Jason Miller attained his reputation as an important American playwright solely on the attention and acclaim given That Championship Season (1972), his second full-length play. In addition to writing plays, Miller has published some poetry, but much of his energy since the success of That Championship Season has gone to acting.

Miller, born John Miller in Long Island City, New York, is the only child of John Miller, an electrician, and Mary Miller, a special education teacher. His background is solidly Irish Catholic, a significant factor in considering his work; Miller credits the Catholic ritual as the source of his theatre sense. His family moved shortly after his birth and Miller grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, living there, he says, "until I was twenty-one, twenty-two."

Miller attended Scranton's St. Patrick's High School, specializing in athletics and delinquency until one of his teachers pointed him in the direction of a...