Lisa Ann Walter

Lisa Ann Walter, an American actress who also works as a comedian and television producer, spent five years doing stand-up before Fox gave her the comedy series My Wildest Dreams in 1995. She followed it with the ABC sitcom Life's Work, which she created and starred in, and took supporting parts in shows such as the Bravo series Breaking News, the NBC sitcom Emeril, and the film Eddie (1996). She played Chessy, the nanny, in The Parent Trap (1998), and later appeared in Bruce Almighty (2003), Shall We Dance (2004), War of the Worlds (2005), and Drillbit Taylor (2008). On television she created and executive produced the reality competition Dance Your Ass Off, judged The Next Best Thing, and has played Melissa Schemmenti on Abbott Elementary since 2021; the ensemble won a Screen Actors Guild Award in 2023. She earned a theater degree in Washington, D.C., in 1983.