If you’ve watched the hit ABC sitcom Abbott Elementary, you’ve likely spotted a wisecracking, big-hearted redhead among its Emmy-winning cast. With her South Philly swagger, you’d swear she grew up playing bocce and chomping cheesesteaks.
Actually, the character, Melissa Schemmenti, is Silver Spring’s own Lisa Ann Walter, 59, the daughter of a NASA physicist and a public school teacher. Walter lives in Los Angeles today but grew up in the Quebec Terrace neighborhood, attending Takoma Park Junior High and Montgomery Blair High School, eating honey wheat Montgomery Donuts and pizza from Ledo’s.
With her memorable character, Walter has hit it big in Hollywood after four decades of steady work as a stand-up comedian, actor, dancer, radio host and producer. Finding work in so many facets of show business was necessary for this divorced mother of four.
“I’ve worked since I started teaching salsa and the hustle at the Arthur Murray in downtown Silver Spring at age 15,” Walter says. “I never asked my parents for a dime…and my mother never had it to give.”
Walter was politically involved at a young age, eventually stumping for Maryland candidates such as Victor Crawford, Steny Hoyer and Barbara Mikulski. “I was a feminist at 10. I started getting Ms. magazine at age 11.”
As a bold 12-year-old, Walter was desperate to catch a glimpse of movie star Robert Redford when he was hanging out at The Washington Post in 1975, researching his upcoming role in All the President’s Men. She and a girlfriend took a bus to D.C., were turned away by a Post entry guard, and decided to cover their disappointment by ordering grown-up food—oysters—at The Hay-Adams hotel. “They were disgusting,” Walter recalls about the slimy ending to their failed trek. “We should have gone home to the Langley Plaza Hot Shoppes.”
Walter’s early ambition to be a ballerina was fueled by repeated trips to performances of The Nutcracker by The Washington Ballet. She started dance classes while still at New Hampshire Estates Elementary School in Silver Spring and later took acting classes at Arena Stage in D.C.
“I knew what I was going to do at age 5,” Walter says of her entertainment ambitions. Beyond a love of dance, “comedy was king in our household,” and she viewed funny movies with her father, watched shorts of The Three Stooges and devoured the albums of Richard Pryor and George Carlin.
Dancing and humor were both constants in Walter’s life, recalls childhood friend and fellow Blair Blazer Wendy Singleton, now a coordinator for Project GiveBack in the District. “The girl has always been on fire,” says Singleton, who went swimming with Walter at Long Branch pool and has stayed in touch since junior high. “She killed roles in musical productions.”
In their senior year at Blair in 1979, Walter played Yente in Fiddler on the Roof. She recalls stuffing her bra with socks, getting big laughs and a standing ovation.
While studying theater and earning a bachelor’s degree in fine arts at The Catholic University of America, Walter waitressed at Mrs. K’s Toll House in Silver Spring and several Capitol Hill restaurants. She began acting in Maryland theaters before moving, newly married, to off-Broadway productions in New York City. Waitressing was a constant during her early years, when she and her husband would split shifts and hand off their first-born son in his car seat.
Walter was pushed by a girlfriend into stand-up comedy, where, she says, she found her voice: “I wanted to be funny and make people laugh.” Juggling children and career, she crossed the country doing stand-up. A film role brought her to Hollywood.
Prior to Abbott Elementary, her best-known role was as the housekeeper/nanny, Chessy, in the 1998 Lindsay Lohan version of The Parent Trap. She’s appeared in other films (like Bruce Almighty) and several short-lived TV shows (including Life’s Work, in which she played an assistant district attorney in Baltimore), and made many guest star appearances (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Love Boat: The Next Wave). She also hosted a radio show in L.A. and produced Dance Your Ass Off, a 2009-2010 reality-TV competition.
Body issues have long influenced Walter’s life. In her 2011 comedy memoir, The Best Thing About My Ass Is That It’s Behind Me…, she describes being taken to WeightWatchers at age 12 by her father, dutifully downing the powdered milk and weekly portions of liver.
“My mom had bad conditioning about women’s bodies,” Walter says. “It gave me eating disorders and self-esteem issues through the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.” Today, she’s open about her body issues and urges women to accept flaws.
Her role on Abbott Elementary is dedicated to her mother, who worked in D.C. and Maryland classrooms and died in 2021. “She taught at tough schools and she was devoted to her kids,” says Walter. “I’m trying to communicate that in each episode.”
Walter says this reverence for teachers has been captured “brilliantly” by Quinta Brunson, the show’s creator and star. “We are such a tight-knit cast thanks to Quinta,” she says. “We’re having the time of our lives.”
This story appears in the March/April issue of Bethesda Magazine.