Yeardley Smith is getting hotter

The daughter of famed Washington Post obituaries editor, Joseph Yeardley Smith, Martha Maria Yeardley Smith was born July 3, 1964 in Paris, France.

As the voice of one of television’s most beloved characters, Lisa Simpson, on the groundbreaking comedy, “The Simpsons”, Smith became part of a pop-culture institution.

The animated character was launched on the sketch TV comedy series “The Tracey Ullman Show” Two years later she spun off into “The Simpsons” and still going strong after 15 years.

Lending vocal life to the animated role of Lisa Simpson the intelligent, caring, saxophone-droning, vegetarian member of the Simpson family has been her bread-and-butter job for over a decade and a half.

Smith was born Martha Maria Yeardley Smith in Paris, France, and was raised in Washington, D.C., U.S. She is the daughter of Martha Mayor, a gallery worker, and Joseph Yeardley “J.Y.” Smith , The Washington Post ’s first official obituary editor , who continued working full time for The Post until 1996.

In addition to performing as the voice of Lisa Simpson on The Simpsons, Smith appeared on the sitcoms Herman’s Head, Dharma and Greg and in 55 episodes of the Showtime sitcom Brothers and guest-starred on Showtime ’s Dead Like Me and the Disney Channel ’s Phil of the Future.

Parlaying her success into film roles, Smith made her screen debut the following year in Michael Dinner’s teen cult favorite “Heaven Help Us”.

Comic actress and voice specialist Yeardley Smith has made a virtue out of her odd looks, small figure and distinctive, child-like nasal tones.

Around the same time, Smith also landed a recurring role on television, playing Luella Waters on the landmark cable comedy series, “Brothers”.

Small film offers started coming her way with Heaven Help Us and The Legend of Billie Jean so in 1986 she headed West and settled.

Is only one of two actresses on “The Simpsons” to regularly play only one character.

Her father, J.Y. Smith, who died in 2006, was a longtime obituary writer for The Washington Post.