# Lisa Ann Walter

Lisa Ann Walter (born August 3, 1963) is an American actress, comedian, and television producer, best known for her roles as Chessy the housekeeper in the romantic comedy film The Parent Trap (1998) and Melissa Schemmenti on the Peabody Award winning ABC mockumentary sitcom Abbott Elementary (2021–present), for which she received a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Comedy Series.
She was formerly the creator and executive producer of Oxygen network reality weight-loss competition series, Dance Your Ass Off. Her other reality television work includes her stint as a judge on ABC's reality television series The Next Best Thing: Who Is the Greatest Celebrity Impersonator?, and as winning celebrity editions of the game shows The Weakest Link and Jeopardy! She also created and starred in the 1996–1997 sitcom, Life's Work, and appeared in such films as Bruce Almighty, Shall We Dance, and War of the Worlds.

## Early life and education

Walter was born on August 3, 1963, in Silver Spring, Maryland. She and her older sister, Laura, are the children of a geophysicist British father who was born in France of Alsatian descent and a substitute-teacher/mother of Sicilian descent. Walter's maternal great-grandparents immigrated to New York City from Italy. Walter's family lived in different places following their father's work, and their childhood homes included Germany and the suburbs of Washington, D.C. She graduated with a theater degree from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., in 1983.

## Career

After five years of standup comedy, Walter starred in her own Fox Network comedy series, My Wildest Dreams (1995), followed by an ABC sitcom, Life's Work (1996–1997), which she both created and starred in. Walter also co-starred in the Bravo series Breaking News and in the NBC sitcom Emeril. She played Whoopi Goldberg's tarty sidekick Claudine in Eddie (1996).
Walter co-starred in the Disney film The Parent Trap (1998); in the remake of the original film, she appeared as Chessy, the nanny to Dennis Quaid's character's daughter, who was played by a young Lindsay Lohan. Since then, she played supporting roles in the comedy Bruce Almighty (2003) and the romantic comedy Shall We Dance (2004).
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 in 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. On December 19, 2011, she played a dramatic role on the TNT series Rizzoli & Isles as a ballet coach.
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 to focus on her acting career.
Since 2021, Walter's appeared in the ABC comedy Abbott Elementary as second grade teacher Melissa Schemmenti. Walter, alongside the show's ensemble cast, won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series at the 2023 ceremony and was nominated again the following year.
On October 20, 2022, Walter received the Virtuoso Award at the San Diego International Film Festival. In 2024, she won the second season of Celebrity Jeopardy!, defeating Mo Rocca and Katie Nolan in the finals. She won $1 million for the Entertainment Community Fund.

## Personal life

In 1983, she married fellow actor Sam Baum. They had a son, Jordan (1988), and a daughter, Delia (1992) before divorcing in 1999. She has twin sons, Spencer and Simon Walter (11 October 2000).

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1996 | Eddie | Claudine | |
| 1998 | The Parent Trap | Chessy | |
| 2000 | Get Your Stuff | Nancy Perry | |
| 2001 | Early Bird Special | Janet | |
| 2003 | Bruce Almighty | Debbie | |
| 2004 | Shall We Dance? | Bobbie | |
| 2005 | War of the Worlds | Sheryl | |
| 2005 | The Trouble with Dee Dee | Dee Dee Rutherford | |
| 2006 | Room 6 | Sgt. Burch | |
| 2006 | Coffee Date | Sara | |
| 2006 | Man vs. Monday | Joan | Short film |
| 2007 | Graduation | Carol | |
| 2007 | Entry Level | Kathie | |
| 2008 | Drillbit Taylor | Dolores | |
| 2010 | Wreckage | Dr. Richardson | |
| 2010 | Killers | Olivia Brooks | |
| 2010 | Monsters Under the Bed | Leslie Branson | Short film |
| 2012 | Wedding Day | Chef Cherie | |
| 2013 | Feels So Good | Lisa Wright | |
| 2014 | Wish Wizard | Helga | Short film |
| 2015 | You Can't Have It | Suzanne | |
| 2015 | Dependent's Day | Bette | |
| 2015 | The LA Spinster | Lisa | Short film |
| 2017 | The Ice Cream Truck | Christina | |
| 2019 | Stripped | Margot Mathison | |
| 2020 | Jersey | Tess | Short film |
| 2022 | The Ladies | Blanche | Short film |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1995 | My Wildest Dreams | Lisa McGinnis | Main role and also producer |
| 1996–1997 | Life's Work | Lisa Ann Hunter | Main role and also producer |
| 1997 | Late Bloomer | Cassie Baltic | TV film |
| 1998 | The Love Boat: The Next Wave | Audrey Cranston | "How Long Has This Been Going On?" |
| 2000 | Curb Your Enthusiasm | Nurse | "Interior Decorator" |
| 2001 | Emeril | Cassandra Gilman | Main role |
| 2001 | Strong Medicine | Rita Harper | "Hot Flash" |
| 2002 | Breaking News | Rachel Glass | Main role |
| 2004 | Las Vegas | Rose Gluck | "Sons and Lovers" |
| 2006 | Modern Men | Iris | "Kyle Dates Up" |
| 2006 | Nip/Tuck | Mrs. Hickock | "Reefer" |
| 2006 | Watch Over Me | Mabel | "Pilot", "The Engagement", "Goodbye" |
| 2011 | Rizzoli & Isles | Coach JJ | "Don't Stop Dancing, Girl" |
| 2013–2015 | The Exes | Margo | "Defending Your Wife", "What Dreams May Come", "Along Came Holly" |
| 2016 | The Odd Couple | Linda | "All About Eavesdropping", "All The Residents' Men" |
| 2017 | GLOW | Lorene | "Debbie Does Something" |
| 2019 | Grey's Anatomy | Shirley Gregory | "Reunited", "My Shot" |
| 2020 | Sydney to the Max | Marlene | "Father of the Bribe", "Night Not at the Museum" |
| 2021 | 9-1-1 | Delia Narwood | "9-1-1, What's Your Grievance?" |
| 2021–present | Abbott Elementary | Melissa Schemmenti | Main role |
| 2023 | Celebrity Jeopardy! | Herself | Tournament champion |
| 2025 | It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia | Melissa Schemmenti | Episode: "Volunteers" |