Stephanie Miller
Stephanie Miller | |
---|---|
![]() Stephanie Miller | |
Birth name | Stephanie Catherine Miller |
Born | September 29, 1961 |
Medium | Stand-up comedienne, Television, Radio |
Nationality | American |
Genres | Political satire, Observational comedy |
Website | The Stephanie Miller Show |
Stephanie Catherine Miller (born September 29, 1961) is an American comedienne and host of The Stephanie Miller Show, a progressive talk radio program produced in Los Angeles and syndicated nationally by Dial Global. Talkers magazine ranked her as the 24th most important radio talk show host in America for 2010.[1]
Miller's radio show was briefly televised live from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Eastern Time on MSNBC from April 30, 2007 to May 2, 2007. During this period, the show originated from MSNBC's studio in Secaucus, New Jersey, the studios and time slot formerly used by the now-canceled Imus in the Morning.[2] After the stint, she said that she was not interested in the position full-time.[3]
Early life
Miller was born in Washington, D.C.[4] and grew up on Willow Street in Lockport, New York. She is the daughter of 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 completing her secondary education in private Catholic schools, she attended the University of Southern California, earning a degree in theatre.[5]
After graduation, Miller performed stand-up comedy at the Laugh Factory, the legendary Hollywood comedy club. Later in her career, she performed at many comedy clubs around New York and Los Angeles.[6]
Acting roles
Early in her career, Miller had several small acting jobs, such as appearing as a nun in the 1984 TV movie Shattered Vows. 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, a brief appearance as a nurse on General Hospital, and she was in an episode of the TV series Diagnosis: Murder. Her most significant acting role was in the 1997 comedy film Just Write.[7]
Radio and television career
Miller returned to Lockport for an on-air job at radio station WLVL.[8] In 1985 she went to WCMF in Rochester, New York to work as "Sister Sleaze" on the Brother Wease Show.[5] She progressed to larger markets as morning co-host at hit music radio stations WCKG in Chicago and WQHT in New York. In 1993, Miller was hired by talk station KFI in Los Angeles, where she achieved high ratings with her own weeknight radio show.[9]
In the autumn of 1995, Miller became one of the few women to host her own late night television talk show, The Stephanie Miller Show syndicated by Buena Vista Television.[10] The show was cancelled after just 13 weeks.
Miller returned to Los Angeles radio in 1997,[11] first at KTZN and then at KABC. Later that year, she also began co-hosting the CNBC television show Equal Time, as the liberal counterpoint to conservative Bay Buchanan.
In 2000, the game show I've Got a Secret was revived on the Oxygen cable TV network with Miller as host. The following year, she began co-hosting Oxygen's weekday TV magazine show, Pure Oxygen. She also served as a frequent panelist on the PAX TV game show Balderdash, which was hosted by Miller's friend Elayne Boosler.
Current show
(aka the Sexy Liberal Show)
In September 2004, The Stephanie Miller Show was launched by Democracy Radio and WYD Media Management.[6] The live show is broadcast weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon Eastern Time in U.S. cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Seattle and on XM Satellite Radio's America Left channel 167.[12]
Miller is often referred to on the show as 'Mama' (or 'Jiggles') by both listeners and her co-hosts. These numerous references can be heard in free bits on her website or by purchasing a "Stephcast" subscription, whereby users can download all of her shows for a monthly or yearly fee. She, and listeners, call her two co-hosts 'the Mooks'. Her cohosts, impressionist Jim Ward and producer Chris Lavoie, often share their own opinions and arguments. Miller often seems to joke calling her mooks “Voice monkey Jim Ward and Boy-Toy Lavoie. Miller also has special guest co-hosts, Edie McClurg for "Mondays with McClurg", Aisha Tyler on Tuesdays, entitled Tuesdays with Tyler (when she is in town), Hal Sparks on Wednesdays entitled "Hump Days with Hal," as well as Fridays with John Fugelsang entitled "Fridays with Fugelsang." Associate producer, Rebekah Taylor (referred to by Miller as being surly) steps in to add some commentary early in the broadcast but is also utilized for her Ross Perot impression. Miller's program is widely popular, for example, she is ranked #2 in Los Angeles [13] She also stated that she beat the "Armstrong & Getty" radio program in San Francisco in her first ratings book. She often shares personal details about her life, from something as simple as a household appliance not working to much more intimate details, about sweat, insomnia and even what she calls "shy pee syndrome", which is actually paruresis. She also covers a great deal of celebrity news/gossip and off-the-wall stories.
In 2006, Miller had numerous appearances on several cable news shows, such as Larry King Live, to represent the progressive political point of view. After an October 13, 2006 appearance on the Fox News program Hannity & Colmes, where Miller defended peace activist Cindy Sheehan, a viewer mailed an ominous letter to Fox News, which was interpreted as a death threat and forwarded to Miller's agent.
