Joel Miller (AKA Joel Roadie, AKA Rifken) was born in Cambridge, England. His parents emigrated to Los Angeles when he was a child, and he grew up in Southern California. He is the oldest of three children. When he was four years old, Miller's mother was stopped in a shopping mall by talent agent Dorothy Day Otis. Soon after he began working as a child actor and model. One such fun ad campaign featured Miller as one of the young faces for Borax Soap - alongside Tony Randall and an also very young Jaleel White (Steve Urkel.)