Lisa Arch
Lisa Arch is an actor, born 1971.
One season of Mad TV, in 1997 and 1998, is where most people first saw her, and it set the register for everything that followed: broad enough for sketch, controlled enough to keep a straight face in a room full of people who will not.
The credits here divide neatly into three. There is hosting, which took up several years in the early 2000s when she cohosted TBS's Dinner and a Movie from 2002 to 2005, and which a film and television list does not really represent. There is the recurring television work, where she is reliably cast as the woman with an institutional job: Samantha Samuels on Disney Channel's Cory in the House, a school principal on 100 Things to Do Before High School, Cassie on Curb Your Enthusiasm. And there are the single scenes in features, a boutique saleswoman in Legally Blonde and a staffer in Evan Almighty, parts that exist to be played cleanly and then leave.
The odd entry is Windy City Heat, a prank comedy in which she is billed as both Susan B. Anthony and Jiggly Wrigley, which tells you she was working in a very different corner of the comedy world than the Disney Channel one. Nothing on this page is a lead. All of it is the work of a performer who can be dropped into a scene cold and be funny in it immediately, which is a specific and undervalued job.
Movies (3)
TV (6)
Where to start with Lisa Arch
Begin on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Larry David's show is built entirely out of people reacting to him in real time, which exposes anyone who cannot improvise. She can. From there, Cory in the House is the steadiest run of her Disney Channel work, with Samantha Samuels a recurring fixture rather than a one-week guest, and 100 Things to Do Before High School gives her the school-principal version of the same energy.
Legally Blonde is one boutique scene, worth spotting and no more, and Hannah Montana is a guest spot. The wild card is Windy City Heat, a prank comedy that will either delight you or make you switch it off, with no middle setting available. Her Mad TV season is the other obvious entry point, and it is not among the credits listed here.