Rebecca Augusta Miller, born on September 15, 1962, in Roxbury, Connecticut, is an acclaimed American filmmaker, novelist, actress, and visual artist.
As the daughter of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Arthur Miller and renowned Magnum photographer Inge Morath, she grew up immersed in a world of artistic innovation and intellectual discourse.
Her childhood home in Connecticut was a gathering place for luminaries like sculptor Alexander Calder and choreographer Martha Clarke, shaping her early exposure to creativity.
Miller’s diverse heritage added layers to her formative years, during which she briefly explored Catholicism before drifting away from organized religion by college.
Educated at Choate Rosemary Hall and Yale University, where she studied painting and literature alongside feminist author Naomi Wolf, Miller initially pursued fine arts, creating intricate wooden triptychs inspired by Paul Klee and Renaissance altarpieces.
By 1987, she had relocated to New York City, exhibiting her paintings and sculptures at prestigious galleries like Leo Castelli before transitioning to film studies at The New School.
Siblings
Rebecca’s father, Arthur Miller, had two children from his first marriage to Mary Grace Slattery, half-sister Jane Ellen Miller and half-brother Robert A. Miller, both significantly older than Rebecca and raised largely apart from her immediate family.
Jane, who pursued a low-profile life on the East Coast, and Robert maintained a distant but eventually reconciled connection with Rebecca, facilitated in part by her husband Daniel Day-Lewis, who helped mend ties between Daniel Miller and their father before Arthur’s death in 2005.
With her mother, Inge Morath, whom Arthur married in 1962, Rebecca welcomed a full younger brother, Daniel Miller, born in 1966 with Down syndrome.
In a decision that later sparked public controversy and familial guilt, Arthur and Inge placed Daniel in a care facility shortly after his birth.
Career
After her early exhibitions in the late 1980s, Miller pivoted to acting, securing supporting roles in high-profile films like the 1991 drama Regarding Henry opposite Harrison Ford, where she played a pivotal romantic interest, and Consenting Adults in 1992, navigating tense psychological territory alongside Kevin Kline and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.
These experiences honed her narrative instincts, leading her to directorial pursuits.
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Her feature debut, Angela in 1995, a haunting exploration of a young girl’s quest for spiritual redemption amid family dysfunction, premiered at the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema and Sundance, establishing her as a bold indie voice.
This was followed by short films and stage work, including a revival of her father’s play After the Fall for Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati in 1995.
Miller’s breakthrough came with Personal Velocity: Three Portraits in 2002, an adaptation of her own Washington Post-praised book of women’s prose portraits, which she wrote and directed to critical acclaim for its raw, vignette-driven portrayal of female autonomy.
Expanding her scope, she helmed The Ballad of Jack and Rose in 2005, starring her husband Daniel Day-Lewis in a father-daughter drama inspired by familial tensions.
In 2009, she adapted her novel The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, a midlife reinvention tale featuring Robin Wright and Alan Arkin, blending literary finesse with ensemble casting.
Miller also penned the screenplay for the 2005 adaptation of David Auburn’s Pulitzer-winning play Proof.
Her 2015 romantic comedy Maggie’s Plan, with Greta Gerwig in the lead, tackled unconventional love and ambition, while her 2017 HBO documentary Arthur Miller: Writer offered an intimate family lens on her father’s contradictions.
Most recently, She Came to Me in 2023 explored opera, desire, and reinvention with Anne Hathaway and Rhys Ifans, and she contributed to the 2025 Apple TV+ docuseries Mr. Scorsese.
Accolades
Miller’s debut Angela (1995) clinched the Independent Feature Project’s Open Palm Award and the Sundance Film Festival’s Filmmaker’s Trophy, with cinematographer Ellen Kuras earning additional nods at Sundance and the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film; it also secured the Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Director.
Personal Velocity: Three Portraits (2002) elevated her profile dramatically, winning the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and Cinematography Award, the Independent Spirit Award’s John Cassavetes Award for its micro-budget innovation, and a special National Board of Review nod for filmmaking excellence, cementing its place in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection.
Literary honors followed, with Personal Velocity named a Washington Post Best Book of 2001.
In 2009, the Boston Irish Film Festival bestowed the Maureen O’Hara Award upon her for lifetime achievement in film, honoring her nuanced portrayals of women.
Her 2017 documentary Arthur Miller: Writer earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special, praised for its archival depth and familial candor.
More recently, her retrospective at the American Cinematheque in 2025 highlighted her as an Independent Spirit and Gotham Award winner, while She Came to Me (2023) premiered to festival buzz, affirming her enduring influence.
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