From April 30, 2007 to May 2, 2007, Miller filled in for the recently fired Don Imus on MSNBC's 6AM–9AM ET time slot. Miller and her on-air staff received generally favorable reviews for their appearance. A fan petition was started to make the show the permanent replacement for the Imus MSNBC show. Joe Scarborough's show Morning Joe has now taken over this time slot.[14]
Sirius Satellite Radio, which had been running Miller during prime time hours (afternoon commute time) on their liberal "LEFT" channel 146, canceled her show in November 2007. However, on November 30, 2007, Miller announced that Sirius Left will air one hour of the show at 8 PM Eastern beginning on December 3, 2007.[15]
In late January 2008 her show on "Green 960" KKGN, San Francisco's Air America outlet, was cut from three hours to one. She had been on from 6am to 9am PST but was replaced in the 7am to 9am "prime drive-time" slot with local talent. This decision has provoked controversy, however, as many listeners were upset by the decision. After only two weeks off the air in that time slot, Miller's show was reinstated to the full three hours due to the large volume of correspondence sent to Green 960 from its listeners.[16]
The show's audience has grown substantially since its beginning, and had 2.5 million weekly listeners as of March 2010.[17][18]
In November 2009, it was announced on the air that the show was soon to "go bi," meaning bicoastal. After an offhand remark by Miller on November 12, 2009 that she was having trouble packing up her house to move to New York elicited questions on her online blog,[19] it was formally announced that Miller would travel back and forth between New York City and Los Angeles.
On Friday, May 28, 2010, Stephanie announced on her radio show that "in July" she will be moving back to Los Angeles.[20] During the streaming coverage provided by Hal Sparks on the previous day, Stephanie mentioned off air (during a commercial break when the audio was only being broadcast via Sparks' streaming coverage) that she would be coming back to Los Angeles.
Personal life
Miller has never been married, though she has compiled a long list of "future husbands," most notably Keith Olbermann.
She often mentions her dogs on her radio show and currently lives with two Great Pyrenees, Max & Fred. Oliver, a Tibetan Mastiff/Great Pyrenees mix, which Miller rescued in Spring of 2009, has new owners now due to a family crisis that had occurred and left Miller unable to train and care for him fully. She frequently had to travel from the West Coast to the East Coast, which left her little time to train Oliver. Her other Great Pyrenees, Puff, died on April 23, 2009.[21] Her best friend wrote a children's book inspired by Miller's St. Bernard Chester;[22] Chester died a few months before the book's release in mid-2006. Her Newfoundland, Poo Bear, lived for two years with bone cancer before dying on March 30, 2007; she devoted a portion of her April 2 show to discussing his life and how sad her life would be now that he was gone. Miller has done promotional events for animal welfare organizations.
In October 2007, she shared with the audience that she had been ill with mercury poisoning and was down to a dress size zero.
On August 13, 2010 Miller announced on her radio show that she is a lesbian and credited country singer Chely Wright with helping her come out.[23]
References
- ^ TALKERS magazine - Heavy Hundred 2010
- ^ MSNBC Selects the Stephanie Miller Show to Fill the Former Imus Early Morning Program Slot for Three Days Next Week
- ^ Entertainment: Radio: Elder calls MSNBC stint a 'blast' - OCRegister.com
- ^ Stephanie Miller Show, March 4, 2009.
- ^ a b Stephanie Miller - News & Opinion - Rochester City Newspaper
- ^ a b Wyd Media Managemnt
- ^ Stephanie Miller (I)
- ^ Niagara Frontier Media Monitor
- ^ http://www.radioguide.com/magazine/vol3no1/stephy/steph.htm
- ^ Joining The Boys' Club - Time
- ^ Miller signs on for Zone radio show - Entertainment News, VPage, Media - Variety
- ^ XM America Left Channel Program List
- ^ Wyd Media - Press
- ^ Keep Stephanie Miller on MSNBC
- ^ Stephanie Miller
- ^ GREEN 960AM, KKGN
- ^ "The Top Talk Radio Audiences", Talkers Magazine, Fall 2005
- ^ "The Top Talk Radio Audiences", Talkers Magazine, March 2010
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ LiveBlog for Thursday, April 23, 2009
- ^ Chester, The Water-loving, Pool-hopping, Salad-eating, St. Bernard Dog
- ^ EDGE Boston: Radio Talkshow Host Stephanie Miller Comes Out
External links
- 1961 births
- Living people
- American alternative journalists
- American game show hosts
- American political pundits
- American talk radio hosts
- American television talk show hosts
- American stand-up comedians
- Radio personalities from Chicago, Illinois
- Radio personalities from Los Angeles, California
- Radio personalities from New York City
- Radio personalities from New York
- People from Niagara County, New York
- Progressive talk radio
- University of Southern California alumni
- Women comedians
- LGBT people from the United States
- LGBT television personalities
- LGBT comedians
- LGBT rights activists from the United States