My Lucky Charm" is the 14th episode of season four and the 82nd episode overall of the American sitcom Scrubs. It originally aired on January 25, 2005 on NBC. The episode is dedicated to Teddy Ebersol, the son of Dick Ebersol.-Plot:...
" to him.
Miller had a leading role in the 2008 two-part TV miniseries The Andromeda Strain
The Andromeda Strain (2008 miniseries)
The Andromeda Strain is a 2008 science fiction miniseries, based on the novel published in 1969 by Michael Crichton about a team of scientists who investigate a deadly disease of extraterrestrial origin. The miniseries is more of a "reimagining" of the original Michael Crichton novel than an...
. She also appeared in the CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami is an American police procedural television series, which premiered on September 23, 2002 on CBS. The series is a spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation....
episode "Divorce Party
Divorce party
A divorce party is a way to have a ceremony that celebrates the end of a marriage or civil union. Types of divorce parties vary greatly, and can involve either one or both members of the separating couple...
".
She now appears on Cougar Town
Cougar Town
Cougar Town is an American television sitcom that premiered on ABC on September 23, 2009. The series focuses on a recently divorced woman in her forties facing the often humorous challenges, pitfalls and rewards of life's next chapter, along with her son, ex-husband, and friends who together make...
, a sitcom created and produced by her husband, which stars Courteney Cox
Courteney Cox
Courteney Bass Cox is an American actress, she is best known for her roles as Monica Geller on the NBC sitcom Friends, Gale Weathers in the horror series Scream and as Jules Cobb in the ABC sitcom Cougar Town, for which she earned her first Golden Globe nomination....
, with whom Miller worked in a three-part story-arc of Season 8 of Scrubs.
Personal life
Miller married Bill LawrenceBill Lawrence (producer)
William Van Duzer Lawrence IV is an American screenwriter, producer, and director best known as the creator of Scrubs and co-creator of Cougar Town. Lawrence is married to the actress Christa Miller whom he cast in both television series; they have three children together...
in 1999. They have three children, Charlotte Sarah (born June 8, 2000), William Stoddard (born January 3, 2003), and Henry Vanduzer (born October 8, 2006). Her last two pregnancies
Pregnancy
Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...
were written into Scrubs
Scrubs (TV series)
Scrubs is an American medical comedy-drama television series created in 2001 by Bill Lawrence and produced by ABC Studios. The show follows the lives of several employees of the fictional Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital. It features fast-paced screenplay, slapstick, and surreal vignettes...
.
External links
- Biography from Disney'sThe Walt Disney CompanyThe Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
Touchstone Television website for Scrubs