Name	Lisa Vidal
Height	5' 3"
Naionality	American
Date of Birth	13 June 1965
Place of Birth	New York, USA
Famous for

A graduate of New York City's renowned High School of Performing Arts, Lisa Vidal kicked off her acting career when she was 14 years old by working in repertory theater and moved on to television in the following year to star in the PBS theater series “Oye Willie,” along side Robert Earl Jones and Alfonso Ribeiro. Her feature acting debut arrived in a small role as a maid named Tina in the 1985 comedy “Delivery Boys.” 21-year-old Vidal made her TV-movie bow in the Golden Globe-nominated “Christmas Eve” (1986), in which she was cast as Maria, the pleasing housekeeper for a rich elderly woman named Amanda Kingsley (played by Loretta Young). The rest of the decade saw her appear in the “ABC Afterschool Special” “Class Act: A Teacher's Story” (1987) and in the horror movie “Nightmare Beach” (1988) as well as land guest spots in the hit sitcom “The Cosby Show” (1987) and the Don Johnson vehicle “Miami Vice” (1988).

A busy actor in the small screen, Vidal played Lisa Diaz in the moving drama “In the Shadow of Love: A Teen AIDS Story” (1991), another “ABC ABC Afterschool Special” which received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Children's Program, and had a guest role in the NBC series “Law & Order,” in the next year. From 1994 to 1995, she had a recurring role as Carmen, the sister of police detective Eddie (played by Michael DeLorenzo), on the Fox series “New York Undercover,” and then took a two-episode part as a Manhattan police named Connie Muldoon on the ABC cop drama “The Commish” (1995). Meanwhile, on the big screen, Vidal's film career started to gain boost with a part in Irwin Winkler's “Night and the City” (1992), a modern version of the 1950 classic of the same name, and a major supporting role as Magdalena Soto on the comedy/drama “Like It Like That” (1994), about a Latina wife and mother who works in the record business. She was also featured in the Woody Allen comedy “Mighty Aphrodite” (1995).

In 1996, Vidal landed a regular on the ABC series “High Incident,” a critically acclaimed police drama produced by Steven Spielberg. As assertive officer Jessica Helgado, she was handed an NCLR Bravo nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series. Despite its success with critics, the show failed to ignite audiences and was canceled after only a season in 1997. She next costarred in the indie-romance “Destination Unknown” and offered a fine performance in the Eric Schaeffer-directed/written comedy “Fall” (both 1997), but fared better as Lisa in the CBS miniseries “The Third Twin” (also 1997) and as Babs Cardoza in the ABC TV-film remake “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three” (1998), both of which won Vidal ALMA nominations for Outstanding Actress in a Made-for-Television Movie or Mini-Series. She could also be seen playing Lori Halloran in two episodes of the Showtime noir “Naked City” (1998) and having a supporting role in Stuart Gordon's comedy film, “The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit” (1998), but did not make her return to series TV until she landed the role of Julie in the CBS sitcom “The Brian Benben Show,” which debuted in September 1998. The series, however, was a flop and soon departed the airwaves. Vidal close out the 1990s with a high-profile recurring role on the hit drama “Third Watch,” in which she played Dr. Sara Morales from 1999 to 2001, and a starring role as a sharp detective in the Lifetime TV film “Hit and Run,” opposite Margaret Colin.

Entering the new millennium, Vidal teamed up with Daniel Baldwin and Hannes Jaenicke for the direct-to-video release “Active Stealth” (2000) and costarred with Mirian Colon in the substantive indie- drama “The Blue Diner” (2001), which nabbed a 2002 ALMA award for Best Independent Film. In January 2001, she began her regular gig on the Lifetime Channel “The Division,” an excellent police drama which ran until 2004. Costarring with Amy Jo Johnson, Jose Yenque, Nancy McKeon and Bonnie Bedelia, among others, she gave a great turn as the single mother and detective Magdalena Ramirez and was handed a 2002 ALMA nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Television Series and a 2004 Imagen nomination for Best Actress in a Television Drama for her work on the series. Coincidently, Vidal played the recurring role of Sandy Lopez on the popular medical drama “ER” (2001-2004).

In between her busy work in “The Division” and “ER,” Vidal still found time working on the motion picture “Chasing Papi” (2003), a comedy starring Roselyn Sanchez and Sofía Vergara. The following year, she returned to TV film to star with George Lopez on “Naughty or Nice,” playing Diana Ramiro. In “Odd Girl Out” (2005), a TV-movie drama helmed by Tom McLoughlin, the versatile actress picked up an Imagen in the category of Best Actress – Television for her portrayal of Barbara. Vidal played Irma Levine in two episodes of “Boston Legal” (2006), guested as Gina Sanchez and Jennifer Malloy in the series “Criminal Minds” (2006) and “Numb3rs” (2007), respectively, and played the role of Valez in the disappointing series “Smith” (2006-2007), a drama about the lives of a gang of professional criminals starring Ray Liotta and Virginia Madsen.

More recently, Vidal starred as Deborah Martin on the thriller film “Dark Mirror” (2008), which premiered at the New York Latino Film Festival in July 2007. She is scheduled to play Salita in the indie-comedy “I Wanna Dance” (2008), directed by P.B. Floyd. Among her costars in the upcoming film are James Avery, Terri J. Vaughn, Fred Williamson and her sister, Christina.