Christa Miller (Actor)

Christa Miller Lawrence at a party after the 58th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. (Photo: Vince Bucci / Getty Images)

The tomboyish Kate who can hang with the guys with ease on "The Drew Carey Show" (a role she played from 1995-2002), Christa Miller herself was more comfortable with athletics than with powder puffs while in high school. Still, she grew into a lithe and pretty model, and moved into acting with an episode of the CBS series "Kate & Allie" in 1989. Although her aunt, Susan Saint James, played Kate, Saint James was unaware that Miller had auditioned until after she won the role. Miller's mother was the model Bonnie Trompeter and as a child Miller appeared in print ads with her. By the time she was four, she had appeared on the cover of Redbook and in a mother-daughter Ivory Soap ad. Her childhood modeling was curtailed, however, after an operation for a benign bone tumor. Miller recovered completely and became a high school athlete. After high school, Miller followed briefly in her mother's footsteps as a model before enrolling in acting lessons. When she moved to Los Angeles in 1990, she abandoned modeling.

Miller began to land acting jobs, like the 1992 HBO movie "Stepfather III", episodes of NBC's hit "Seinfeld", and a minor role in the TV-movie "A Friend to Die For" (NBC, 1994). In 1999, she had major supporting roles in the independent films "The Operator" (as the long-suffering wife of sleazy lawyer) and "Smiling Fish and Goat on Fire" (as a post office employee involved with an aspiring actor).

Miller married sit-com writer-producer Bill Lawrence, the co-creator of "Spin City," in 1999 and eventually left the security of her cozy "Drew Carey" gig in 2002 after Lawrence created a recurring role for her in his latest hit series, the hospital sit-com "Scrubs" (NBC, 2001- ). After primarily providing straight lines and supportive girlfriend shtick on her previous series, Miller was allowed to adroitly break type as the acid-tounged harridan Jordan Sullivan, the former wife of Dr. Cox (series regular John C. McGinley) and a hospital board member who takes pleasure in disrupting the lives of the staff.