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Yeardley Smith

Full / Real Name: Martha Maria Yeardley Smith
Born: 03 July 1964 (61 years old)
Gender: Female

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Bio

Yeardley Smith is an American actress and voice artist best known for providing the voice of Lisa Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, since 1989.

Smith was born in Paris, France, and raised in Washington, D.C., USA.

She is the daughter (and namesake) of Joseph Yeardley "Joe" Smith, The Washington Post's first official obituary editor, who continued working full time for The Post until 1996. Her mother, Martha, was a gallery worker.

In addition to performing as the voice of Lisa Simpson on The Simpsons, Smith also appeared on the sitcoms Herman's Head and Dharma & Greg and guest-starred on Showtime's Dead Like Me and the Disney Channel's Phil of the Future.

Her resume 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, City Slickers, Maximum Overdrive and As Good as It Gets.

A twist of trivia regarding her work on The Simpsons was that she auditioned for the role of Bart Simpson, while Nancy Cartwright auditioned for the part of Lisa. 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.

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 costars, 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 however, as heard on the season 8 DVD commentaries is quite close to Lisa's.

Smith married English-Canadian actor Christopher Grove in 1990 and divorced him in 1992. She is currently married to Daniel Erickson; the couple were wed in 2002.

Smith mentions Daniel Erickson as "my husband Dan" on the audio commentaries of the Simpsons Season 9 DVDs, explicitly noting that her husband "Dan" is not her castmate Dan Castellaneta.

Smith admitted on The Jane Pauley Show that she had struggled with bulimia for 25 years. Coincidentally, her character Lisa Simpson suffered through an eating disorder in the episode "Sleeping with the Enemy".

In 2007 she performed in a one-woman show called More, in which she exposes her eating disorder.



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