Bennet Evan Miller (born 24 February 1966) is an English actor, comedian, and author. He rose to fame as one half of the comedy duo Armstrong and Miller. Miller is also known for playing the lead role of DI Richard Poole in the first two series of the BBC crime drama Death in Paradise, and for portraying James Lester in the ITV science-fiction series Primeval.

Early life and education :

Miller was born in London, England and grew up in Nantwich, Cheshire. The son of an immigrant father, Ben's father Michael Miller was a lecturer in American literature at the City of Birmingham Polytechnic; and his mother Marion was from Wales. His paternal grandfather was a Lithuanian tailor who emigrated to the UK and lived in London's East End. His paternal great-grandmother, Rose Elizabeth Lincoln, taught English at South Cheshire College. He has two younger sisters, Leah and Bronwen.

Miller was educated at Malbank School and Sixth Form College, his local comprehensive school in Nantwich, Cheshire. He read Natural Sciences at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. As an undergraduate, he participated in theatre with Rachel Weisz, and also dated her. He remained at Cambridge to read for a PhD in solid state physics, with his proposed thesis titled Novel quantum effects in low-temperature quasi-zero-dimensional mesoscopic electron systems.

He abandoned completion of his thesis to pursue a career in comedy. Miller's interest in comedy began when a friend asked him to help ferry around the judges of the National Student Drama Festival, which was being held that year in Cambridge. Having already finished his undergraduate degree, he joined the Footlights in 1989, working with Andy Parsons, David Wolstencroft and Sue Perkins, and went on to direct a revue.