Stephanie Miller
Stephanie Catherine Miller is an American political commentator, comedian, and host of The Stephanie Miller Show, a Progressive talk radio program produced in Los Angeles, California, by WYD Media Management and syndicated nationally by Westwood One. In 2017, Talkers Magazine ranked her the 23rd-most important radio talk show host in the U.S. Miller has leveraged her talk show via various platforms including online, as well as via her Sexy Liberal Tour live comedy show.
Early life
Miller was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Stephanie , and former U.S. Representative William E. Miller, who was Barry Goldwater's running mate in the 1964 presidential election and a chairman of the Republican National Committee. After her father left the United States Congress when Miller was three years old, her family moved to her father's hometown of Lockport, New York. She is the youngest of four children; her two elder sisters, Libby and Mary, are almost 20 years her senior. She also has an older brother, William Jr. Her brother ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives from upstate New York, in 1992 and 1994.Miller's father died in 1983; her mother died in 2023.
Miller's first efforts at comedy were in high school, performing in a sketch, "Torn Between Two Lovers," requiring a specially-sewn dress with panels that boys ripped open every time a chorus of the song was heard. Recalling the performance, Miller says, "I got my first laugh, and that was it. It's like a drug. It's always been my only drug." After completing her secondary education in private Catholic schools, graduating from DeSales High School in Lockport in 1979, Miller attended the University of Southern California, earning a degree in theatre. Her original plan after college "was to be Carol Burnett". On September 29, 2015, Burnett called Miller on her radio show to wish her happy birthday. On the phone, Miller told Burnett she always wanted to be her, "but it didn't work out. She made me cry when she said I shouldn't be Carol Burnett because there's only one Stephanie Miller and nobody does what I do. I was bawling."
Stand-up comedy
Miller's first job after graduation from college was at the Laugh Factory, the legendary Hollywood comedy club, working for club owner Jamie Masada, answering phones, putting names on the marquee, cocktail waitressing, and other tasks, while also performing stand-up at the club. When Miller moved back to upstate New York a few years later, she worked at Yuk Yuk's Comedy Club in Buffalo, living in a $125 per month apartment over a pizza parlor near the club. While working in radio in the 1980s and 1990s, she also performed at many comedy clubs around New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. She appeared twice on A & E's An Evening at the Improv, on the A&E TV Network, on August 5, 1988, and March 3, 1989. She was also the first comedian to perform when the Chicago Improv club opened. In addition, she performed a one-woman Off-Broadway show while living in New York City in the early 1990s. Miller also performed at the Laugh Factory when she moved back to Los Angeles from New York City in 2003. Miller says she has a talk with her late father every time she is about to face an audience.Acting roles
Miller initially set out to be an actress, and for many years had hoped to star in her own sitcom, and also expressed interest in doing film. Early in her career, she had several small acting jobs, such as appearing as a nun in the 1984 TV movie Shattered Vows, and a brief appearance as a nurse on General Hospital. After gaining prominence as a radio and TV host she had roles where she essentially played herself, as in the movie View from the Top, and an episode of the TV series Diagnosis: Murder. Miller's most significant acting role was in the 1997 comedy film Just Write. During the late 1990s she also explored doing a television sitcom with producer Barry Kemp, who cast her in a pilot for ABC.Radio and television career
Early radio career
Miller did not plan a career in radio. In her words, "I always say radio was an accident until they started paying me a lot of money and then it wasn't an accident anymore."She began her radio career after her father's death in 1983, when she returned to Lockport from California. Her first radio experience was delivering humorous bits on Sandy Beach's morning show on Hot 104 WNYS in Buffalo, New York, which included doing impressions of Katharine Hepburn. She then took an on-air job at radio station WLVL in Lockport, where she went from evenings to afternoon drive to mornings in three months. She then sent a tape to Brother Wease, the morning drive host at WCMF in Rochester, New York. Levin "hired her as soon as I heard her tape," and in 1985 she went to WCMF to work as "Sister Sleaze" on the Brother Wease show. Speaking about Miller, Levin has been very complimentary, noting "She's very manic, very bright, very funny and creative." While working with Miller, in reply to friends asking Levin "how come you give that girl so much mike?" he responded: "Because she's phenomenal. Don't try and compete; let people fly. I let her fly, and we had a ball." After Rochester, Miller progressed to larger markets, as morning co-host at radio station WCKG in Chicago with John Howell from early 1988 to October 1989, and as morning co-host with Howard Hoffman at Hot 97 WQHT in New York City for three years until 1993.
In 1993, Miller headed back to Los Angeles to develop a sitcom for Warner Brothers that never materialized. Instead, in 1994 she began her talk radio career when was hired by talk station KFI in Los Angeles, initially for her own weekend show which quickly became a weeknight radio show where Miller achieved high ratings. During the show, as she had on her earlier stations in Rochester and New York City, Miller would sometimes call her mother in upstate New York on the phone, and her mother would also co-host when she came to visit in-person. Miller's mother would later do the same on her radio show at KABC. On her show on KFI, Miller began to incorporate political talk. "It was the first time I had done talk radio, and I was like, 'Oh, you mean just me talk, with no music?'" she recalls. "I was like, blah, blah, blah. Oh, I still have 10 minutes left. That's when I guess I started to get political, and I started to realize more of my liberal leanings." She states that her turning point in terms of being outspoken about politics came in August 1992, when she heard Pat Buchanan's gay-bashing "culture wars" speech at the Republican Convention. "It was just so mean. It changed everything for me."