McBeal's Roomie

Background:

“I've been called schizoid, manic depressive, crazy, since I came out of the womb. I'm a super-bad bitch.” Lisa Nicole Carson

Brooklyn-born African-American actress who embarked as a stage performer before segueing to television and then movies Lisa Nicole Carson rose to prominence as the former girlfriend of Eriq La Salle on the hit NBC series “ER” (1996-2001), from which she was handed an Image nomination. The multi-faceted player gained even more recognition and popularity for playing Calista Flockhart's pal in the successful Fox show “Ally McBeal” (1997-2001). For her fine efforts, she netted three Image nominations, a Q nomination and a Screen Actors Guild Award, an honor she shared with costars Calista Flockhart, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Lucy Liu and others. On the big screen, Carson has had roles in “Jason's Lyric” (1994), “Devil in a Blue Dress” (1995), “Love Jones” (1997), “Eve's Bayou” (1997) and “Life” (1999). Outside acting, Carson is known as an accomplished singer.

Discharged from “ER” and “Ally McBeal” because of her “unpleasant attitude,” Carson made headlines in 2000 with her arrest after screaming salacities in the L'Ermitage Hotel. One of Black Men Magazine's “10 Sexiest Women of the Year” (2000) was charged with “purposely interfering with a legitimate business establishment.”

Junior Miss

Childhood and Family:

Lisa Nicole Carson was born on July 12, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York. As a teenager, she moved to Gainesville, Florida and attended F. W. Buchholz High School. Upon graduating in June 1987, she returned to New York to live with her grandmother and try her hand in acting. As for college, she attended Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY) in Manhattan. 17-year-old Lisa represented Florida at the 1986 America's Junior Miss scholarship/talent pageant and was placed runner-up, thanks largely to her noticeable singing talent.

ER's Girlfriend

Career:

After spending her adolescence in Florida, where she became a runner-up at the 1986 American Junior Miss, Lisa Nicole Carson launched her acting career in New York City and found employments at the Negro Ensemble Company and the Young Playwrights Festival. Her theater credits include “Hey Little Walter,” “Tar Beach Incidentals,” “Club 12,” “Work It!” and “Little Shop of Horrors.” The girl moved on to television in 1991 when she landed a guest spot in the series “Law & Order” and scored a regular gig in the following year in “The Apollo Comedy Hour,” a syndicated sketch-comedy show set at NYC's Apollo Theater.

In 1993, Carson made her big screen debut in “Let's Get Bizzee,” opposite Doug E. Fresh, and followed it up with supporting parts in the crime/drama “Jason's Lyric” (1994), directed by Doug McHenry and starring Allen Payne and Jada Pinkett Smith, and the Denzel Washington underestimated vehicle “Devil in a Blue Dress” (1995), in which she portrayed an ill-fated singer named Coretta James. Also in 1995, she had a costarring role on the Fox pilot “Divas,” playing Jewel.

Carson's big breakthrough arrived in 1996 when she won the recurring role of Carla Reece on the long-running medical series “ER.” As the one-time lover of Dr. Peter Benton (played by Eriq La Salle), she was nominated for an Image Award in 1998 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, but the producers and writers did not renew her contract when it ended in 2001 because they were bored of her “blistering attitude.”

The talented actress' mounting career was further confirmed in the following year when she was hired as a regular player on the David E. Kelley-created comedy/drama series “Ally McBeal,” starring Calista Flockhart as the titular defense advocate. The show went on to become a hit and Carson, who played Renee Radnick, the snotty-nosed district attorney roommate of Ally, earned three Image nominations (1999, 2000 and 2002) and a Q nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Quality Comedy Series (1998) as well as co-won a 1999 Screen Actors Guild for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. The same year she was released from “ER,” Carson was also fired from “Ally McBeal.”

In between her TV series commitments, Carson still found time pursuing other projects. She appeared with Julie Warner, Larry Gilliard Jr, Terry Kinney, Rosanna Arquette and Harvey Fierstein in the comedy film “White Lies” (1996), offered fine turn as the friend of Nia Long in director/writer Theodore Witcher's “Love Jones” (1997) and was memorable as the femme fatale in the drama “Eve's Bayou” (1997), with Samuel L Jackson. She returned to the wide screen two years later to portray the girlfriend of Martin Lawrence in Ted Demme's “Life” (1999). On the small screen, she guested in the shows “Damon” and “Getting Personal” (both 1998) and costarred with Tom Skerritt, Sharon Lawrence and Charles S. Dutton in the made-for-TV film “Aftershock: Earthquake in New York” (1999).

After almost a year, Carson was invited back to “Ally McBeal” to reprise her role in a 2002 episode called “Bygones.” Since then, she has withdrawn from public eye and put acting on back burner. A report stated that she suffers from schizophrenia and now is being care by her family and mental health specialists for treatments.

Awards:

• Screen Actors Guild: Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, “Ally McBeal,” 1999