Lake Bell

Lake Bell is an American actor, writer, and director whose work has repeatedly engaged with performance, voice, and the entertainment business itself. Born in New York City on March 24, 1979, she studied at Skidmore College and later trained at the Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance in London. Bell first built a screen profile through television, including the legal drama Boston Legal, where she played Sally Heep, an attorney associated with William Shatner's Denny Crane. Her television work also includes the HBO comedy How to Make It in America, on which she played Rachel Chapman, and Adult Swim's Childrens Hospital. In the latter series, created by Rob Corddry, Bell played Dr. Cat Black and helped give the absurd medical spoof its ensemble style. She later appeared in the sports drama Million Dollar Arm as Brenda Fenwick, opposite Jon Hamm, in a story inspired by sports agent J. B. Shapiro's effort to recruit Indian cricket players for Major League Baseball. Bell made her feature directing debut with In a World..., a 2013 film she also wrote and led. The comedy centers on Carol Solomon, a struggling vocal coach trying to establish herself in the world of movie trailer narration, long dominated by male voices. Carol's father, narrator Sam Sotto, is played by Fred Melamed. The title invokes the trailer phrase “In a world...” and the film uses Carol's career campaign to examine gender assumptions surrounding authority and vocal performance. In a World... premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, where Bell received the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for her screenplay. As a voice performer, Bell has brought a recognizable vocal presence to animation. She voiced Allie in DreamWorks Animation's The Secret Life of Pets and its sequel, The Secret Life of Pets 2. She also voices Poison Ivy in the animated series Harley Quinn, opposite Kaley Cuoco's Harley. The show presents Pamela Isley as Harley's close and eventual romantic partner, a relationship within its animated reinterpretation of DC characters. Bell has also continued to combine acting with authorship. Her short film Worst Enemy, released in 2010, was written and directed by Bell, preceding her feature work. Across these projects, she has moved between live-action comedy, drama, filmmaking, and voice acting, focusing on the ways speech, image, and professional ambition shape identity. Her career is especially marked by In a World..., whose screenplay and direction she controlled.