Lake Bell Biography

Lake Bell (born March 24, 1979) is an American actress, writer and director. She has starred in the television series Miss Match (2003); The Practice (2004) and its spinoff Boston Legal (2004"2006) as Sally Heep; Surface (2005"2006); How to Make It in America (2010"2011) and Childrens Hospital (2008"present) and in the films Over Her Dead Body, What Happens in Vegas and Pride and Glory (all 2008); It's Complicated (2009); Burning Palms (2010); and Little Murder, No Strings Attached and A Good Old Fashioned Orgy (all 2011). She wrote and directed her own award-winning short film, Worst Enemy, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival followed by her feature film debut In a World... in 2013.

Early life

Bell was born in New York City, the daughter of Robin Bell, owner of the design firm Robin Bell Design, Inc. in New York, and real estate developer Harvey Siegel, who famously bought the then-closed Virginia International Raceway and converted it into a racetrack country club. Her father is Jewish and her mother is Protestant. Bell has stated that she was raised in a "comically dysfunctional family".

Bell attended The Chapin School in New York and Westminster School in Simsbury, Connecticut. For part of her teenage years she lived in Vero Beach, Florida and attended St. Edward's School. She attended Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York before transferring to Rose Bruford College in London where she acted in several theatrical productions including The Seagull, The Children's Hour, Six Degrees of Separation, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire and Pentecost.

Career

Bell began her career in 2002 with roles in the film Speakeasy and in 2 episodes of ER. Her first significant roles came in 2003 - after appearing in the psychological thriller I Love Your Work, she was cast alongside Jeff Goldblum as the female lead in the NBC television film War Stories and played Alicia Silverstone's wisecracking best friend, Victoria Carlson, in NBC's comedy-drama series Miss Match. In 2004, Bell appeared in the wrestling film Slammed and made her debut as Sally Heep in the final four episodes of The Practice. Her character was carried over into the spinoff Boston Legal, where she was made a regular cast member until she left the series in 2005.

Bell then played the lead role in the science fiction series Surface, which aired between September 2005 and May 2006. 2006 also saw her star in the film Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders about the Hillside Strangler of the late 1970s and return to Boston Legal for two episodes, reprising her role as Sally Heep, opposing counsel to Alan Shore (portrayed by James Spader). In 2008, she played the female lead in the thriller Under Still Waters, for which she won the Newport Beach Film Festival Award for Outstanding Performance in Acting; starred alongside Paul Rudd and Eva Longoria in the romantic comedy Over Her Dead Body; played Cameron Diaz's best friend in the romantic comedy What Happens in Vegas and played the wife of Colin Farrell's character in crime drama Pride and Glory. She was also cast as the lead female role, Dr. Cat Black, in Rob Corddry's satirical comedy Childrens Hospital. The fourth season began airing in August 2012 and featured two episodes that were directed by Bell"?the series premiere, The Boy with the Pancakes Tattoo, a parody of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and the ninth episode, A Kid Walks in to a Hospital.

In 2009, Bell voiced the role of Dana Mercer in the video game Prototype, played Alec Baldwin's wife in the romantic comedy It's Complicated and guest starred in an episode of the fourth season of the series Wainy Days. 2010 saw Bell voice a supporting role in Shrek Forever After, star in the satirical film Burning Palms, guest star in an episode of the second season of the sitcom The League and cast as a lead character in the new HBO television series How to Make It in America, which aired for 2 seasons from February 2010 to November 2011. Bell was to play Deputy Judy Hicks in Scream 4, but dropped out four days before filming due to scheduling conflicts, with the role going to Marley Shelton.

2010 saw Bell make her writing and directing début with the short film Worst Enemy, which starred Michaela Watkins, Matt Walsh and Lindsay Sloane. Her film débuted at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and has also played at the Nantucket Film Festival, the Dallas International Film Festival, the Gen Art Film Festival and Aspen Shortsfest, winning the Tony Cox Award for Screenwriting in a Short Film from Nantucket and receiving a Shorts Jury Special Mention from Dallas. Her film led to her being named one of the "2012 Inspiring Filmmakers" by LUNAFEST.

