Lisa Ann Walter

Lisa Ann Walter (born August 3, 1963) is an American actress, comedian, writer and film producer.[1] She has appeared in such films as the 1998 version of The Parent Trap, Bruce Almighty,[1] Shall We Dance,[1] and War of the Worlds.[1] 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?. She also won for her charity in a celebrity edition of The Weakest Link.

Early life
Walter was born and raised in suburban Silver Spring, Maryland, near Washington, D.C., where she remembers "always liking to show off" as a child. Her mother was of Italian descent and her father was from a family from Alsace, and had German ancestry.[2][3][4] She was a high-achieving student and always the class clown. Walter's father worked at NASA and indulged his own love of performing after-hours in local community theater. Her mother was a teacher, later working at the local courthouse. Her parents, both native New Yorkers, divorced when Walter was in elementary school. She attended Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, Maryland, finally studying drama at The Catholic University of America under the tutelage of the renowned Father Gilbert Hartke. She began appearing in various regional and dinner theater productions, and met her future spouse, Sam Baum, while performing in "A Streetcar Named Desire". They married before moving to New York City, where both began various day jobs while raising their baby, shoehorning in frequent auditions and roles various off-Broadway venues. Walter performed at amateur night contests at some of the noted comedy clubs.

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 Bravo series Breaking News and in the NBC sitcom Emeril.

In addition to Bruce Almighty (2003) and Shall We Dance (2004), Walter co-starred in the Disney film The Parent Trap (1998); in the remake of the original classic, she appeared as the nanny to Dennis Quaid's character's daughter, who was played by a young Lindsay Lohan. Prior to that, she 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. Later that May 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 early 2008, Walter was 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 Oxygennetwork called Dance Your Ass Off. On December 19, 2011, she appeared on Rizzoli & Isles as a ballet coach, J.J. It was far from her usual role, as she played a very serious character in a drama. Her comic memoir, "The Best Thing About My Ass Is That It's Behind Me" was published in May 2011.

Beginning in May 2011, Walter hosted The Fabulous Lisa Ann Walter Show, a talk show on the Los Angeles radio station KFI. The program aired for three hours each Saturday and Sunday. In August 2014, Walter quit in order to focus on her acting career.

Personal life
Walter resides in Los Angeles with her four children, including son Jordan, daughter Delia, and twin boys Simon and Spencer. She is developing enough material for a return to standup comedy. She remains good friends with British actor Simon Kunz who portrayed her love interest in The Parent Trap.