Lake Siegel Bell (born March 24, 1979) is an American actress, screenwriter, and director. She has appeared in various television series, including Boston Legal (2004–2006), Surface (2005–2006), How to Make It in America (2010–2011), Childrens Hospital (2008–2016), and Bless This Mess (2019–2020) and in films including Over Her Dead Body (2008), What Happens in Vegas (2008), It's Complicated (2009), No Strings Attached (2011), Million Dollar Arm (2014), No Escape (2015), Man Up (2015), The Secret Life of Pets (2016), Shot Caller (2017), Home Again (2017), The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019), and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022).
She wrote and directed the short film Worst Enemy, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012, followed by her 2013 feature film directing debut, In a World..., in which she also starred. In 2017, she directed, wrote, co-produced, and starred in I Do... Until I Don't. Bell has also voiced Poison Ivy in the Max series Harley Quinn (2019–present) and Black Widow in the Disney+ series What If...? (2021).
Early life
Bell was born in New York City. Her mother, Robin Bell, owns the design firm Robin Bell Design in New York. Her father is real estate developer Harvey Siegel. He bought the Virginia International Raceway after it had closed, and converted it to a racetrack country club. He also owned New Jersey Motorsports Park.
Bell's 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. As a high school junior, Bell attended School Year Abroad (SYA) at its school located in Rennes, France. For part of her teenage years, she lived in Vero Beach, Florida and attended Saint Edwards School. She attended Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, but decided to focus on acting and transferred to Rose Bruford College in London, which emphasized theater and the arts.
At Rose Bruford, she acted in theatrical productions including The Seagull, The Children's Hour, Six Degrees of Separation, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire and The Pentecost.
Career
Actress
After returning to the United States, Bell began her career in 2002 with roles in the film Speakeasy, a film about two men who become unlikely friends after a minor traffic accident, and in two episodes of the medical TV drama 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. She next 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 series The Practice. Her character was carried over into the spinoff Boston Legal, where she was a regular cast member until she left the series in 2005. She also appeared alongside Dustin Hoffman in an Audi commercial that spoofed his well-known film The Graduate.
Bell played the lead role in the science fiction series Surface, which aired between September 2005 and May 2006. She also starred in the film Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders (2006) about the Hillside Strangler of the late 1970s; and returned 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. She also starred alongside Paul Rudd and Eva Longoria in the romantic comedy Over Her Dead Body, played the best friend of Cameron Diaz's character in the romantic comedy What Happens in Vegas; and played the wife of Colin Farrell's character in the crime drama Pride and Glory.
She was 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 season premiere, "The Boy with the Pancakes Tattoo", a parody of the film The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo; and the ninth episode, "A Kid Walks in to a Hospital".