In 2011, Bell starred alongside Josh Lucas and Terrence Howard in the supernatural thriller Little Murder; played Ashton Kutcher's boss in the romantic comedy No Strings Attached, a performance that won her critical praise and was called "scene-stealing"; starred in the ensemble comedy A Good Old Fashioned Orgy and guest starred in an episode of the first season of Zooey Deschanel's sitcom New Girl. Bell has a lead role alongside Kate Bosworth in the upcoming thriller Black Rock.

Bell first feature-length film premiered in the 2013 Sundance Film Festival., In A World... is written by, stars, and is directed by Bell. She describes the film as "a comedy about a female voice-over artist and family dysfunction and relationships. I'm obsessed with the voice-over world, so it makes sense for me.".

Bell has an automotive column in The Hollywood Reporter called Test Drive and is the magazine's automotive contributing editor. Bell came 45th on Femme Fatales' list of the 50 Sexiest Women of 2003; she came 6th on British Vogue's list of the 10 Best Dressed Women of 2007, she was 32nd on Maxim's Hot 100 of 2008, she was 44th on Maxim's Hot 100 of 2012 and 89th on AskMen's 99 Most Desirable Women of 2012. In 2007, Bell appeared in a photoshoot for GQ, in 2008 she appeared in a photoshoot for Marie Claire, in 2009 she modelled for Scott Caan for his first book, Scott Caan Photographs, Vol. 1 and in 2011 she appeared in photoshoots for Elle, Los Angeles, Maxim and Esquire, the latter in conjunction with the website Me In My Place. In September 2011, Bell modelled at Pirelli's Fashion Week in Milan, Italy.

Personal life

Bell and Colin Farrell, her co-star in Pride and Glory, dated for a time. In 2011, Bell began dating Scott Campbell, an artist and tattoo artist. The two met when he played himself in an episode of the second series of How to Make It in America. The couple became engaged in April 2012 and were married on June 1, 2013.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	Speakeasy	Sara Marnikov
2003	War Stories	Nora Stone
	I Love Your Work	Felicia
2004	Fresh out of Tears	Leila	Short film
	Slammed	Gina Micelli
2006	Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders	Jillian Dunne
2008	Under Still Waters	Charlie	Newport Beach Film Festival Award for Outstanding Performance in Acting
	Over Her Dead Body	Ashley
	What Happens in Vegas	Tipper
	Pride and Glory	Megan Egan
	Prop 8: The Musical	Scary Catholic School Girls From Hell	Short for Funny or Die
2009	It's Complicated	Agness Adler	National Board of Review Award for Best Acting by an Ensemble
2010	Shrek Forever After	Patrol Witch / Wagon Witch #2
	Burning Palms	Mary Jane
	The Doctors of Childrens Hospital Answer Your Medical Questions	Dr. Cat Black	Short for Funny or Die
	10 Minutes	Herself	Short for Funny or Die
	Worst Enemy	Writer & Director	Short film Tony Cox Award for Screenwriting in a Short Film, Nantucket Film Festival Shorts Jury Special Mention, Dallas International Film Festival
2011	Little Murder	Corey Little
	No Strings Attached	Lucy
	A Good Old Fashioned Orgy	Alison Cohen
	Home for Actresses	Lake	Short for Funny or Die
2012	Black Rock	Lou	Upcoming
2013	In a World...	Carol Solomon Writer, director, and producer.	Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, Sundance Film Festival 2013

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	ER	Jody Holmes	Episode: One Can Only Hope Episode: Tell Me Where It Hurts
2003	Miss Match	Victoria Carlson	Series regular
2004	The Practice	Sally Heep	Episode: The Firm Episode: Comings And Goings Episode: New Hoods on the Block Episode: Adjourned (a.k.a. Cheers)
2004"2006	Boston Legal	Sally Heep	Series regular; guest star
2005"2006	Surface	Laura Daughtery	Series regular
2008"present	Childrens Hospital	Dr. Cat Black	Series regular
2009	Wainy Days	Blaire	Episode: Dance Club
2010	The League	Brooke	Episode: The White Knuckler
2010"2011	How to Make It in America	Rachel Chapman	Series regular
2011	New Girl	Amanda	Episode: Naked
2012	Top Gear U.S.	Herself	Episode: Rut's show

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009	Prototype	Dana Mercer