Eliza Schneider

Infobox actor
name = Eliza Schneider

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birthdate = February 3, 1978 (age 30)
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homepage = http://www.elizaschneider.com/
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Eliza Jane Schneider (born February 3, 1978) is an American actress, songstress, oral historian, playwright, and voice-over artist.

Biography

Early life

Schneider is the daughter of a Jewish father and a Native American law attorney mother. [ [http://www.greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080629/ENT01/806290303/1056/ENT 'Freedom of Speech' show comes to Warehouse Theatre | GreenvilleOnline.com | The Greenville News ] ] She spent her formative years on a Chippewa Reservation with her two older brothers. Her father was a math and drama teacher at the School of Arts High School in Rochester, New York, where she graduated as salutatorian. She also participated in a theater program at Northwestern University's National High School Institute and graduated from UCLA as a world arts and cultures major. For her senior thesis, she made a cross-country road tour in a former ambulance studying regional dialects.

Career

Based on her research, Schneider developed and performed original one woman shows entitled "`I'm Not Weird' -- American Perspectives" and "Freedom of Speech." Her other solo plays, "USA 911" won her inclusion in the California Arts Council’s Touring Artist’s Roster, and "Road Trip" won a Drama-logue Critic’s Award for Outstanding Performance.

Schneider has collected over 1000 recordings of dialects from across the world, several of which are used in her CDs and award-winning multiple character solo shows.

She sings, plays violin, guitar and piano, and speaks French and Russian. She was also the lead vocalist in the rock bands "It's My Party!" and "Jazzbabies" and has performed with the bands Honeypig and Jewish punk band, Gefilte Fuck. She also performs as Blue Girl, her avant-garde alter ego, self-described as "a goddess from the 16th dimension” painted blue from head to toe. Her Blue Girl performance won her inclusion in the LA New Times "Best of LA 2000" issue.

Schneider made her television debut as Sheila Brentwood in the CBS Saturday morning comedy "The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys" (for which she also wrote music) with Howie Mandel. She then starred on the children's educational show "Beakman's World" as Liza, Beakman's laboratory assistant.

Schneider plays Beakman’s enthusiastic lab assistant, “Liza.” She’s an actress, singer, respected oral historian, and playwright. A gifted voice-over artist, she can be heard worldwide on Comedy Central’s hit animated series, South Park, as Wendy Testaberger, Shelly Marsh, Principal Victoria, The Mayor, Mrs. Cartman, Mrs. Crabtree, Stan’s Mom, and Kenny’s Mom, among others. She also plays most of the female characters on MTV’s animated series, 3-South, and contributed voice characterizations to NBC’s Spy TV, Pixar’s hit feature, Finding Nemo, Paramount’s What Women Want, and King of the Hill. Before her stint on Beakman’s World, Eliza was featured on Howie Mandel’s Saturday morning children’s series, AmazingLiveSea Monkeys.

Schneider has traveled the globe collecting more than 3,000 recordings of regional dialects, many of which are used in her CDs and award-winning multiple character solo shows. Her theatrical presentation, Freedom of Speech, is a 34-character documentary based on these exploits. It premiered at the New York International Fringe Festival in 2003 and won the Best Solo Show Award. In 2005, Eliza performed it at New York’s famed Public Theater.

Her solo play, USA 911, won her inclusion in the California Arts Council’s Touring Artists Roster, and its sequel, Road Trip, won a Dramalogue Critic’s Award for Outstanding Performance. She is currently on tour with her new documentary puppet musical farce, The Sounds of Silence.

An alumna of UCLA’s World Arts and Cultures Department and the Eastman School of Music, Eliza sings and plays violin in several bands and just finished recording a children’s album -- Rusty Lulu and Magical Izzy -- which she co-wrote and co-produced with Debi Derryberry (the voice of Jimmy Neutron) and E.G. Daily (the voice of Rugrat “Tommy Pickles” and Powerpuff Girl “Buttercup”). She is also collaborating with renowned dialectologist Robert Easton on the publication of her exhaustive dialect research.

She succeeded voice actress Mary Kay Bergman (after Bergman's 1999 suicide) as the lead female voice actor on the animated cartoon series "South Park", a position she held until 2003 when she left for unknown reasons and was replaced by April Stewart.

Voice over

*"" (video game) (2006) -- Elizabeth Swann
*"Kingdom Hearts II" (2006) -- Elizabeth Swann, additional voices
*"Finding Nemo" (2003) -- additional voices

Television

*"Girlfriends" (Season 2)
**Episode: "Sister, Sista" (2002) (as Lynn Searcy's sister, Tanya)
*Spy TV
**Episode 1.2 (as various characters)
*Beakman's World (1994-1995) (as Liza)
*Black Tie Affair (1993)
*The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys (1992) (as Sheila Brentwood)
*Squirrel Boy (as the voice of Martha)
*"Invader Zim" (2004 on DVD) (episode The Girl Who Cried Gnome as Moofy)

Character voices

*"South Park"
**Wendy Testaburger
**Sheila Broflovski
**Liane Cartman
**Shelley Marsh (Stan's sister)
**Mayor McDaniels
**Oprah Winfrey

References

External links

* [http://www.elizaschneider.com/ Official site]
*imdb name|id=0773791|name=Eliza Schneider
* [http://archive.salon.com/sex/feature/2000/07/05/bluegirl/index.html Salon.com's article on Blue Girl]