Liza Lapira
Growing up in New York City, Liza Lapira was exposed to all kinds of theater. Wanting to be an actress herself, it wasn't long before she was appearing in plays such as Shakespeare's "As You Like It," playwright Alexandra Cunningham's "No. 11 Blue and White," and Homer's "The Odyssey." In the early 2000s she guest starred in TV series that were primarily shot in New York, including "Sex and the City" (HBO, 2000-04), "Without a Trace" (CBS, 2002-08) and "The Sopranos" (HBO, 1999-2006). In 2004, Lapira felt limited by the number of acting opportunities in New York and booked a one-way flight to Los Angeles. Before long the acting jobs started pouring in. She was cast as a series regular on "Huff" (2004-06) which ran for two seasons on Showtime, and followed that up by appearing several times as a forensics tech on NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (1999-). In 2008, Lapira co-starred in two major motion pictures: "21," in which she played an MIT student that bilks a Las Vegas casino for millions after learning to count cards; and "Cloverfield" (2008). Director J.J. Abrams' disaster flick about monsters taking over New York City. Lapira had a recurring role on the short-lived science fiction series, "Dollhouse" (Fox, 2009-10) and also made a brief but memorable appearance as the bubbly friend of Emma Stone's character in the 2011 romantic comedy, "Crazy, Stupid, Love" (2011) Lapira has since appeared in "The Samuel Project" (2018), "The Fabulous Filipino Brothers" (2021), the TV movie "Must Love Christmas" and the feature film "Modern Persuasion" (2020).