Yeardley Smith
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2007)
Smith on a panel at Comic Con in San Diego for The Simpsons, July 2007
Yeardley Smith (IPA: /ˈjɑrdli/; born July 3, 1964[1]) is an Emmy Award-winning American actress and voice artist, who is perhaps best known for providing the voice of Lisa Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons.[2]
Contents
[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Smith was born Martha Maria Yeardley Smith in Paris, France, and was raised in Washington, D.C., U.S. She is the daughter of Martha Mayor, a gallery worker, and Joseph Yeardley "J.Y." Smith (May 10, 1931–January 17, 2006), The Washington Post's first official obituary editor (1977–1988), who continued working full time for The Post until 1996.[3][1]
One of her great-grandfathers was noted marine biologist Alfred Goldsborough Mayor, chief curator of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and director of marine zoology studies for the Carnegie Institution. Yeardley's great-great-grandfather (father of Alfred's wife, sculptor Harriet Randolph Hyatt Mayor) was the well-known naturalist Alpheus Hyatt.
[edit] Career
In addition to performing as the voice of Lisa Simpson on The Simpsons, Smith appeared on the sitcoms Herman's Head, Dharma and Greg and in 55 episodes of the Showtime sitcom Brothers and guest-starred on Showtime's Dead Like Me and the Disney Channel's Phil of the Future. Her résumé features guest appearances on Teen Angel, and the "Mathnet" segment of the Children's Television Workshop show Square One. She also appeared as an escaped juvenile prisoner named "Bonita Rokeke" in an episode of Mama's Family.
Her film credits include The Legend of Billie Jean, Heaven Help Us, City Slickers, Maximum Overdrive and As Good as It Gets. She auditioned for the role of Bart Simpson, while Nancy Cartwright auditioned for the part of Lisa.[2] However the producers felt that Smith would be better suited for Lisa's voice, while Cartwright was given the role of Bart.
Smith won an Emmy for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for her work on The Simpsons in 1992.[4] Lisa's distinctive voice differs from Smith's only in that it is higher in pitch. Smith has joked about her lack of vocal range in comparison to her Simpsons co-stars, saying she only has three voices: her own, Lisa's, and one that's somewhere in between. She has also said that any time Lisa sings on the show that she has to drop into her own singing voice. Her laugh too however, as heard on the DVD commentaries, also is quite close to Lisa's.
Smith starred in and served as executive producer for the indie relationship comedy Waiting For Ophelia, which will be released in early 2009.
Despite the fame of Lisa Simpson, Smith is rarely recognized in public, which she doesn't mind, saying "it's wonderful to be in the midst of all this hype about the show, and people enjoying the show so much, and to be totally a fly on the wall, people never recognise me solely from my voice."[5] Smith has gotten very little live-action work and in 2004 performed her own one-woman show entitled More which, amongst other things, is about her mixed feelings over the success of The Simpsons.[6][7] Smith received a Primetime Emmy Award in 1992 but felt it wasn't worth anything, saying "there’s part of me that feels it wasn’t even a real Emmy." This is because the Emmy for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance is a Creative Arts award and is not voted on by the regular Emmy voters and not handed out during the primetime telecast.[6] However, Smith says "if I had to be associated with one character in fiction, I will always be thrilled that it was Lisa Simpson."[6]
[edit] Personal life
Smith married English-Canadian actor Christopher Grove[8] in 1990. They were divorced in 1992, citing irreconcilable differences. She married Daniel Erickson in 2002. Smith filed for divorce on May 21, 2008 citing irreconcilable differences.
Smith admitted on The Jane Pauley Show that she had struggled with bulimia for 25 years. Her character Lisa Simpson suffered through an eating disorder in the episode "Sleeping with the Enemy". She is currently performing in a one-woman show called More where she exposes her eating disorder. Smith has been binge-purge free since February 18, 2003.
