Lisa Nicole Carson was born on July 12, 1969 (or is it 1970? The year's debated...) in Brooklyn, NY (more specifically, Clinton Hill). In second grade at age 8 she made her stage debut in a school production of "Fiddler On The Roof", which got her interested in drama. When she was 12, the family moved to Gainesville, Florida. In high school, despite race discrimination, she managed to become a cheerleader and never lost her love for the stage, almost always catching the lead role in school plays. She made her professional debut at age 15 in "Little Shop Of Horrors", and later her parents split, leaving her to live with her father in Florida. Her mother went back to NY to teach in South Bronx, and Lisa moved in with her after one year of acting class in college. After dropping out to pursue a professional acting career, she got numerous gigs on TV shows and on stage, landing things such as "The Apollo Comedy Hour" (where she was a featured preformer in a singing role), "Law & Order" (isn't it weird how almost everyone out of today's "Ally" cast at one time or another had a part on either "Chicago Hope", "Law & Order" or both? Kelley influence, I guess...:)), the finale of "The Cosby Show" (where her lines got cut by the mean execs & producers) and "Divas", a to-be ABC series that featured a girl singing group... It never made it past the pilot stage. Practically all of her TV roles slumped, and she lost interest in the small screen... But with each loss comes a gain, right? In this case, yes... After her disappointing TV appearances came larger roles in big-screen features such as "Jason's Lyric", "Devil In A Blue Dress" & "Eve's Bayou" (with no less than Samuel L. Jackson as her counterpart!). Her movie career was going so well that she even told her agent that unless it was "Chicago Hope" or "ER", she never wanted to do TV again... Well, never say never... Surprisingly, first came casting calls from BOTH "Hope" AND "ER" (where she made numerous appearances as the mother of Benton's son), and later in 1997 came a call from showbiz-whiz Kelley, something along the lines of "I'm cooking up a new show called "Ally McBeal", she needs a strong, tough and smart roommate/best friend... Would you consider auditioning?"... So she did, and she got the part (duh!)... She now lives in L.A., working on both small screen and big, with a new movie "Life" that (I think) just came out...

Lisa Nicole Carson: Selected Credits

TV:

*Ally (1999-?) - Renee Radick
*Ally McBeal (1997-?) - Renee Radick
*Damon (guest star; 4/27/98) - Lieutenant Byrne
*Getting Personal (guest star; 4/27/98)
*ER (NBC; recurring role, 1996-1998) - Carla Reese
*Divas (ABC; 1995) - Jewel
*The Apollo Comedy Hour (1992-93) - Regular Performer
*The Cosby Show (NBC; 4/30/92)
*Law & Order (NBC; 10/1/91) - Jasmine

FILM:

*Life (1999) - Sylvia
*Eve's Bayou (1997) - Matty Mereaux
*Love Jones (1997) - Josie Nichols
*Devil In A Blue Dress (1995) - Coretta James
*Jason's Lyric (1994) - Marti



See bios: Calista Flockhart -- Gil Bellows -- Courtney Thorne-Smith -- Peter MacNicol -- Portia de Rossi -- Lucy Liu -- Greg Germann -- Lisa Nicole Carson -- Jane Krakowski -- Vonda Shepard