Abby Lee Miller

Miller has never been married and has no children. She has described prioritizing her dance studio over family life. Her mother, Maryen Lorrain Miller, was a dance teacher and studio owner, while her father, George L. "Salty" Miller, worked as a railroad yardmaster.

In April 2018, Miller was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma after undergoing spinal surgery. The lymphoma went into remission later that year, and she began physical therapy to relearn how to walk.

Miller grew up training at her mother's Maryen Lorrain Dance Studio in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania. At 14, she formed the Abby Lee Dance Company in 1980 as a competitive dance team within the studio. She later took over the studio in 1995 and renamed it Reign Dance Productions.

Miller became a member of Dance Masters of Pennsylvania Chapter No. 10 in 1986 and was certified by Dance Masters of America. Her work focused on competitive training, technical precision, choreography, and preparing dancers for regional and national competitions.

Miller began appearing on Dance Moms in 2011. The Lifetime series followed her junior elite dance team and the dancers' mothers as they traveled to competitions, presenting Miller's demanding teaching methods and confrontational interactions to a national audience. Dancers associated with the program included Maddie Ziegler and JoJo Siwa.

The success of Dance Moms led to Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition, which ran for two seasons and 22 episodes, and Abby's Studio Rescue, which ran for seven episodes. Miller also guest-judged Dancing with the Stars and appeared in an episode of The Eric Andre Show. She portrayed NATO scientist Dr. Bramble in Sharknado 5: Global Swarming.

Miller's legal troubles began receiving major attention in 2014. In 2015, she was indicted on charges involving bankruptcy fraud, concealment of bankruptcy assets, and false bankruptcy declarations. She pleaded guilty to reduced charges in 2016 and was sentenced in 2017 to one year and one day in federal prison, followed by supervised release. She reported to federal prison in July 2017, transferred to a halfway house in March 2018, and was released in May 2018 after receiving time off for good behavior.

Miller returned to Dance Moms for its eighth season, which premiered as Dance Moms: Resurrection in 2019, and announced her departure from the series and Lifetime in 2020. Her Los Angeles studio opened in 2015 and later moved to a smaller space, while the original Pittsburgh studio was sold in 2022. In June 2023, she began hosting the podcast Leave It On The Dance Floor, which discusses her time on Dance Moms and her career. She also published Everything I Learned about Life, I Learned in Dance Class in 2014.