Career

Film and television

Miner's television credits include Vickie in Shining Time Station: 'Tis a Gift (1990), Michelle Bauer on Guiding Light (1989-1995), a guest starring role as Laurel in a Sex and the City episode, "Twenty-something Girls vs. Thirty-something Women" and Astrid in NY-LON.

In 2001, she starred in Bully. The plot follows several young adults in South Florida who enact a murder plot against a mutual friend who has emotionally, physically and sexually abused them for years. The film itself was based on the July 15, 1993 murder of Bobby Kent. Bully received mixed reviews from critics and has a "Rotten" rating of 54% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 91 reviews with an average score of 5.7 out of 10. The film holds a score of 45 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 26 critics indicating 'Mixed or average reviews'. Miner won an award at the Stockholm Film Festival for Best Actress.

In 2005, Miner portrayed a young woman on a journey to discover who she is and why multiple enemies want her dead in the action film Circadian Rhythm. The movie was critically ignored, and was poorly received in its few reviews. One reviewer stated that the film was a "directionless jumble of boring scenes strung together tenuously by a plot that feels like they were making it up as they went along," and that watching the film's allegedly ‘wire-fu’ fight scenes was akin to "being over at a friend’s house when they’re getting yelled at by their parents."

She appeared in 12 episodes of the 2007 television series Californication, as Dani California, a reference to a character appearing in several songs by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In 2008, she appeared in "The Sacrifice", an episode of Fear Itself. That same year she was also cast as the second lead in the psychological thriller The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations. The movie was filmed in Michigan and concluded filming in October 2008. It debuted at After Dark Horrorfest III, a horror film festival held in January 2009. The film was released on DVD on March 31, 2009.

From 2009 to 2013, Miner took over the role of Meg Masters, a recurring antagonist and demon in Supernatural. The writers wanted Meg's original actress Nicki Aycox to reprise the role in later seasons, but ultimately cast Miner for storyline purposes. Miner had not seen the series before, and only had the opportunity before filming to view a few clips of Aycox's episodes. She wanted to avoid merely copying Aycox's performance, but at the same time did not want to stray too far because it was the same character. However, she found that she did not have to alter her performance because the character was "written so specifically that the choices were very similar". Respecting prior depictions of Meg, Miner said, "I did take to heart that the character meant so much to people...That became something I took into consideration because I didn't want to disappoint people by taking away from what was originally there." Upon being asked to return for "Abandon All Hope...", she declined a film offer because it conflicted with the series' filming. For the eighth season the role was intended to be larger, but Miner revealed she was suffering Multiple Sclerosis, which prevented her from doing more physical material. The character was eventually killed off later the same season. Tim Janson of Mania gave Miner's portrayal of Meg a positive review, saying no one played Meg "with such dripping sarcasm as Rachel Miner". He felt that she "always adds spice when she appears". Similarly, Diana Steenbergen of IGN felt Miner played the role "with vicious flair" and " Meg's brutality well, right from the beginning". As time passed, she noted that the actress "has done well taking over the role". Miner's incarnation of Meg received praise from Jordan Farley of SFX, as well. Farley wrote, "As a demon turned good (sort of) she occupies a moral grey zone that leaves her actions completely unpredictable even after year’s of guest appearances, a refreshing quality for a character to have. And she’s funny." Ryan also liked Miner's portrayal of the character.

In 2010, Miner starred alongside James Franco in the Grasshopper segment of Love & Distrust. The next year she was cast as Sgt. Hannah in the horror film 51. 51 began filming in April in Louisiana. The film was released in limited theaters as part of "After Dark Originals".

Theater

Among her theater credits are Jennifer in Laura Cahill's Naked Faith: The Way at Naked Angels in New York (1994), Margot Frank (replacing original cast member Missy Yager) in The Diary of Anne Frank on Broadway (1997), Rivkele in Donald Margulies's adaptation of Sholem Asch's God of Vengeance at ACT Theatre in Seattle (2000), Sandy in Rebecca Gilman's Blue Surge at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago (2001) and at The Public Theater in New York (2002).

Personal life

A third-generation Miner in show business, she is the daughter of director and teacher Peter Miner and the granddaughter of director/producer Worthington Miner and actress Frances Fuller. In 1998, she married Home Alone actor Macaulay Culkin. The couple separated in 2000 and divorced in 2002.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	Alice	12-year-old Alice
1990	Shining Time Station: 'Tis A Gift	Vickie	TV Movie
1997	Henry Fool	Girl in Library No. 3
1999	Joe the King	Patty
2001	Bully	Lisa Connely	Won - Stockholm Film Festival for Best Actress
2004	Haven	Eva
2005	Man of God	Karen Cohen	Direct to-DVD
2005	Little Athens	Allison	Direct to-DVD
2005	Circadian Rhythm	Sarah
2006	Fatwa	Cassie Davidson	Direct to-DVD
2006	Love & Debate	Sophia	Direct to-DVD
2006	The Black Dahlia	Martha Linscott
2006	Onion Underwater	Tara	Short film
2006	Grasshopper	Terri	Short film
2006	Penny Dreadful	Penny Deerborn
2006	The Still Life	Robin
2007	Cult	Mindy	Direct to-DVD
2007	The Blue Hour	Julie
2007	The Memory Thief	Mira	Direct to-DVD
2007	Tooth & Nail	Neon	Direct to-DVD
2008	Hide	Betty
2008	The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations	Jenna Reid	Direct to-DVD
2009	Life of Lemon	Esther	Direct to-DVD
2010	The Love Affair	Karen Hall	Short film
2010	Love & Distrust	Terri	Direct to-DVD
2011	51	Sgt. Hannah	TV Movie
2012	In Their Skin	Jane
2013	East of Acadia	Clair
2014	Elwood	Lulu Palu	Short film

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990-1995	Guiding Light	Michelle Bauer	50 episodes Won - Nominated - Nominated - Nominated -
1995	American Experience	Voice Actor - Multiple Roles	Episode: "The Orphan Trains"
1999	Sex and the City	Laurel	Episode: "Twenty-Something Girls vs. Thirty-Something Women"
2004	NY-LON	Astrid	7 episodes
2005	Bones	Mary Costello	Episode: "The Girl in the Fridge"
2006	Medium	Emilia 'Lia' Purcell	Episode: "Lucky in Love"
2006	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Valerie Whitehall	Episode: "Rashomama"
2006	Without a Trace	Julia Martic	Episode: "Damage Done"
2007-2008	Californication	Dani	12 episodes
2008	Fear Itself	Chelsea	Episode: "The Sacrifice"
2008	The Cleaner	Sarah Gibbons	Episode: "The Eleventh Hour"
2008	Life	Squeaky Uhry	Episode: "Canyon Flowers"
2009	CSI: Miami	Tammy Witten	Episode: "Presumed Guilty"
2009-2013	Supernatural	Meg Masters	7 episodes
2009	Psycho Girlfriend	Meagan	Episode: "The New Girl"
2009-2010	The Online Gamer	Beth	2 episodes
2010	Cold Case	Anna Coulson	Episode: "Two Weddings"
2010	No Ordinary Family	Rebecca Jessup	Episode: "No Ordinary Quake"
2010	Terriers	Eleanor Gosney	2 episodes
2010	Army Wives	Jasmine Wilkes	Episode: "Deadly Force"
2011	Criminal Minds	Molly Grandin	Episode: "Today I Do"
2011-2012	Sons of Anarchy	Dawn Trager	2 episodes

Music videos

• Sunday, Sonic Youth (1998)
• Only One, Yellowcard (2005)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]