Lara Jill Miller

Lara Jill Miller (born April 20, 1967)^[1] is an American actress. She has played Samantha "Sam" Kanisky in the 1980s sitcom Gimme a Break! and Kathy on The Amanda Show.

Lara Jill Miller
Miller in 2015
Born	(1967-04-20) April 20, 1967 (age 58)[1] Allentown, Pennsylvania, U.S.[2]
Other names	Lara Miller
Education	New York University (BA) Fordham University School of Law (JD)
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1978–present

She voices the title characters in Clifford's Puppy Days, The Life and Times of Juniper Lee and Henry Hugglemonster. She also voices Widget in Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!, Lambie in Doc McStuffins, Fink in OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes, Lisa Loud in The Loud House, Libby Stein-Torres in The Ghost and Molly McGee, Izzie in SciGirls, Allie in Curious George, and Cat in If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

Early life and education

Miller was born April 20, 1967, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to Lois (née Noll) and Stanley Miller. Her parents were both Jewish.^[3][4] Her mother, Lois Miller, founded the talent agency Star Talent Management.^[4] Her father, Stanley Miller, owned and operated a pajama factory.^[5] He was also well known for his participation in community theater, and he worked as an extra in the movie Hairspray.^[3][5]

Miller first started acting at a local dinner theater, which she tried out for after seeing its auditions advertised in a local newspaper and asking her father what the word "audition" meant.^[2] She graduated from Allentown's William Allen High School.^[6]

Career

Miller's professional acting career began on Broadway, where she appeared as Amaryllis in a revival of The Music Man with Dick Van Dyke.^[7][2]

In 1981, after her appearance on Broadway, she joined the cast of Gimme a Break!, playing the role of the tomboyish Samantha "Sam" Kanisky opposite Nell Carter. When the series ended its six-year run on NBC in 1987, Miller attended New York University, where she played on the university's women's varsity tennis team and continued performing on stage nationally. Four years later, she received her J.D. degree from Fordham University School of Law, leaving graduation early to portray Peter Pan in a production at the Pennsylvania Youth Theater. She subsequently was admitted to practice law in New Jersey, New York, and her native Pennsylvania.^[8]

In 1999, Miller resumed her on-camera acting career with recurring roles on the Nickelodeon series The Amanda Show and All That and on General Hospital. She also began working in animated series, lending her voice to various characters, including Kari in Digimon (both the series and the feature film), Koko in Zatch Bell!, Alejo in Astro Boy, and Scheris Adjani in s-CRY-ed. Miller also provided the singing voice of Dorothy Gale in the National Public Radio adaptation of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and the voices of the title characters on Cartoon Network's The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, Disney Junior's Henry Hugglemonster, and the PBS Kids Clifford's Puppy Days (prequel to Clifford the Big Red Dog).^[9]

Miller appears in the recurring roles of Pookie, Wiki, and Tini on Disney Channel's Higglytown Heroes, Haruka of Daigunder, and the Nick Jr. series Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! as Widget, the show's problem-solving pink creature resembling a rabbit, both PBS series Curious George as Allie and SciGirls as Izzie,^[7][9] and regular guest-starring roles on several other animated series.^{[citation needed]}

For six seasons, she performed voice work on the Disney Channel/Disney Junior television series Doc McStuffins as the voice of Lambie and on the Nickelodeon television series The Loud House in which she voices Lisa Loud, Liam Hunnicutt, Becky, Persephone, and Nurse Patti.^[9]

In 2020, she voice acted for two cartoons, the episode "All About Zee" in DC Super Hero Girls and the English dub for Beastars as Haru. She continues to perform the role of Libby in the Disney production, The Ghost and Molly McGee.^[10][11][12]

Filmography

Live action

List of acting performances in live-action television and film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source[13]
1981–87	Gimme a Break!	Samantha "Sam" Kanisky	Main role	[14]
1986	Touch and Go	Courtney
1999–02	The Amanda Show	Kathy
2000	Chicken Soup for the Soul	The Teacher	TV series
2002	General Hospital	Kate Whittaker	Episode #1.9927
2005	Shushybye	Snoozles, Dozie, and Zeez
2009	iCarly	Mrs. Kravitz	Episode: "IFind Lewberts Lost Love"	[15]

Anime

List of dubbing performances in anime

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source[13]
1999	Digimon Adventure	Kari Kamiya
2000	Digimon Adventure 02
2001	Digimon Tamers	Nami Asaji
2002	Daigunder	Haruka
	Argento Soma	Second Lt. Sue Harris
2002–03	Great Teacher Onizuka	Anko's friend
2003	.hack//Legend of the Twilight	Random Girl
2003	S-CRY-ed	Scheris Adjani
2004	Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex	Tachikoma	also in Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG (series 2)
	Astro Boy	Alejo, Vivienne, C.J., Mimi, Nina	Sony Pictures TV / Kids' WB! / Cartoon Network /Toonami
	Please Twins!	Karen Onodera
2005	Planetes	Nono
	Rave Master	Hole	Episode 2
2005–07	Zatch Bell!	Koko
2005	Naruto	Matsuri
2007	Blood+	Min, Lulu, Javier
2008	Lucky ☆ Star	Misao Kusakabe
2008	Strait Jacket	Kapelteta Fernandez		[16]
2010	Nodame Cantabile	Yuiko Miyoshi
2020–present	Beastars	Haru		[11]

