Lisa Ann Walter
Lisa Ann Walter’s career spans television, film and the stage. She is currently starring as Melissa Schemmenti in ABC’s No. 1 show, the Emmy® Award-nominated, SAG Award-winning Best Comedy Ensemble “Abbott Elementary,” Quinta Brunson’s homage to hardworking teachers/staff of our nation’s teachers – which includes Walter’s mother, a former DC public school teacher.
Walter’s film highlights include stand-out performances as Chessy in “The Parent Trap” with Dennis Quaid, and Bobbie in “Shall We Dance” opposite Richard Gere. Other blockbuster films include “Bruce Almighty” with Jim Carrey and Jennifer Aniston, Steven Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds” with Tom Cruise, and the Lionsgate action comedy “Killers” with Ashton Kutcher. Other films include “Drillbit Taylor” with Owen Wilson, “Eddie” with Whoopi Goldberg, and “The Trouble with Dee Dee,” which garnered her six Festival Best Actress Awards.
Based on her years as a national touring standup comedy headliner, Walter co-created, produced, and starred in several network sitcoms: Fox’s “My Wildest Dreams” and ABC’s “Life’s Work,” the highest-rated new show on ABC for the season averaging 19 million viewers per week. She was also the creator/writer and EP of her own half-hour single-camera series, “Bitter.” She’s very proud of co-starring in “The More Things Change,” an everyday trans woman half-hour comedy, where she also served as executive producer – debuted at Outfest 2019. She recently directed and starred in the comedic short “Jersey.”
Walter was honored to appear on the Netflix special “Laugh In: The Stars Celebrate,” as Lily Tomlin and cast formed her early love of comedy. She is recurring in the longest-running medical drama on TV, “Grey’s Anatomy,” and has enjoyed many guest and recurring TV roles over the years including 20th Television’s “9-1-1,” and Netflix’s “GLOW” as Betty Gilpin’s mother as well as numerous independent feature films.
On the other side of the camera, Walter has worked as creative executive producer and showrunner on innovative formats with top factual companies 495 Productions, Magical Elves, Esquire TV (formerly HDNET) and Propagate. Her hit dance/weight-loss competition series, “Dance Your Ass Off,” where she served as creator, EP and head judge, originally had the highest-rated premiere for any Oxygen series and was produced in 15 foreign formats.
She also executive produced and wrote the stand-up special, “The Naughty Show,” as well as co-created, executive produced and directed “Gonzo Girlz” in 2005, a groundbreaking female stunt/comedy web series which aired on Time Warner, Comcast and Adelphia on-demand networks, garnering 6 million unique views per episode and was the No. 1 show on the Sprint Network. She co-created “Tour Dates,” which celebrates the world of a female national touring stand-up comedians currently in development at a major cable network.
As an author, Walter’s comedic memoir, “The Best Thing About My Ass Is That It’s Behind Me” (Harper Collins/Harper One) is a comedic look at a chronic self-loather and former “chubby” girl trying to make it in the glamorous world of “size 0” Hollywood was No. 13 on both Amazon and the New York Times Comedic Essays Bestseller List.
Walter is most proud of being a working mom of four with “One foot on the red carpet … the other at Costco” — and that her stomach is still reasonably flat after being the clown car from which they all emerged.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
HOMETOWN: Silver Spring, Maryland
BIRTHDATE: August 3
