Lisa Loeb
Lisa Anne Loeb (/loʊb/; born March 11, 1968)[1] is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author and actress. She started her career with "Stay (I Missed You)" from the film Reality Bites, the first Billboard number one single for an artist without a recording contract.[2] She achieved two additional top 20 singles with "Do You Sleep?" in 1996 and "I Do" in 1998. Her studio albums include two back-to-back albums that were certified gold: Tails and Firecracker.[3]
Lisa Loeb
Lisa Anne Loeb
March 11, 1968
Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.
Dallas, Texas, U.S.
- Singer
- songwriter
- musician
- actress
- Guitar
- vocals
1989–present
429 Records, Geffen, A&M, Artemis, Zoë
Dweezil Zappa (1998–2004)
Loeb's film, television and voice-over work includes guest starring roles in the season finale of Gossip Girl, and two episodes, including the series finale, of Netflix's Fuller House. She also starred in two other television series, Dweezil & Lisa, a weekly culinary adventure for the Food Network[4] that featured her alongside Dweezil Zappa, and Number 1 Single on E! Entertainment Television.[5] She has also acted in such films as House on Haunted Hill, Fright Night,[6] Hot Tub Time Machine 2,[7] and Helicopter Mom.[8]
Loeb has released children's CDs and books; her 2016 children's CD Feel What U Feel won Best Children's Album at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards. Loeb's latest album, A Simple Trick to Happiness, was released in February 2020.
In addition, she has a line of eyewear, and started a non-profit organization that sends under-served children to camp, funded by Loeb's own organic and fair trade coffee, Wake Up! Brew.
Early life and education[edit]
Lisa Loeb was born to a Jewish[9] family in Bethesda, Maryland,[10] and was raised in Dallas, Texas,[11] where her parents still reside. Her mother, Gail, was the president of the Dallas County Medical Society Alliance and Foundation, and her father, Peter Loeb, was a gastroenterologist.[12] She has a younger sister, songwriter Debbie Loeb. As a child, Lisa studied piano, but later switched to guitar.[2] She attended The Hockaday School, an all-girls private school. For two years, she had her own radio show on 88.5 KRSM-FM, a 10-watt station licensed to the nearby all-boys St. Marks School of Texas.[13] After graduating from high school in 1986, she attended Brown University, where she graduated in 1990[2] with a degree in comparative literature.[14]
Music career[edit]
Early years and first bands (1980s–1993)[edit]
At Brown in the mid-1980s, Loeb and Elizabeth Mitchell formed a band named Liz and Lisa,[14] with future singer/songwriter and classmate Duncan Sheik as a guitarist. The duo released the albums Liz and Lisa (1989) and Liz and Lisa - Days Were Different (1990) independently.[2] After college, bassist Rick Lassiter and drummer Chad Fischer joined the band. After developing a following together, Loeb and Mitchell parted ways a few years after college.
Loeb attended Berklee College of Music in Boston for a session of summer school, and in 1990 formed a full band called Nine Stories. The band, which was named after the book by J.D. Salinger, included Tim Bright on guitar, Jonathan Feinberg on drums, and Joe Quigley on bass. Loeb began working with producer Juan Patiño to make the cassette Purple Tape in 1992.[2] It included the earliest recordings of later popular tracks such as "Do You Sleep?", "Snow Day", "Train Songs", and "It's Over".[14][15] Loeb sold the violet-colored cassette to fans at gigs and used it as a sonic calling card to industry gatekeepers.[2] She and her band made a recording of her song "Stay (I Missed You)" during the same period.[16]
Loeb developed a following from her solo acoustic performances on the New York City coffeehouse circuit and the rock club circuit. She travelled to cities such as Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Dallas, but focused mainly on New York City. She played acoustically and with her band in folk and rock clubs, including at CBGB. Loeb performed at music festivals such as the New Music Seminar and South by Southwest.[2]
Film and television appearances[edit]
In 1989, Loeb appeared in the low-budget comedy horror anthology film Tabloid, in a segment entitled "Killer Vacuum Destroys Town". The film was shot in and around Fort Worth, Texas.
