| Abby Lee Miller | |
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| Judge Profile | |
| Birth Date | 21 September 1965 |
| Hometown | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
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| Season(s) | Season 18 |
Abigale "Abby" Lee Miller is an American dance instructor, choreographer, and reality television personality.
She served as a guest judge in week 8 of season eighteen of Dancing with the Stars.
Early Life[]
Miller was born to Maryen Lorrain (McKay), a dance teacher, and George L. Miller.
Career[]
Dance[]
Miller grew up around dance in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, a Pittsburgh suburb, studying under her mother's direction at the Maryen Lorrain Dance Studio. In 1980, at age fourteen, Miller was given the responsibility for choreographing and coaching for one of her mother's dance competition teams. Miller eventually took over the studio in 1995 and renamed it Reign Dance Productions. She became certified by Dance Masters of America and became a member of Dance Masters of Pennsylvania Chapter #10 in 1986, but her membership was terminated in February 2012, with DMA saying Miller's reality-TV show Dance Moms was "a total misrepresentation of our dance educators and their students and is detrimental to the dance profession".
Reality Television[]
In 2011, Miller began to appear in the Lifetime reality television show Dance Moms. Miller appeared on the show for seven seasons through February 2017. Dance Moms follows the practice sessions and performance competitions of young students of the Abby Lee Dance Company.
Three spin-offs of Dance Moms are Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition, which ran for two seasons and 22 episodes; Dance Moms: Miami; and Dance Moms: Abby's Studio Rescue. The latter ran for only seven episodes. Miller has also been a guest judge on Dancing with the Stars. In 2014, Miller published a book, Everything I Learned about Life, I Learned in Dance Class.
In 2015, Miller opened a new studio set up in Los Angeles called ALDC LA. In March 2017, Miller announced she had quit the series. In July 2018, Miller announced her return for season 8 of Dance Moms. Dance Moms: Resurrection premiered 4 June 2019 at 8/7c on the Lifetime TV network.
Legal and Financial Problems[]
In December 2010, Miller filed for bankruptcy and owed more than $400,000 in back taxes. Soon afterward, she was hired for Dance Moms, with filming beginning in Spring 2011. Episodes began airing in July 2011, and Miller's financial situation improved.
Miller began to encounter numerous legal problems in 2014. One of the dancers on Dance Moms sued Miller, charging assault. The suit further claims the show's producers encourage a violent and combative atmosphere on the show as a way to attract viewers. A five-million-dollar lawsuit was filed against Collins Avenue Entertainment for staging disagreements that ended in a fight between Kelly Hyland and Miller. Paige Hyland also filed an emotional distress lawsuit against Miller. The charges were dropped on the emotional distress lawsuit.
On 13 October 2015, Miller was indicted for fraud for creating a secret bank account in 2012 used to hide income from masterclasses, TV deals, and merchandise sales, in addition to failing to file required monthly reports of income with the bankruptcy court for thirteen months. She was indicted with bankruptcy fraud, concealment of bankruptcy assets and false bankruptcy declarations in hiding some $755,000. If found guilty, she could have faced a fine of $250,000 for each of the twenty counts she was indicted on and five years in prison. She pleaded not guilty in November 2015. By February 2016, the case was delayed a fifth time. Shortly after her indictment, she was charged with customs fraud relating to undeclared cash from Dance Moms Australia master class tour. Miller reached a deal with the IRS criminal investigators to enter a guilty plea to reduced charges 27 June 2016.
Sentencing was set for 20 January 2017. Her sentencing date was postponed multiple times, finally scheduled for 8 May 2017. On 9 May 2017, after a two-day hearing, Miller was sentenced to one year and a day in prison, followed by two years of supervised release. Miller also paid a $40,000 fine, a $120,000 judgment and gave a DNA sample relating to her felony charge. On 12 July 2017, Miller reported to the Victorville Federal Correctional Institution in Victorville, California, to begin serving her prison term. On 27 March 2018, Miller was transferred to a Long Beach, California halfway house to complete her sentence. Due to subsequently-discovered illness, she served little time at the halfway house and instead was released 25 May and hospitalized.
Personal Life[]
Miller has never been married and has no children. She was close with her elderly mother, who died in 2014.
In April 2018, she was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer, after spinal surgery. She spent much of 2018 in physical therapy, relearning how to walk.
