Lake Bell

Lake Bell, born March 24, 1979, is an American actor, writer, and director. She was born in New York City and attended The Chapin School before studying at Skidmore College and at the Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance in London. Her television breakthrough came on the ABC legal drama Boston Legal, where she played Sally Heep, a young associate at Crane, Poole and Schmidt. The character appeared during the series' early seasons and placed Bell in an ensemble led by James Spader, William Shatner, and Candice Bergen. Bell had already worked in New York and London productions.

She later became a familiar comic presence through Adult Swim's Children's Hospital, the deliberately exaggerated medical series created by Rob Corddry. Bell played Dr. Cat Black, a surgeon whose story lines embraced the program's surreal approach to hospital dramas. Her other television credits include HBO's How to Make It in America, in which she portrayed Rachel Chapman, and the NBC sitcom Bless This Mess. Bell co-created Bless This Mess with Elizabeth Meriwether and starred as Rio Levine, a New York journalist who moves with her husband to rural Nebraska. It ran for two seasons from 2019 to 2020 on NBC.

Bell made her feature directorial debut with In a World..., released in 2013. She wrote, directed, and starred in the comedy as Carol Solomon, a vocal coach trying to enter the male-dominated movie-trailer voiceover business. Carol's father, Sam Solomon, is a famous voice artist played by Fred Melamed, and their professional rivalry drives much of the story. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won Bell the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. Its plot uses the fight over a major fantasy trailer assignment to examine authority, family conflict, and assumptions about whose voices are heard in commercial entertainment culture.

Bell followed that film with I Do ... Until I Don't, a 2017 ensemble comedy that she wrote, directed, and appeared in. Its cast includes Ed Helms, Mary Steenburgen, Paul Reiser, Amber Heard, Wyatt Cenac, and Chace Crawford. The story centers on three couples in a Florida town, where a filmmaker urges them to test whether marriage should be renewed every seven years. Bell has also established a substantial voice acting profile. She voiced Chloe, the overweight tabby cat, in The Secret Life of Pets and its sequel and has played Poison Ivy in the animated television series Harley Quinn.