Biographie
Lisa was born in Los Angeles and has lived in a lot of hills: Holmby, Cheviot, Beverly. She attended Beverly Hills High School where she was a full-tilt Drama Nerd with pre-famous friends like: Laraine Newman, Joanna Gleason, Julie Kavner, Carole Ita White, Kres Mersky, and Michael Tolkin. She studied in the Theater Dept of L.A. City College with Mark Hamill, and at the Lee Strasberg Institute with Peggy Feury and Bruce Dern.
She moved to New York and attended the HB Studio, studying Musical Theater with Rita Gardner. In a summer stock company, in New Hampshire, Lisa was in a dozen musicals and Tom Fontana did publicity and worked in the box office. Back in LA, Lisa she did more theater and a bunch of television and one day, got a casting call to meet with George Lucas -- for the role of Princess Leia. Good news/bad news: she was 4 ½ months pregnant. George felt she could not deliver that baby before the start of production of... STAR WARS! That's when she learned the crucial lesson that A. Timing is everything and B. She was crazy-super-extra-fertile.
She went back to school, did more t.v. and plays, and career changing Carl's Jr. commercial (while pregnant, naturally) then, when her 3, precious sons were 2, 4 & 6 she became a single mother - with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stressful Divorce).
With -0- marketable skills and -0- time to pursue a blossoming acting career, she became a comedy writer and within a year, she was in the WGA and has worked in television - writing sketch comedy, sitcoms, and animation ever since. The first 11 years in The Writers" Room, Lisa felt like "Darla Hood" in "Our Gang" - because she was the only woman and the guys in The Boys Club called her: "The Girl."
Despite the fact that she had a vagina, three children, and no spouse, she generated a Pu Pu Platter of writing credits and created many half-hour pilots. Lisa took a flying leap in 2016 back to her roots and the world of performing - acting, doing Story Shows and Stand-Up.
She continues to write and teach (since 1995) in the Writers' Program at UCLA Extension where she received the citation of "Instructor of the Year." She has also won 2 AP awards (2 years in a row) for her eponymous bi-weekly column that ran for 5 years (channeling Erma Bombeck) for Copley Newspapers.
Writing, Teaching, Acting, Singing, Stand-Up, Storytelling - all while raising three (now grown) exceptional, hilarious, tall sons. What a woman "The Girl" has become.
