Blair alum and award-winning actress and comedian Lisa Ann Walter visits Blair

On Monday, September 18th, Montgomery Blair alum Lisa Ann Walter visited her alma mater in Blair’s media center. Walter graduated from Blair when the school was still at its 313 Wayne Avenue campus in Sligo Creek at modern-day SSI Middle School. Since then, she has gone on to win numerous awards, including the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance and the Virtuoso Award. 

Walter is best known for her role as Chessy in the rom-com film “The Parent Trap” (1998). She currently plays Melissa Schemmenti the Peabody Award-winning ABC mockumentary sitcom “Abbott Elementary” (2021 - present). Walter is also at the forefront of the writer's guild strike and has been working tirelessly to negotiate fair salaries. She chairs the LA Womens, LA Host, and LA Sexual Harassment committees, among others. 

When Walter thinks of her alma mater, she thinks of the word “exciting.” Walter was, and still is, big on multitasking. In her Blazer years, she was always busy — “I was doing stuff every single day. There was not a day where I didn't have three or four things to do …. I didn't ever want to just do one thing. I wanted to do Poms, I wanted to run and do the show, I wanted to do everything, and I did,” she said. 

Among many of her memories of Blair, when asked if any one stood out as fundamental in her decision to become an actor, Walter’s eyes lit up and she began reminiscing about her senior year production. 

“There was a moment that I was onstage in the Wayne Avenue Blair on their big proscenium stage doing Fiddler on the Roof where I played Yente, and I was getting laughs all throughout the show, and then I have a scene at the end, which was serious, and I saw people crying. I could feel it. I mean, I was looking at the audience, but I could feel it, and I said I want to do this forever. That's what made me want to become an actor,” she said.

Walter wasn’t the only one among her theater friends to have “made it” in Hollywood, though. Blair’s classes through the years have had their fair share of successful directors, cinematographers, and actors. Eleanor Walker, Jeff Peters, and David Harp are all among Walter’s friends who have become successful directors, actors, and cinematographers in the industry. She believes that the ongoing success of Blazers in a multitude of fields has been no product of luck. 

“I think that the [theater] experience here, and it looks like it's still true, is that it gives you an unbelievable foundation to then go and soar. It's a really supportive environment. You can start your life now. You don't have to wait for anything. You don't even have to wait for college. Just start it now.”

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