Best known for her spate of roles on American prime-time sitcoms, actress Christa Miller grew up in Manhattan. As the daughter of 1960s fashion model Bonnie Trompeter and aeronautical engineer Chuck Miller, and the niece of Love at First Bite star Susan Saint James, Miller overcame a significant physical debilitation as a young child -- the surgical removal of a potentially crippling leg tumor -- before establishing herself as a successful print model during her teens. The transition to acting was a fluid and easy one, and consisted, in the early years, of guest appearances on such programs as Kate & Allie (reportedly without James's involvement; the established actress later insisted that her niece got the job on her own behalf), Northern Exposure, and Seinfeld. Miller achieved full-fledged sitcom stardom in 1995, when comedian Drew Carey tapped her for regular cast billing as Kate O'Brien, his onscreen gal pal, on his blockbuster program The Drew Carey Show. Then, as Carey wound down at the end of the 2000-2001 TV season, Miller snagged another role: that of hospital board member Jordan Sullivan, with whom the main character (Zach Braff) enjoys a brief tryst, on the medically themed sitcom Scrubs (created by Miller's husband, Bill Lawrence). She remained with that program over the course of multiple seasons and struck a chord with audiences. In 2008 she was one of the leads in the remake of The Andromeda Strain, and the next year she was cast in the Courtney Cox series Cougar Town.
Christa Miller
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- Appeared in a commercial for Wonder Bread when she was just 3 months old and a print advertisement for Ivory Soap, when she was 3 years old.
- Had an operation to remove a benign, but rare, bone tumor when she was 10.
- Appeared in her first TV commercial (a Polaroid ad) in 1980, and began modeling professionally after high school.
- In 1989, landed her first episodic-TV appearance on Kate & Allie, which starred her aunt Susan Saint James; this led to guest appearances on Northern Exposure, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Party of Five.
- Made feature-film debut in the 1991 suspense/thriller Deceived.
- Appeared twice on Seinfeld: first as the boss of George Costanza's potential employer, in the episode "The Sniffing Accountant"; and then as a woman with whom George had little romantic chemistry, in "The Doodle."
- First major sitcom role came in 1995, when she won the role of tomboyish Kate O'Brien on The Drew Carey Show; she left in 2002 when her husband, Scrubs writer and producer Bill Lawrence, cast her in the recurring role of Jordan, Dr. Cox's hard-nosed, wise-cracking ex-wife and hospital board member.
- Featured on the cover of the first American edition of Maxim magazine, which was released on April 1, 1997.
- Penned an article for Esquire Magazine, titled "Fifteen Things You Don't Know About Women."
- Daughter Charlotte appeared with her in an episode of Scrubs titled "Their Story," in which Charlotte played a girl who bore an uncanny resemblance to Christa's character Jordan.