Loeb shared title billing with then-boyfriend Dweezil Zappa on the reality show Dweezil & Lisa, which premiered on Food Network on January 16, 2004. The series showed the two musicians touring the country together and sampling unique and diverse dishes. In the opening for each episode, Loeb announced she was a vegetarian who enjoyed eating an occasional piece of bacon.[4]
In the fall and winter of 2005, following her breakup with Zappa,[5] Loeb taped a reality show called Number 1 Single,[2] which premiered in January 2006 on the E! Channel in New York City. The show dealt with her quest for love, success, career, and family.[5] A re-recording of Loeb's selection "Single Me Out" was used as the program's theme.
Loeb has made several guest appearances on television shows such as The Nanny in 1997,[63] and Cupid the following year.[64] In September 1999, she made an appearance on the comedy show MADtv, singing the theme song for a WB drama sketch called "Pretty White Kids with Problems".[65] In 2007, Loeb appeared on an episode of Jack's Big Music Show singing the song "Jenny Jenkins".[66] In 2008, she made a guest appearance on Gossip Girl,[13] followed by a cameo on an episode of The Sarah Silverman Program in which the cast formed a mock band called "The Loeb Trotters". On the final episode of Gossip Girl on Monday, December 17, 2012, Lisa ended up with the character Rufus Humphrey in the five years after glimpse.
In addition to television shows, Loeb has also appeared in the horror films House on Haunted Hill (1999), Serial Killing 4 Dummys (1999), and Fright Night (2011). She has done voice work including the voice of Mary Jane Watson for the animated show Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, broadcast on MTV.[14] Loeb also voiced the character of Lutina in the video game Grandia Xtreme[67] and characters for The Rugrats Movie and Shorty McShorts' Shorts. As of 2012, Loeb provided the voice of Princess Winger on the Disney Junior animated series Jake and the Never Land Pirates.
In 2008, Loeb was one of the contributors to Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna's book Cherry Bomb; she gave advice on how to be the perfect hostess.[68]
In 2010, Loeb provided guest voices for Disney's Special Agent Oso.[69] In 2012, she provided voice over talent for BonTon industries in their spring TV spots. In December 2012, Loeb made a brief cameo as Matthew Settle's (Rufus Humphrey) love interest in "New York, I Love You XOXO", the final episode of Gossip Girl.[70]
In February 2013, Loeb also made a cameo in an episode of Workaholics where her song "Stay (I Missed You)" is referenced several times.[71] In January 2014, Loeb appeared on the cover of Making Music.[72] In April 2014, Loeb appeared in the first episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver in a short musical sketch about Oregon's health care website failure.[73]
In 2015, Loeb appeared as Julie, lead singer of the fictitious band "Natalie is Freezing", in the episode "Advanced Safety Features" of the TV series Community. She also appeared as herself in Hot Tub Time Machine 2.[74] Other shows she has recently been involved in include Orange Is the New Black, About a Boy, King of the Nerds, The Muppet Show, Sunny Side Up Show, and Fuller House.[37]
In 2021, Loeb appeared in a GEICO commercial campaign singing her hit “Stay” setup as an audition.
Businesses[edit]
According to People: "Though Lisa Loeb rose to fame as a singer, she's probably just as well known for her eyeglasses."[75] In November 2010, Loeb launched the Lisa Loeb Eyewear Collection.[76] Each type of frame is named after one of her song titles, and while most models are for women, there are models for young girls and men.[77]
Loeb also sells a brand of coffee called her "Wake Up! Brew", a reference to her "Everybody Wake Up" song from her Camp Lisa album. The brand is organic and fair trade,[78] with all profits going to Camp Lisa,[31] and it is only available through the Coffee Fool website.[79]
She constructed a crossword puzzle with Doug Peterson for The New York Times, which was published on June 6, 2017.[80]
Personal life[edit]
Loeb dated Dweezil Zappa from 1998 to 2004. She married Roey Hershkovitz in 2009; they met in 2006 during a business meeting for a food TV show. The couple have two children.[12][81][82] Her cousin is New York City–based drag queen Alexis Michelle, who was a competitor on the ninth season of reality television series RuPaul's Drag Race.[83][84]
