Lise Simms

Elisabeth Caroline Simms, known professionally as Lise Simms, was born on March 17, 1963, in Colorado. An actress, singer, dancer, and designer, she began her performing career at age 13 and went on to build an extensive body of work across Broadway, television, and film.

Simms launched her Broadway career in the 1980s, appearing in productions including Other People's Money, Mame, Can-Can, Sweet Charity, and Bye Bye Birdie. She was part of the original Los Angeles cast of Beauty and the Beast and traveled internationally with A Chorus Line in 1986. In 1995, she appeared on Broadway in The Sleeping Beauty and the Beast. Earlier in her career, she performed for President Reagan as part of the 1988 Great Performances at the White House series, broadcast on PBS.

On television, Simms held a recurring role as Nurse Kathy Baker on Sunset Beach beginning in 1997 and portrayed Connie Wayne on the long-running soap opera The Young and the Restless from 1999 to 2004. She is perhaps best recognized for playing Barbara Diffy, the mother of the title character, on the Disney Channel series Phil of the Future, which ran from 2004 to 2006. Within that series, she also appeared as the Timekeeper in the episode "It's a Wonder-Phil Life." She served as host of Style Network's Area and co-hosted Home & Garden Television's Desperate Spaces alongside designer Daniel Kucan, a program that premiered on January 1, 2008, in which the pair redecorated a single room within two days using a budget of $2,500. She later hosted The Generations Project from 2010 to 2012.

Her guest television appearances span several decades and include roles on Star Trek: Voyager, where she played Annorax's wife in the episode "Year of Hell," as well as Friends, 3rd Rock from the Sun, MADtv, Providence, iCarly, ER, Bones, NCIS, and 90210, among many others. On February 3, 2009, she appeared in an episode of 90210 as Louise Collins, Ty's mother.

Simms's film work includes Perry Mason: The Case of the Heartbroken Bride in 1992, The Dentist in 1996, The Omega Code in 1999, Dragonfly in 2002, Suits on the Loose in 2006, and Snow Buddies in 2008. She also provided the voice of T'Andoria in the 2001 video game Star Trek: Away Team.