Joshua John Miller Biography

Joshua John Miller (born December 26, 1974) is an American actor, screenwriter, author, and director. Miller co-writes with his life partner M.A. Fortin; the two wrote the screenplay for the 2015 horror comedy The Final Girls, and the USA Network drama series Queen of the South.

Personal life

Miller was born in Los Angeles to actor and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Jason Miller and actress and Playboy pin-up Susan Bernard. Miller's half-brother is actor Jason Patric, and his maternal grandfather was photographer Bruno Bernard, also known as "Bernard of Hollywood". His father was of Irish and German descent, and his mother is Jewish.

Miller is openly gay and, as of 2013, is in a relationship with fellow screenwriter M.A. Fortin.

Career

Miller began appearing in films and television when he was eight years old. His first film role was in Halloween III: Season of the Witch. He would go on to star in such films as River's Edge, Near Dark, Class of 1999, and Teen Witch. Miller also made guest appearances on several popular television shows, including 21 Jump Street, The Wonder Years, The Greatest American Hero, Highway to Heaven (for which he received a Young Artist Award in 1985), and Growing Pains (hence a popular misconception that he is a relative of Jeremy Miller, who portrayed Ben Seaver on that series; they are not related). Miller appeared in several plays, and was involved in dance from a very early age. He starred in the Los Angeles Ballet Company's production of The Nutcracker for three consecutive seasons beginning at age seven, and later appeared as a dancer in Janet Jackson's Grammy Award-winning Rhythm Nation 1814 video.

Miller attended Yale University and Antioch University, and studied creative writing at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1997, he published a pseudo-autobiographical novel called The Mao Game about a fifteen-year-old child star attempting to cope with heroin addiction, memories of past sexual abuse, and the impending death of his grandmother, who has been diagnosed with cancer. In 1999, The Mao Game was adapted into a film, written and directed by Miller, and co-produced by Whoopi Goldberg. The film starred Miller, Kirstie Alley, and Piper Laurie, and featured Miller's mother, Susan Bernard, in a brief, uncredited cameo. It toured the festival circuit, and garnered mixed reviews from critics.

In December 2003, he completed his MFA in creative writing at the University of Iowa. He was awarded the Capote Fellowship, and was also chosen for the Houghton-Mifflin Fellowship Award. He has also written articles for Harper's Bazaar, Playboy, and Esquire. In 2007, Miller appeared as Jinky in The Wizard of Gore. He has written a second novel, titled Ash.

Miller collaborated with M.A. Fortin to write the DreamWorks TV and Fox production Howl. Miller and Fortin then co-wrote the short film Dawn (2014), which was directed by actress Rose McGowan and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The two also co-wrote the screenplay and executive produced the 2015 horror comedy film The Final Girls, directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson and starring Taissa Farmiga and Malin kerman. Miller and Fortin wrote the pilot for the USA Network drama series Queen of the South. Miller also serves as an executive producer for the series, which began airing on June 23, 2016.

Filmography

As actor

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1982	Halloween III: Season of the Witch	Willie Challis
1982	The Greatest American Hero	Jonathan	Episode: "Good Samaritan"
1984	Family Ties	Kenneth	Episode: "Go Tigers"
1984	The Fantastic World of D.C. Collins	Franois	Television film
1985	Highway to Heaven	Jason Winner	Episode: "A Song for Jason (Parts 1 & 2)"
1986	Stoogemania	Young Howard
1986	River's Edge	Tim
1987	Near Dark	Homer
1987	21 Jump Street	Brian Sheffield	Episode: "In the Custody of a Clown"
1987	Growing Pains	Friend #1	Episode: "Not Necessarily The News"
1988	Cagney & Lacey	Henry Gorvel	Episode: "Hello Goodbye"
1989	Rhythm Nation 1814	B.J.	Short film
1989	Teen Witch	Richie Miller
1989	Meet the Hollowheads	Joey
1990	The Wonder Years	Larry Beeman	Episode: "Rock 'n Roll"
1990	Class of 1999	Angel
1990	The Ghost Writer	Edgar Strack	Television film
1990	Death Warrant	Douglas Tisdale
1991	And You Thought Your Parents Were Weird	Josh Carson
1999	The Mao Game	Jordan Highland
2007	The Wizard of Gore	Jinky

As writer

Year	Title	Notes
1999	The Mao Game	Also director
2011	Howl
2014	Dawn
2015	The Final Girls	Also executive producer
2016-present	Queen of the South	Also executive producer

Bibliography

• The Mao Game (1997)

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
1986	Young Artist Awards	Exceptional Performance by a Young Actor in a Television Special or Mini-Series	Highway to Heaven
1988	Saturn Awards	Best Performance by a Younger Actor	Near Dark
	Young Artist Awards	Best Young Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama	River's Edge
1989		Best Young Actor in a Cable Family Series	On the Edge
1990		Best Young Actor Guest Starring in a Television Series	The Wonder Years
		Best Young Actor Starring in a Motion Picture	Teen Witch
1991		Best Young Actor Starring in a Motion Picture	Class of 1999
1992	Saturn Awards	Best Performance by a Younger Actor	And You Thought Your Parents Were Weird
1993	Young Artist Awards	Best Young Actor Starring in a Motion Picture	And You Thought Your Parents Were Weird