Lisa Ann Walter

Lisa Ann Walter (born August 3, 1963)^[1] is an American actress, comedienne, writer and film producer. She has appeared in such films as the 1998 version of The Parent Trap, Bruce Almighty, Shall We Dance, and War of the Worlds as Cheryl. Walter also created and starred in the short-lived 1996-1997 sitcom, Life's Work. She was a judge on ABC's reality television series The Next Best Thing: Who Is the Greatest Celebrity Impersonator?.

Biography

Early life

Walter was born in rural Pennsylvania and raised in suburban Silver Spring, Maryland, near Washington, D.C., where she remembers "always liking to show off" as a child. Her father was a geophysicist at NASA and indulged his own love of performing after-hours in local community theater. She attended Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, Maryland. Eventually, Walter studied drama at the Catholic University of America where she graduated with a bachelor of arts degree and began appearing in various regional and dinner theater productions. Walter moved to New York and performed at amateur night contests at some of the noted comedy clubs. She married and became a young mother at 24, but she soon had audiences roaring with her dead-on perspectives on kids, domestic life and social issues.

Career

After five years of standup comedy, she was cast to star in her own Fox Network comedy series, My Wildest Dreams, followed by an ABC sitcom, Life's Work, which she both created and starred in. Walter also co-starred in the critically acclaimed Bravo series Breaking News and in the NBC sitcom Emeril.

On the feature side, in addition to Bruce Almighty (2003) and Shall We Dance (2004), Walter received rave reviews co-starring in the hit Disney film The Parent Trap (1998). In the remake of the original classic, she appeared as the nanny to Dennis Quaid's daughter, who was played by a young Lindsay Lohan. Prior to that, Walter played Whoopi Goldberg's tarty sidekick Claudine in Eddie (1996).

In early 2007, Walter had a supporting role as Mabel the bartender in the MyNetworkTV soap opera Watch Over Me. That summer, she served as a judge on the ABC reality TV show The Next Best Thing, which searched for the best celebrity impersonators in America.

In the Spring of 2008, Walter was seen in the comedy film Drillbit Taylor, and also starred on the VH1 reality series Celebracadabra, in which celebrities competed to see who was the best magician among them. She made it to the final three but was eliminated in the sixth episode. She has developed a series for the Oxygen network called Dance Your Ass Off.

Personal life

Walter resides in Los Angeles with her four children, including son Jordan, daughter Delia, and twin boys Simon and Spencer. "I was taught a strong work ethic by my parents, and I'm not happy unless I'm doing two - or even three -- things at once," says Walter. "I enjoy working and raising a family, and I wouldn't want to do one without the other." While she is developing enough material for a return to standup comedy, Walter loves gourmet cooking, reading biographies, dancing and blues music.

Filmography

References

External links

• Lisa Ann Walter at the Internet Movie Database
• Lisa Ann Walter at TV.com