Animation

List of voice performances in animation

Year	Title	Role	Note's	Notes	Source[13]
2001–13	Totally Spies!	Ariel	Episode: W.O.W.
2002	Static Shock	Teen Girl #2	Episode: "Power Play"	[17]
2002	Rocket Power	Girl #1, Kid #1	Episode: "Beach Boyz and a Girl/X-treme Ideas"
2003–06	Clifford's Puppy Days	Clifford		[17]
2004	The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy	Girl/Kid C	Episode: "Which Came First?/Substitute Teacher"
2004	Megas XLR	Little Girl, Kelly		[17]
2004	All Grown Up!	Olivia
2004–08	Higglytown Heroes	Pookie, Wiki, Tini
2005–07	The Life and Times of Juniper Lee	Juniper Lee		[17]
2006	Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi	Julie Hinikawa	Episode: "Julie AmiYumi"	[17]
2006	Shorty McShorts' Shorts	April	Episode: "My Mom Married A Yeti"
2006–10	Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!	Widget, Huggy, Old Lady Zamboni		[17]
2009–22	Curious George	Allie
2010–23	SciGirls	Izzie		[17]
2011–12	Winx Club	Chatta, Tune, Livy	Special 4, season 3–4 Atlas Oceanic version
2011–16	Poppy Cat	Mother Bumblebird
2012–20	Doc McStuffins	Lambie, additional voices		[14][17]
2013–15	Henry Hugglemonster	Henry Hugglemonster
2016–present	The Loud House	Lisa Loud, Liam Hunnicutt, Becky, Margo Roberts (2016-2018), Nurse Patti, Levi Loud, Persephone, Additional Voices		[17]
2017	Vampirina	Matilda	Episode: "The Monster Snore"	[17]
2017–21	If You Give a Mouse a Cookie	Cat
2017–19	OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes	Fink, Cantalop, Truffle, Koala Princess		[17]
2018	Bunnicula	Lil Capone	Episode: "Haunted Dog House"
2020	DC Super Hero Girls	Casey Krinsky	Episode: "#AllAboutZee"
2020–22	The Casagrandes	Lisa Loud	2 episodes	[17]
2021–23	Looney Tunes Cartoons	Petunia Pig
2021–24	The Ghost and Molly McGee	Libby Stein-Torres		[17]

Film

List of voice performances in direct-to-video and television films

Year	Title	Role	Source[13]
2005	Digimon: Revenge of Diaboromon	Kari Kamiya	[17]
2008	Wubbzy's Big Movie!	Widget, Huggy, Old Lady Zamboni	[17]
2013	Curious George Swings Into Spring	Allie, Balloonist	[17]
2013	Curious George: A Halloween Boo Fest	Allie	[17]
2021	The Loud House Movie	Lisa Loud, 1600's Lisa	[18][17]
2022	Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!	Prisoner Costume Teen, Superhero Boy, Musketeer 3	[17]
2024	No Time to Spy: A Loud House Movie	Lisa Loud	[19]
2024	Digimon Adventure	Kari Kamiya	[20]
2024	Digimon Adventure: Our War Game!	Kari Kamiya	[21]
2024	Digimon Adventure 02: Digimon Hurricane Touchdown!! / Transcendent Evolution! The Golden Digimentals	Kari Kamiya	[22]

List of voice performances in feature films

Year	Title	Role	Source[13]
2000	Digimon: The Movie	Kari, Young Kari	[17]
2011	Puss in Boots	Additional Voices

Video games

List of voice performances in video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source[13]
1998	Baldur's Gate	Girl
1999	EverQuest	Various characters
2000	Adiboo: Discover series	Adiboo
2001	Diablo II: Lord of Destruction	Assassin		[17]
2002	Digimon Rumble Arena	Kari		[17]
2002	Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos	Jaina Proudmoore
2002	Nickelodeon Party Blast	Jimmy Neutron
2003	Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne	Jaina Proudmoore		[17]
2003	Tak and the Power of Juju	Dinky Juju		[17]
2004	Tak 2: The Staff of Dreams	Dinky Juju		[17]
2004	EverQuest II	Various characters
2005	Tak: The Great Juju Challenge	Dinky Juju		[17]
2005	Psychonauts	Milka Phage		[17]
2006	Barnyard	Zak Boy, various
2007	Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots	Bustup Ballerina, Mr. Huggles, Springy Rabbit		[17]
2008	de Blob	Comrade Black, Zip, Graydians		[17]
2009	FusionFall	Juniper Lee
2010	White Knight Chronicles	Various		[23]
2011	de Blob 2	Comrade Black, Papa Blanc, Inkies
2011	Once Upon a Monster	Shelby
2016	World of Warcraft: Legion	Korine
2017	Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue	Chirithy		[24]
2019	Kingdom Hearts III	Chirithy
2020	Kingdom Hearts III Re:Mind	Chirithy
2020	Legends of Runeterra	Crackshot Corsair, Ava Achiever
2020	Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory	Chirithy
2023	Arknights	Vermeil
	Learn Through Music	Leo the Lion (singer)
	Hooked on Phonics	Pig Wig

Personal life

In 2006, Miller's mother was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, a progressive brain disease, which forced her to close her talent agency; Miller has since helped spread awareness of the disease.^[25]