Martha Maria Yeardley Smith (born July 3, 1964 in Paris, France) is an American actress best known for voicing Lisa Simpson (the saxophone-playing, intellectual daughternote ) on The Simpsons since its inception as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show. She is the only main cast member on the show who does not voice multiple characters, though in such episodes as "Missionary Impossible" and "Last Tap Dance in Springfield", she voices female characters who are in some way like Lisa: the former episode had Smith voice a Pacific Islander girl that Homer calls "Lisa Jr." while the latter episode had Smith voice a bookish Spanish woman in a movie Lisa watchesnote . And fun fact: originally, Yeardley Smith was going to voice Bart while Nancy Cartwright was going to voice Lisa.
Prior to The Simpsons, she was a regular on the sitcom Brothers. She has also been a regular on Herman's Head (which she and fellow Simpsons voice actor Hank Azaria have Creator Backlash towards) and had recurring roles on Dharma & Greg, Dead Like Me, Phil of the Future and The Mindy Project. Her films include Heaven Help Us, Maximum Overdrive, City Slickers, Toys and As Good as It Gets.
Selected Filmography:
- Heaven Help Us (1985): Kathleen.
- The Legend of Billie Jean (1985): Putter.
- Maximum Overdrive (1987): Connie.
- Brothers (1987-1989): Louella Waters.
- Mathnet (1987): Jane Rice-Burroughs.
- The Simpsons (1989-present): Lisa Simpson.
- The Simpsons Movie (2007): Lisa Simpson.
- City Slickers (1991): Nancy.
- Herman's Head (1991-1994): Louise Fitzer.
- Toys (1992): Miss Drum.
- We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993): Cecilia Nuthatch.
- As Good as It Gets (1997): Jackie Simpson.
- Dharma & Greg (1997-2002): Marlene.
- Dead Like Me (2004): Penny.
- Phil of the Future (2005): Mandy Teslow.
- The Mindy Project (2014-2015): Carolyn.
