Lisa Lafayette

Comedic actress half African American and half Puerto Rican, I didn’t get the good hair though. I am trained in both improv and self-deprecation and still dream of marrying Will Smith minus his kids. I currently work as a temp, production assistant, and in movie theater marketing. (Translation I freelance to commit to acting full time) In a previous life I used to be a General Manager in the theater business for 15 years and ran theaters all over the country and now I am back here in the great gay friendly state of Texas, Dallas to be exact. I have been writing with my partner in crime, friend, and big brother Tom Mathley for the last two years, but we have been great friends throughout our careers in the theater business.
Thank goodness for spellcheck, should your life depend on it you would most assuredly die if I was required to spell something. I’m a blerd (black nerd) and I call myself “The Laughing Blerd”. I have been studying improv for the last five years and absolutely love it. The gift or talent to make someone laugh means almost more to me than my luggage does. I fell into comedy through a basement library writing program a few years ago and it’s been nothing but amazing ride from there. It was a free morning writing class and we had to share our stories with the room. I volunteered and well it’s a wonderful story of teenage embarrassment, and as I was reading I didn’t realize I was acting out the story and people were laughing. It was such a wonderful sensation knowing that I made people laugh… me. CJ Critt who was teaching the class asked if I was an actor. When I said no, I’m just that funny friend people have; she said I immediately needed to get into improv. And my life changed from that moment.
I am currently studying at The Actors Playground with veteran character actor Glenn Morshower in his Extra Mile Scene study program here in Dallas. I credit my mother and laughter for the reason I look 27 despite the fact that the only way I’ll be 27 again is in dog years. Deciding to follow in the great steps of Phyllis Diller, Madeline Kahn, and Wendy Jo Sperber, I am looking forward to making people laugh and cry in both TV and film both sides of the camera performing and writing. Along with my comic chops, I’m very comfortable with drama and have no problem exposing myself emotionally to tell a story. (I can expose myself physically but that will tell a much different story.) I have a bold personality but, deep down, I’m really happy being a nerd – a “blerd”