Attractive and pixieish, Miller made her Broadway debut as Daisy in Neil Simon's "Biloxi Blues", a role she reprised in Mike Nichols' 1988 film adaptation. She followed up with leading lady duties in "Big Top Pee-Wee" (1988), "The Freshman" and "Kindergarten Cop" (both 1990) before playing a determined lawyer in "Other People's Money" (1991), the title character in the jokey "The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag" and silent film star Edna Purviance in the biopic, "Chaplin" (both 1992). Miller received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Al Pacino's girlfriend in "Carlito's Way" (1993) and also played the femme lead opposite Alec Baldwin in "The Shadow" (1994).

This daughter of actor-writer Mark Miller and journalist Bea Miller moved to NYC at age 18 to pursue acting. After brief appearances in TV commercials and daytime soap, Miller landed her breakthrough stage role. She was cast as an intellectual teenager in the short-lived 1987 CBS sitcom "The Popcorn Kid". That same year, a nearly unrecognizable Miller played the geeky runaway friend of Elisabeth Shue in the teen comedy "Adventures in Babysitting". After playing Kevin Anderson's girlfriend in the earnest "Miles From Home" (1988), she earned acclaim for her moving rendition of Emily Webb in the Broadway revival of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" (1989). On the big screen, Miller has been paired with a number of strong leading men including Marlon Brando and Matthew Broderick in "The Freshman", Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Kindergarten Cop" and Danny De Vito in "Other People's Money". More recently, she headlined the surprise hit thriller "The Relic" (1997) and co-starred opposite Jon Bon Jovi in "Little City" (scheduled for a 1998 release). Miller has also ventured more into TV, co-starring as Joe Mantegna's showgirl wife in the CBS miniseries "Mario Puzo's 'The Last Don'" (CBS, 1997) and playing a rural doctor who employs an escort to keep well-meaning friends from matchmaking in the Lifetime movie "The Hired Heart" (1997). She returned to series TV as a co-star of Tom Selleck's sitcom "The Closer" (CBS, 1998) but left after only five appearances, claiming she was unhappy with the direction of her role.