Where Is Jeremy Miller Now?

By CelebPaid Research · Updated October 8, 2026 · 8 min read

Illustrative photo: a chef at work. After Growing Pains, Jeremy Miller trained at Le Cordon Bleu and now works as a private chef.Thematic illustration

Ben Seaver: Growing Up on Growing Pains

Jeremy Miller was born on October 21, 1976, in West Covina, California, and was eight years old when he joined the cast of Growing Pains in 1985 as Ben Seaver, the mischievous youngest child of the Seaver family. For seven seasons, audiences watched him grow up on ABC alongside Kirk Cameron, Tracey Gold, and Alan Thicke, who played his television father. Ben's adoration of his big brother Mike and his knack for getting into trouble made Miller one of the most recognizable child actors of the late 1980s.

Behind the wholesome sitcom image, however, Miller was carrying a burden no child should bear. In a remarkably candid 2016 appearance on Oprah: Where Are They Now?, he revealed that he had his first drink at the age of four, sipping leftover beer at his grandparents' parties, and that he first got truly drunk at twelve, while starring on one of television's biggest family shows. The laughter on set masked a dependency that would shadow him for decades.

A Childhood Shadowed by Alcohol

Miller has never minimized what happened next. After Growing Pains ended in 1992, his drinking escalated from a secret habit into an all-consuming one. He has described waking up and heading straight for malt liquor, moving on to hard alcohol by noon, and blacking out by night, day after day. At his lowest, he got behind the wheel drunk more times than he cares to admit, once after a fight with his fiancee over money, and he has said he is ashamed of how often he put other people's lives at risk.

He tried nearly everything to stop: inpatient rehab, outpatient programs, hydrotherapy, herbal therapies, even hypnosis. Nothing held. In interviews with Entertainment Tonight and In Touch, he described the crushing cycle of self-loathing that came with each relapse, admitting there were nights he was grateful he did not own a gun. His then-young family watched him deteriorate, and he has said the turning point came when he realized his boys were afraid of him.

Hitting Bottom and Finding Sobriety

The breakthrough came from an unexpected direction: a time-released naltrexone implant, placed under the skin, that steadily blocked the brain's craving signals for alcohol. Though the specific use was not FDA-approved, it worked where nothing else had, and Miller has now been sober for years. He became a patient advocate and spokesperson for the Fresh Start Recovery center in Santa Ana, California, telling his story publicly so that others might find the exit he eventually found.

His honesty about the implant, the relapses, and the shame has made him one of the more credible celebrity voices in recovery advocacy. He does not present sobriety as a single triumphant moment but as daily maintenance, and he credits his wife Joanie and his stepsons with giving him a reason to keep doing the work.

From Soundstage to Kitchen: Becoming a Chef

While fighting for his sobriety, Miller was also rebuilding his professional life from scratch. After Growing Pains he had briefly studied drama at the University of Southern California, but acting no longer felt like a future. Instead he enrolled at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu culinary school and trained as a chef, then launched his own Los Angeles catering company, No Small Affair.

The timing could not have been worse. The business collapsed during the 2008 financial crisis, leaving him nearly broke. In one of the most touching footnotes of his story, it was his television family that stepped in: Alan Thicke set up interviews with restaurateur friends in Santa Barbara and beyond, and Kirk Cameron helped connect him with work, giving Miller the bridge he needed to keep cooking professionally. He has said Thicke and Cameron were the only two who stepped up when things got truly bad.

Life Today: Private Chef, Advocate, Family Man

Today Miller works as a private chef in California, offering intimate cooking classes for couples and catering events for small parties. His website notes that he is still doing some acting alongside the culinary work, and in 2020 he teamed with Xander Dames and Lonni Rivera to co-host The Xander Effect, a podcast covering entertainment, sports, and video games. He stays connected to fans through Instagram, where he often posts throwback photos and memories from his Growing Pains years.

At home, he is married to Joanie Miller and is a proud stepfather to her three sons, a role he takes as seriously as any he ever played on television. The boy who once drank leftover beer at family parties now builds his days around feeding people, showing up sober, and helping strangers find recovery. It is not the second act anyone would have scripted for a sitcom kid in 1985, but it is unmistakably his.

His Legacy

Jeremy Miller's legacy is really two legacies. The first is Ben Seaver, the scene-stealing little brother who helped make Growing Pains appointment television for seven seasons. The second, and more important one, is the man who survived what child stardom did to him and turned the wreckage into something useful. By talking openly about addiction, about the implant that saved him, and about the years he is not proud of, he has given other struggling people a map. Few former child stars have been this honest about the cost of early fame, and fewer still have rebuilt this thoroughly.

The Podcast, the Reunions, and Staying Connected

Miller has never slammed the door on his past entirely. In 2020 he teamed up with Xander Dames and Lonni Rivera to launch The Xander Effect, a podcast covering entertainment, sports, and video games, giving fans a regular window into his personality beyond the old sitcom clips. He remains active on Instagram as @therealjeremymiller, where he frequently posts throwback photos from the Growing Pains set and shares memories of working with Alan Thicke, Kirk Cameron, and Tracey Gold.

He also returned to Ben Seaver twice for television reunion movies, The Growing Pains Movie in 2000 and Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers in 2004, slipping back into the character that made him famous without any apparent desire to restart an acting career. For longtime fans, these appearances are a reassuring proof of life: the youngest Seaver is doing fine, he is sober, he is working, and he remembers the show as fondly as they do.

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