Early life

Bell was born in New York City. Her mother Robin Bell owns the design firm Robin Bell Design in New York. Her father is real estate developer Harvey Siegel, who bought the then-closed Virginia International Raceway and converted it into a racetrack country club, and who owned New Jersey Motorsports Park.

Bell's father is Jewish and her mother is Protestant. Bell has stated that she was raised in a "comically dysfunctional family."

Bell attended The Chapin School in New York and Westminster School in Simsbury, Connecticut. For part of her teenage years she lived in Vero Beach, Florida and attended Saint Edwards School. She attended Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, before transferring to Rose Bruford College in London. There she acted in theatrical productions including The Seagull, The Children's Hour, Six Degrees of Separation, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire and The Pentecost.

Career

Actress

Bell began her career in 2002 with roles in the film Speakeasy, a film about two men who become unlikely friends after a minor traffic accident, and in 2 episodes of the medical TV drama ER. Her first significant roles came in 2003. After appearing in the psychological thriller I Love Your Work, she was cast alongside Jeff Goldblum as the female lead in the NBC television film War Stories and played Alicia Silverstone's wisecracking best friend, Victoria Carlson, in NBC's comedy-drama series Miss Match. In 2004, Bell appeared in the wrestling film Slammed and made her debut as Sally Heep in the final four episodes of The Practice. Her character was carried over into the spinoff Boston Legal, where she was a regular cast member until she left the series in 2005.

Bell then played the lead role in the science fiction series Surface, which aired between September 2005 and May 2006. 2006 also saw her star in the film Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders about the Hillside Strangler of the late 1970s and return to Boston Legal for two episodes, reprising her role as Sally Heep, opposing counsel to Alan Shore (portrayed by James Spader). In 2008, she played the female lead in the thriller Under Still Waters, for which she won the Newport Beach Film Festival Award for Outstanding Performance in Acting, starred alongside Paul Rudd and Eva Longoria in the romantic comedy Over Her Dead Body, played Cameron Diaz's character's best friend in the romantic comedy What Happens in Vegas and played the wife of Colin Farrell's character in crime drama Pride and Glory.

She was also cast as the lead female role, Dr. Cat Black, in Rob Corddry's satirical comedy Childrens Hospital. The fourth season began airing in August 2012 and featured two episodes that were directed by Bell—the season premiere, "The Boy with the Pancakes Tattoo", a parody of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and the ninth episode, "A Kid Walks in to a Hospital".

In 2009, Bell voiced the role of Dana Mercer in the video game Prototype, played Alec Baldwin's wife in the romantic comedy It's Complicated and guest starred in an episode of the fourth season of the series Wainy Days. 2010 saw Bell voice a supporting role in Shrek Forever After, star in the satirical film Burning Palms, guest star in an episode of the second season of the sitcom The League and cast as a lead character in the HBO series How to Make It in America, which aired for two seasons from February 2010 to November 2011. Bell was to play Deputy Judy Hicks in Scream 4, but dropped out four days before filming due to scheduling conflicts, with the role going to Marley Shelton.

In 2011, Bell starred alongside Josh Lucas and Terrence Howard in the supernatural thriller Little Murder, played Ashton Kutcher's boss in the romantic comedy No Strings Attached, a performance that won her critical praise and was called "scene-stealing," starred in the ensemble comedy A Good Old Fashioned Orgy and guest starred in an episode of the first season of Zooey Deschanel's sitcom New Girl. Bell had a lead role alongside Kate Bosworth in the 2012 thriller Black Rock.

Writer and director

In 2010, Bell made her writing and directing début with the short film Worst Enemy, which starred Michaela Watkins, Matt Walsh and Lindsay Sloane. Her film débuted at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and has also played at the Nantucket Film Festival, the Dallas International Film Festival, the Gen Art Film Festival and Aspen Shortsfest, winning the Tony Cox Award for Screenwriting in a Short Film from Nantucket and receiving a Shorts Jury Special Mention from Dallas. Her film led to her being named one of the "2012 Inspiring Filmmakers" by LUNAFEST.

Bell made her feature film debut at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival with In A World.... which she wrote and directed and in which she starred She describes the film as "a comedy about a female voice-over artist and family dysfunction and relationships. I’m obsessed with the voice-over world, so it makes sense for me." The film was picked up by Roadside Attractions and Sony.

In February 2014 she said her next project would be What's The Point, a film she will write and direct.

