T.J. Miller Biography

T.J. MILLER

Date of Birth: June 4, 1981

From voicing a dragon slayer in an animated children's hit to playing an arrogant pothead, T.J. Miller has put his remarkable range on fine display through several roles.

Born Todd Joseph Miller in Denver, he is the son of a clinical psychologist and an attorney. He attended East High School and then enrolled in college in Washington D.C., where he followed in his mother's footsteps and graduated with a degree in psychology.

After college, T.J. moved to Chicago where he began performing with various improv teams. He also started performing standup, and eventually toured with Chicago's Second City.

He won his first on-screen role in the short-lived comedy series Carpoolers, appearing in all 13 episodes of the show, which ran from 2007 to 2008.

T.J. earned his first film part in 2008 with the sci-fi horror flick Cloverfield. He plays Hudson 'Hud' Platt alongside Mike Vogel and Lizzy Caplan, and followed that effort with a role in the 2009 comedy The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard next to Jeremy Piven and Ving Rhames. In 2009, he also appeared in the comedic TV movie Waiting to Die.

With 2010's She's Out of My League, T.J. began a collaborative relationship with Jay Baruchel. The pair would work together on several occasions down the road. In the same year, he lent his voice to the part of dragon slayer Tuffnut in the animated adventure film How to Train Your Dragon with Gerard Butler, Jonah Hill, Kristen Wiig, America Ferrera and his pal Jay Baruchel. The movie spawned sequels and led to television work for T.J. as well.

Also in 2010, he acted in the comedy Get Him to the Greek with Russell Brand and Rose Byrne, the action thriller Unstoppable with Denzel Washington and Chris Pine, the animated comedy Yogi Bear with Dan Aykroyd and Justin Timberlake, and Gulliver's Travels with Jack Black and Emily Blunt.

T.J. stuck with comedy in 2011, playing Billy in Our Idiot Brother with Paul Rudd and Elizabeth Banks, and taking a part in an episode of Happy Endings.

The year 2012 was a busy one for T.J. He appeared in the musical-inspired film Rock of Ages with Tom Cruise and Julianne Hough, the adventure dramedy Seeking a Friend for the End of the World with Steve Carell and Keira Knightley, and began work on two series. He reprised his role as Tuffnet in the Emmy-winning animated show Dragons: Riders of Berk, which wrapped in 2014, and started voice work on Disney's Emmy-winning series Gravity Falls.

T.J. again revived Tuffnet for How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014). The sequel featured the same cast as the original, but introduced Cate Blanchett to the mix. In the same year, he also played Lucas Flannery alongside Mark Wahlberg and Stanley Tucci in Transformers: Age of Extinction, voiced a man who frequently forgets to change his underwear in the Oscar-winning animated film Big Hero 6, and worked with Thomas Middleditch and Alison Brie in the comedy Search Party.

One of T.J.'s biggest roles to date came with the HBO Golden Globe-nominated comedy series Silicon Valley, which he began work on in 2014. Portraying Erlich Bachman, a slovenly pothead who thinks he's a tech star, he shared the screen with Thomas Middleditch and Josh Brener. For his superb performance, he nabbed the 2015 Critics' Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, and was again nominated in the same category in 2016.

He told HBO in an interview that the element of his Silicon Valley character people were surprised most about was Erlich's facial hair. He said there were "overwhelming, polarizing opinions" that "split the country."

T.J. brought Tuffnut back to the screen in 2015 with the animated series Dragons: Race to the Edge, reuniting once again with America Ferrera and Jay Baruchel.

In 2016, he played Ryan Reynolds' best friend Weasel in the box office hit Deadpool, and joined an all-star cast including Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn, Jennifer Aniston and Kate McKinnon in the comedy Office Christmas Party, which is about a group of employees determined to throw a Christmas party of epic proportions in order to keep their company afloat.

The year 2017 found T.J. starring in a slew of highly-anticipated films including Goon: Last of the Enforcers and The Emoji Movie. He continues to work hard in 2018, reprising his role as Weasel in Deadpool 2 (2018) and playing I-R0k in Ready Player One (2018).

T.J., who has studied at the British American Drama Academy in London and learned how to be a Shakespearean clown while in England, met his spouse Kate Miller while performing a musical in university. The two wed in September 2015.

He credits his high school drama teacher Melody Duggan for the majority of his success, and even mentioned her in his Critics' Choice Award acceptance speech. In February 2016, Melody told NPR that T.J. "understands the frailty of the human condition better than any kid I've ever had" and that he "was absolutely fearless."

A self-described "student of Nietzsche" (NPR, Feb. 2016), T.J. resides in Los Angeles.

Filmography:

How to Train Your Dragon 3 (2018)
Deadpool 2 (2018)
Ready Player One (2018)
Walden (2017)
The Emoji Movie (2017)
Goon: Last of the Enforcers (2017)
Office Christmas Party (2016)
Deadpool (2016)
Search Party (2014)
Big Hero 6 (2014)
Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)
Rock of Ages (2012)
Our Idiot Brother (2011)
Gulliver's Travels (2010)
Yogi Bear (2010)
Unstoppable (2010)
Get Him to the Greek (2010)
How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
She's Out of My League (2010)
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard (2009)
Cloverfield (2008)