Miller Lee Hoffman was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on July 1, 1973. His parents were Malcolm Lee Hoffman and Alice Emma Harris. He was the middle child, with an older sister (Marlene) and a younger sister. His family lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, until the summer of 1976. His father received his PhD and was offered the position of assistant professor of history at the University of Arkansas. His parents divorced five years later, in 1981. He lived with his mother and sisters until the summer of 1986, when he moved in with his father and stepmother while his mother and sisters moved to Birmingham, Alabama. That summer, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona, because his father had become the new President of the History Department at Arizona State University. He attended Crieghton Middle School (1986-88) and then Camelback High School (1988-92). He left Phoenix after graduating from Camelback and moved back to Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he started attending the University of Arkansas. He only lasted there for a year, leaving Arkansas the following summer and moving to Birmingham, Alabama, where he became a student at Birmingham City University. He graduated three years later, in 1996. He moved back to Phoenix, Arizona, after learning he had a son with Mandy Mathews, his high school girlfriend (9th-10th & 12th grades). He married Mandy three months later, in December. Their marriage only lasted five years, ending because he refused to stop helping Raymond Nolan (his best friend) investigate their friend’s (Eli Sanchez) murder in 1991. Miller remarried not long afterwards, marrying Michelle Connor, a journalism professor and author (and his girlfriend at Birmingham City University). Miller continued to pursue his dream of being a writer. His debut novel, The Delta Queen, was published, and his marriage to Michelle ended in 2010. While on his book tour, he was reunited with Bobbie Lamont, the girl he loved in the summer of 1990, while he spent the summer in Birmingham, Alabama, visiting his mother and sisters. They married a few weeks later. They lived in Phoenix, Arizona, until 2016. They moved to New Orleans, Louisiana. Miller became the author in residence at Tulane University.