Modeling

Bell, who is considered a sex symbol, was 45th on Femme Fatales' list of the 50 Sexiest Women of 2003; came 6th on British Vogue's list of the 10 Best Dressed Women of 2007, was 32nd on Maxim's Hot 100 of 2008, was 44th on Maxim's Hot 100 of 2012 and 89th on AskMen's 99 Most Desirable Women of 2012. In 2007, Bell appeared in a photo shoot for GQ; in 2008 she appeared in a photo shoot for Marie Claire; in 2009 she modeled for Scott Caan, for his first book, Scott Caan Photographs, Vol. 1; and in 2011 she appeared in photo shoots for Elle, Los Angeles, Maxim and Esquire, the latter in conjunction with the website Me In My Place. In September 2011, Bell modeled at Pirelli's Fashion Week in Milan, Italy. For New York Fashion Week 2013, Bell modeled nude with strategic body painting (done by her husband) on the cover of New York shot by Mark Seliger. In April 2014, Bell appeared in Esquire for the second time.

Other activities

Bell has an automotive column in The Hollywood Reporter called Test Drive and is the magazine's automotive contributing editor.

Personal life

Bell and Colin Farrell, her co-star in Pride and Glory, dated for a time.

In 2011, Bell began dating Scott Campbell, an artist and tattoo artist. The two met when he played himself in an episode of the second season of How to Make It in America. The couple became engaged on Bell's birthday in March 2012 and were married on June 1, 2013 at The Marigny Opera House in New Orleans, Louisiana. In late October 2014, her representative confirmed that Bell had given birth to their daughter, Nova.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	Speakeasy	Sara Marnikov
2003	War Stories	Nora Stone
	I Love Your Work	Felicia
2004	Fresh out of Tears	Leila	Short film
	Slammed	Gina Micelli
2006	Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders	Jillian Dunne
2008	Under Still Waters	Charlie	Newport Beach Film Festival Award for Outstanding Performance in Acting
	Over Her Dead Body	Ashley
	What Happens in Vegas	Tipper
	Pride and Glory	Megan Egan
	Prop 8: The Musical	Scary Catholic School Girls From Hell	Short for Funny or Die
2009	It's Complicated	Agness Adler	National Board of Review Award for Best Acting by an Ensemble
2010	Shrek Forever After	Patrol Witch / Wagon Witch #2
	Burning Palms	Mary Jane
	The Doctors of Children's Hospital Answer Your Medical Questions	Dr. Cat Black	Short for Funny or Die
	10 Minutes	Herself	Short for Funny or Die
	Worst Enemy		Writer and director Short film Tony Cox Award for Screenwriting in a Short Film, Nantucket Film Festival Shorts Jury Special Mention, Dallas International Film Festival
2011	Little Murder	Corey Little
	No Strings Attached	Lucy
	A Good Old Fashioned Orgy	Alison Cohen
	Home for Actresses	Lake	Short for Funny or Die
2012	Black Rock	Lou
2013	In a World...	Carol Solomon	Also writer, director, and producer Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, Sundance Film Festival 2013
2014	Mr. Peabody & Sherman	Mona Lisa (voice)
	Million Dollar Arm	Brenda Paauwe Bernstein
2015	Man Up	Nancy
	No Escape	Annie Dwyer
2016	The Secret Life of Pets	Chloe (voice)	Filming
	Shot Caller		Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	ER	Jody Holmes	Episode: "One Can Only Hope" Episode: "Tell Me Where It Hurts"
2003	Miss Match	Victoria Carlson	Series regular
2004	The Practice	Sally Heep	Episode: "The Firm" Episode: "Comings And Goings" Episode: "New Hoods on the Block" Episode: "Adjourned (a.k.a. Cheers)"
2004-2006	Boston Legal	Sally Heep	Series regular; guest star
2005-2006	Surface	Laura Daughtery	Series regular
2008-2016	Childrens Hospital	Dr. Cat Black	Series regular
2009	Wainy Days	Blaire	Episode: "Dance Club"
2010	The League	Brooke	Episode: "The White Knuckler"
2010-2011	How to Make It in America	Rachel Chapman	Series regular
2011	New Girl	Amanda	Episode: "Naked"
2012	Top Gear U.S.	Herself	Episode: "Rut's Show"
2012	Tron: Uprising	Lux (voice)	Episode: "Identity"
2012	Robot Chicken	Black Widow / Ariel (voice)	Episode: "Collateral Damage in Gang Turf War"
2013	Newsreaders	Dixie Peters	Episode: "Hair Razing"
2015	Axe Cop	Axe Girl (voice)	Episode: "Ultimate Mate"
2015	BoJack Horseman	Katrina Peanutbutter (voice)	Episode: "Hank After Dark"
2015	Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp	Donna	7 episodes
2016	Cassius & Clay	Shopcarter Clay (voice)

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009	Prototype	Dana Mercer

Charities

Lake Bell supports the following charitable causes: Children, Underprivileged Children.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]