A performer, producer, designer and director, Wayne J.  Miller has been a professional actor for over 40 years.

​

He began his performing career in Stephen Varble's absurdist comedy, The Immaculate Consternation, and gegan his studies with Claire Nichtern, Bruce Wyatt and Norman Kruger. He’s appeared in more than 40 shows in Regional, off Broadway, dinner, and showcase theatres. Favorite roles: Julian Marsh in 42nd St, Georges in La Cage Aux Folles, Billy Flynn in Chicago, Warbucks in Annie, Max Prince in Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Gene Glimmer in Sideman, Ben Stone in Follies and Mack Sennett in Mack and Mabel. He stopped the show during every performance of Guys and Dolls with Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat as Nicely-Nicely Johnson and appeared recently as Matthew Harrison Brady in Inherit The Wind, following that with a turn as Pseudolus, the crafty slave in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. His most recent credits include Roger Sherman, "a simple cobbler from Connecticutt", in the John Engerman Theatre production of 1776, the creation of the character of ex-US President William Jefferson in the Castillo Theatre production of VOTES, a new musical on Manhattan's legendary 42nd Street, an appeareance in the world premiere of Rock and a Hard Place, a new musical by Sami Horneff and Michael Ker, and an award nominated turn as Horace Vandergelder opposite Susan Speidel in Hello Dolly!

​

He can be seen in the feature films,Ebenezer The Traveler, Born A Stray , Delusional, Inspiration Road, Curious Poses,  Most Likely to Murder, Can you Ever forgive Me? , The Post, and The Saints of Newark. And he has had starring roles in Whiskey Soda, The Dockside Duel, The Interview,  FRANK's PLAN and Phillies Diner, which was screened at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. He made his feature debut in the now classic film, Tongs: a Chinatown Story. On television, he has been seen on  the classic daytime drama, The Guiding Light,  primetime's The Good Wife, Showtimes Billions, HBO's The Deuce, CBS All Access' The Good Fight, PBS' Babe Ruth at Sing Sing. Discovery's Grave Secrets, Pandora's Box and HBO's I Know This Much is True with Emmy Award winner Mark Ruffalo among others and spent 12 years appearing daily as the host of Time Warner Cable’s academic game show, Cranial Crunch. 

​

A theatrical producer and scenic and lighting designer with a significant body of work, he produced and designed the New York premiere of The Blue Angel. a musical noir, the stage version of the classic film and designed the lighting for the American premiere of the stage version of Stephen King’s Misery.  His most recent design credit is the Harbor Lights production of GYPSY, starring Sally Mayes and Samantha Bruce, directed by BIll Castellino. He also created the settings and lighting for the Inaugural Productions in The Williamson Theater (Moliere’s The Miser) and the Lab Theater (Arthur Miller’s The Crucible) at the Center for the Arts at The College of Staten Island, a division of the City University of New York where he served on the adjunct faculty. He was selected to design the lighting for the 30th Anniversary Concert Production of the rock musical Hair, as the Inaugural Performance in the Music Hall at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center. He has also designed the lighting for such varied performers as Judy Collins, Roberta Flack, Allen King, Chuck Mangione, Steve Ross, The Flying Karamazovs, Diane Carroll, The Nutcracker Ballet, and the Singing Daughters of St Paul, a show choir of nuns!  Other credits include Chazz Palminteri's one man show, A Bronx Tale.   See more of his design work at www.stagelights.net

​

Most recently, he designed and directed the in situ production of The Sins of Salem, a retelling of the the 1692 Salem, Massachusetts witch trials performed in multiple locations in a restoration village. He designed and directed the New York Premiere of Steven Dietz’s comedic thriller, Yankee Tavern and directed an acclaimed, site-specific staging of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird in the 3rd County Courthouse in Historic Richmond Town, a village restoration of varied history in Staten Island, New York. The New York Times reported that “apart from Harper Lee’s hometown in Alabama, where the play is performed each May in the Monroe County Heritage Museum’s courthouse, the drama might not have been staged in a real courtroom before”. He later directed a site specific, award winning staging of The Andersonville Trial in the same venue.

​

He has served as the Executive Director of the Historic St George Theatre, a 2,000 seat live perforance venue, and as the Producing Artistic Director of The Staten Island Shakespearean Theatre Company, a 40 year old Actors Equity Showcase Company in New York City.

​

His article, The Crucible for Under $2,000 was published in the Journal at Theatre Central.

 

He holds a degree in Drama from the City University of New York College of Staten Island He lives in a restored 1891 Victorian home on the North Shore of Staten Island with his wife, pianist and conductor Donna D’Ermilio. They appear together occasionally in cabaret and in A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters.