Episode 274

At Media Path, we capture the essence of classic era entertainment through interviews with icons of TV, film and music sharing behind-the-scenes stories, tracing showbiz family legacies and broadening our knowledge of pop culture.

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You may know her face best from her six years as Samantha Kanisky on Gimme A Break but her voice is now everywhere from The Loud House to Digimon Adventure to Doc McStuffins to Clifford’s Puppy Days and well beyond. 

Laura Jill Miller was a little girl from Allentown, PA with a big talent who was starring in local dinner theater productions when she stuck her head into a Broadway door playing a familiar tune and earned a part in The Music Man with Dick Van Dyke!

Lara traces her remarkable show biz path with Lisa and Weezy, including some shared history with Weezy who was working as a studio page when she first met Lara on Gimme A Break!

Lara shares memorable Hollywood encounters, from Peter Scolari teaching her how to juggle and Kim Fields being the only other kid on TV with braces and an early friendship with Sarah Jessica Parker who was filming Square Pegs on the lot.

She also reflects on cherished memories of Nell Carter, who took Lara under her wing while Weezy was on the receiving end of a sharp admonition from Nell not tattle on her to The Enquirer. (She didn’t.)

Does Lara feel like she got to fully experience her childhood? Why did she leave acting for college and law school and how and why did she return!?

That second act led to an enormously successful voice acting career, beginning with Clifford's Puppy Days alongside Henry Winkler and some of the industry's most celebrated voice performers.

She gives a hilarious behind-the-scenes look at the realities of voice acting, from performing dramatic falls, injury sounds, and over-the-top video game death cries to discovering the unique voices that bring animated characters to life. 

Lara also compares the worlds of sitcom and voice acting, revealing the very different skills demanded by each. And in IMDB Roulette, Lara recalls how Michael Keaton showed up for her 16th birthday party, how to share a stage with The Care Bears while violently ill and the intricate particulars of a death-defying balancing act on Circus of the Stars!

Plus, actor, writer, and journalist Brandon Ogborn stops by to discuss his one-man show, Stay At Home Dad, a brutally honest comedy about keeping tiny humans alive when you are dying inside. Brandon shares how and why he constructed his play and reflects on how his choice to parent differently than his own folks has become a deeply healing experience.