Miles O'Brien Riley grew up with talented parents and six creative brothers and sisters. Together they performed family skits, played musical instruments, wrote poetry and songs. As a boy, Miles read children's parts on Saturday morning radio. At school, he participated in plays and edited and wrote for high school and college publications.

Fr. Miles was ordained at the North American College in Rome in 1963 and served as associate pastor at St. Bartholomew's in San Mateo, St. Raphael's in San Rafael, and St. Paul's in San Francisco. In 1970 he founded the Communications Center for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Since 1970, Father Miles' main ministry has been the mass media. He has written and directed five musical comedies, published ten books, and hundreds of articles and reviews. He has produced a dozen films and hosted over 1500 television and 4,000 radio programs.