Lisa Emery is an American actress who has followed her guts right from the start of her career, which has, in turn, led her to a perfect life. She is also best known for playing the role of Darlene Snell in the popular TV show “Ozark”.
A highlight of her career is that she has played eight different characters in all three films in the “Law and Order” franchise.
Like many other actors, Emery started her career in Hollywood from the theatre, and she has continued to act in stage productions even after her career took off.
What’s more, this actress did not consciously choose a career in acting; she initially enrolled in college to study painting, but she switched her major to drama because she thought they were having more fun.
There’s so much more to learn about this actress, though, starting with ten quick facts about Lisa Emery.
Top 10 facts about Lisa Emery
- Lisa Emery was born on 29 January 1952 and is 69 years old in 2021.
- Emery originally wanted to become a painter, but she changed her major when she saw the drama students and thought they were having more fun.
- Emery moved to New York with her then-boyfriend, but they broke up soon after, and she enrolled in another acting school before she began to audition for roles.
- Lisa Emery was married to Josh Pais for 13 years, and they have a son, Zane Pais, together.
- Zane Pais is a writer and an actor who appeared in Amazon Studios’ TV show “Modern Love”.
- Emery’s mother wanted to become an actress, but she was relatively unsuccessful at it.
- Lisa Emery is worth an estimated 1.2 million dollars ($1.2 million).
- Darlene Snell is not the first villainous character that Emery has played.
- Emery played eight characters in three movies in the “Law and Order” franchise.
- Lisa Emery has many more stage and Broadway acting credits than she does in film and TV shows.
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Early life
Lisa Emery was born on 29 January 1952 in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, to an aspiring actress mother from Virginia and an advertising executive father from Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. It can be said that the talents that her mother could not take advantage of in her own self were passed down to her daughter.
She started painting from a really young age and fell in love with it soon enough. To become better at her craft, she decided to attend Hollins College. However, while she was there, her interests changed.
She developed an interest in drama and started taking drama classes because, as she said, “they were having way more fun”. Thus began her career as an actress.
After she graduated from college, she moved to New York City with her then-longtime boyfriend. Their relationship did not last for a long time, though, and when they broke up, she decided to continue studying to be an actress.
After the breakup, she enrolled in the Circle in the Square Theater School, a two-year program. However, after only a year, she decided to kickstart her career by auditioning for roles in Hollywood.
In 1982, Emery moved to East Village in lower east side Manhattan, where she kicked off her career in stage acting.
She proceeded to appear in several stage productions and soon became widely known for them, even more than her roles in films and TV shows, the biggest of which is that of the drug dealer Darlene Snell in “Ozark”.
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Career
Lisa Emery has appeared in a lot of theatre productions, including “The Matchmaker”, “Dinner with Friends” (1999), “What the Butler Saw” (2000), “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” (2006), “Talley & Son, Burn This” (1987), “Rumors, Present Laughter, The Women” (2001), “Marvin’s Room” (1991), “Abigail’s Party” (2005), and “Relatively Speaking” (2011).
After making a few stage appearances, she finally got her first Broadway role in 1983’s “Passion”, directed by Marshall W. Mason.
Apart from theatre and Broadway, Emery has had several firsts. Her first television role was in a 1985 CBS miniseries titled “Doubletake”. She made her film debut in the 1986 film “Dreamaniac”, a horror movie directed by David DeCoteau.
She continued to make several appearances in tens of theatre appearances, movies, and TV shows after that.
In 1991, she made her first appearance in the first instalment of “Law and Order”. She did very well in that role and reappeared in the show in 1994, 2000, and 2009 as different characters. She also appeared in “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” in 2002 and 2005. She appeared in three different films in the “Law and order” franchise and played eight different characters while at it.
Lisa Emery has said that she does not have a career strategy; instead, she takes the roles as they come and does her best with them, saying, “I take it as it comes. Perhaps I’d regret it if I were less happy now. I live perfectly well and love what I do.”
She also disclosed that second to money, the script is most important to her. She said, “If I’m rolling my eyes when I read the play. I know I’ll be miserable even if I’m in a drought. But I’ll do a play even if I think it needs a lot of work as long as the playwright is around and willing to work on it.”
For her role as Darlene Snell in “Ozark”, it was the script and how exciting the character was that attracted her to the project.
Lisa Emery was also a part of the TV show “Jessica Jones”, where she played Jones’s mother, Louise Thompson, for four episodes.
The actress has received several accolades for her work. She has been nominated for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play at the Drama Desk Award in 1992, 2006, and 2011.
In 2006 and 2009, she was nominated for the award for Outstanding Featured Actress at the Lucille Lortel Award. At the same awards show, in 2004, she was again nominated for the award for Outstanding Featured Actress.
In 2003 and 2004, however, she won the award for Outstanding Performance at the Obie Awards.
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Lisa Emery as Darlene Snell in Ozark
In July 2020, during an interview with The National Aristocrat, Lisa Emery spoke about how the unpredictability of her character: “Every time I get a script, I’m surprised, which is great. It’s not like, ‘Oh, there she goes again!’ I think it’s unpredictable what a great mother she is in her own way.”
Emery plays Darlene, one of the villains on the show and as season 4 will soon be released, she looks set to have a more significant role on the show.
While a character like Darlene is challenging to watch and even more challenging to play, this is not Emery’s first experience with a scary character. She told The New York Times, “I did a play called ‘Iron’ with a character who was terrifying. It took place in Northern England in a prison, and [my character] had killed her husband with a hammer. She scared me more than Darlene, almost. They both had the same m.o.”
Personal life
Lisa Emery has been married once before to actor and acting coach Josh Pais. The two were married for 13 years before their divorce in 2003. They have one child together, a son named Zane Pais, born on 23 September 1993 and appeared alongside his mother in “Margot at the Wedding”.
Just like his parents, Zane is also an actor. He made his feature in the film mentioned above alongside his mother and was also in the critically acclaimed original Amazon series “Modern Love”, created by John Carney and is based on the popular weekly New York Times column.
Zane has also earned recognition for his efforts. For his work in “Margot at the Wedding”, he was nominated for an award at the 2007 Gotham Independent Awards show.
Apart from his work as an actor, Zane Pais is also a writer. At the moment, Lisa Emery is not seeing anyone, so she is currently single.
Lisa Emery net worth
Lisa Emery has done so much work in film, TV, and theatre since she launched her acting career in 1985. During her career, she has amassed wealth thanks to her hard work.
Although at the age of 69, she is worried about how her age will affect her acting career, that does not seem likely to happen. So far, she has earned a pretty penny from her acting work, not least of which is her recent production “Ozark”.
Lisa Emery net worth is estimated to be a comfortable 1.2 million dollars ($1.2 million). As she is set to reprise her role in the fourth and final season of the successful show, her net worth will definitely grow.
Conclusion
Lisa Emery is one of the very few actresses who fell quite accidentally into the acting profession—she wanted to study painting but found acting and actors to be more interesting.
One could argue that acting is in her blood, seeing as she was born to a mother who wanted to become an actress, with little success. However, Emery can be said to have manifested her mother’s dream.
She has lived an extraordinary life, doing something she enjoys and living a comfortable life, something that not everyone can boast of. Because of this, she can be described as an actress who is successful in her career.
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