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Image 1 of 5
Gabrielle Miller
...so much more than just another pretty face
By Kimberley Klaas
Photos by Phil Maher and Erich Saide
She's best known for her roles on the TV series Corner Gas as Lacey Burrows and Robson Arms as Bobbi Briggs, but a conversation with Gabrielle Miller quickly reveals that this actor's work also continues with great commitment off-screen. Vancouver View caught up with this Gemini winner a few weeks ago in Vancouver.
Why acting? "I was a painfully shy child," says Miller. "I went to my first acting class when I was eight years old and it kind of opened up this whole world of fantasy and expression."
She comments that she never felt that she got that one big break, "I feel it was just a gradual thing," she says.
Of course, both shows turned out to be big breaks for Miller, and Corner Gas has made her famous worldwide. "I thought that this was something special and unique," Miller says. "But I'd never dreamed that it would have the life that it does. We're going back for our sixth season. I can't believe how time flies."
Robson Arms has yet to reach the level of popular and international acclaim that Corner Gas enjoys, but it's a different kind of show-a little quirkier, a little less obvious-and the critics love it. Miller feels lucky to be a part of it all. "I love that show so much," she says. "I fell so madly in love with the script and that character is so specific. That was a big challenge. I was really delighted to get that job."
Miller not only splits her time between Vancouver and Regina (where Corner Gas is filmed), she has even bought a house on the prairies. She feels it's important to have a well-grounded life outside of work, and she puts a lot of her energy into her home. "When I'm home," she says, "I spend time with friends, I garden, and we've been renovating-it's been fun! It's my first garden, I love it."
In December, Gabrielle Miller went to Mali, Africa with World Vision Canada. She also works with a handful of other organizations, but one in particular is very close to her heart. "I am the spokesperson for Vela Microboard," Miller says. Vela is a non-profit organization that assists individuals living with disabilities by setting up a non-profit society for each individual. The non-profit group, or microboard, is comprised of a small number of family and friends who work together with the disabled person to minimize their difficulties. Vela has helped Miller's sister Shanti, who has cerebral palsy, to set up her own microboard group, which assists her in accomplishing her goals and allows her to have more choice in her life.
As for the trip to Africa, it is evident that it was important to Gabrielle to continue to work with organizations that have a positive impact on people's lives. For her, working with World Vision was the chance of a lifetime. "I was witness to so much generosity and love and hope and incredible humanity in this country that has so little," Miller says, "For most of the people, it's a struggle just to get access to clean water."
Miller was touched by the heart and spirit of the people of Mali, who, she says, live their lives with "such a grounded, pure energy." She hopes others will follow her to Africa to continue World Vision's essential programs, saying. "they have so many different projects - from medicine to education, to nutrition, child sponsorship and the water program. I think it's where the heart leads."
Now with all this humanitarian work, one might not guess that Gabrielle is also quite the fashionista. She loves Vancouver designers, and has built what she calls "a creative relationship" with many, including Jason Matlo, Evan and Dean, Sugarlime and Christina Darling. "I think that fashion is an extension of your creative self," Miller says. "It's something really exciting to play with."
But you don't necessarily need a lot of money to make a telling fashion statement, according to Gabrielle. She thinks the women she met in Mali were some of the most beautiful women in the world. "You don't need money to shine and express yourself and your beauty," she says. "Having said that, I love fashion; I love that expression. I think it's part of the arts."
Gabrielle has been making quite an impression herself these days, brightening the pages of style magazines with her red-carpet appearances and her particular honed-in-Vancuver sense of fashion. Her big secret? Look for the inner beauty. "Beauty in everything," Miller says, "Beauty in your heart, beauty in the way you treat people and how you express yourself through your clothing, or your artwork, or your dance, or your music. It's all an expression of your soul."