Lori Alan (born July 18, 1966) is an American actress and voice actress. She has played a long-running role as

Pearl Krabs Pearl Krabs is a fictional character in the Nickelodeon animated series, animated television series ''SpongeBob SquarePants''. She is voiced by actress Lori Alan and first appeared in the season one episode "SpongeBob SquarePants (season 1)#ep8 ...

on the animated television series ''

SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It chronicles the adventures of the title character a ...

''. She also voiced

Diane Simmons Diane Simmons (born 1948) is an American author. She won the Oregon Book Award in for her novel '' Dreams Like Thunder'', and the Ohio State University Prize in Short Fiction for ''Little America''. She teaches English at the City University of Ne ...

on ''

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffin family, Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter Griff ...

'', the

Invisible Woman The Invisible Woman (Susan "Sue" Storm-Richards) is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is a founding member of the Fantastic Four and was the first female superhero created by Marvel during ...

on ''

Fantastic Four The Fantastic Four is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team debuted in ''The Fantastic Four'' #1 ( cover dated Nov. 1961), helping usher in a new level of realism in the medium. It was the first ...

'', and The Boss in the ''

Metal Gear is a series of techno-thriller stealth games created by Hideo Kojima. Developed and published by Konami, the first game, ''Metal Gear'', was released in 1987 for MSX home computers. The player often takes control of a special forces operativ ...

'' video game series.

Personal life

Alan was born on July 18, 1966, in

Potomac, Maryland Potomac () is a census-designated place (CDP) in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, named after the nearby Potomac River. Potomac is the seventh most educated small town in America, based on percentage of residents with postsecondary deg ...

. She had a mixed-faith family: her mother is a Southern

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

and her father is

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. Both of her parents were performers and supported her choice to be an actress. Alan lives in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. She started acting at age five, making her television debut in a

Shakey's Pizza Shakey's Pizza is a pizza restaurant chain based in the United States. Founded in 1954, it was the first franchise pizza chain in the United States. In 1968, the chain had 342 locations. The chain had about 500 stores globally, and 58 in the Un ...

commercial. Her stage debut was as Annie's youngest sister in a local community theater production of ''Annie Get Your Gun''. A longtime member of New York's Gotham City Improv (Groundlings East), she went on to Emerson College and graduated with honors from

Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the a ...

. Alan is active in animal rescue and welfare causes. She has spoken out against

animal cruelty Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse, animal neglect or animal cruelty, is the infliction by omission (neglect) or by commission by humans of suffering or harm upon non-human animals. More narrowly, it can be the causing of harm or su ...

and has campaigned for the anti-dog meat charity World Protection for Dogs and Cats in the Meat Trade. She is also on the board of Pickle Pants Rescue, an

animal rescue Animal rescue or pet rescue may refer to: * Animal rescue group, organizations dedicated to the rescue of animals, including pets, from shelters, to homes * Animal Rescue Foundation, San Francisco Bay Area based charity dedicated to pet adoption an ...

organization in

Career

Alan has done vocal work for over three decades. Her process of getting to the authentic personality of the character she is providing the voice for is to improvise and trust her own choices, something she learned at her first voice acting job. Alan voices Pearl the Whale on ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', Sue Richards (the Invisible Woman) on Marvel Comics' ''The Fantastic Four'', newsreader-turned-murderer Diane Simmons on ''

'', and The Boss in the ''

'' series. Lori has done voices in feature films: '' Monsters University'', ''

Toy Story 3 ''Toy Story 3'' is a 2010 American computer-animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the third installment in the ''Toy Story'' series and the sequel to ''Toy Story 2'' (1999). It was d ...

'', ''

Despicable Me 2 ''Despicable Me 2'' is a 2013 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Illumination Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. The sequel to ''Despicable Me'' (2010), it is directed by Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin, and ...

'', '' WALL·E'', '' Inside Out'', and each movie in the ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' film series. She has also voiced roles for ''Henry Hugglemonster'', ''Cow and Chicken'', ''

Animaniacs ''Animaniacs'' is an American animated comedy musical television series created by Tom Ruegger for Fox Broadcasting Company's Fox Kids block in 1993, before moving to The WB in 1995, as part of its Kids' WB afternoon programming block, unti ...

'', and ''Futurama''. Her rendition of The Boss was rated as one of the top 25 "Greatest Acting Performances in Video Games" by

Complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

. In 2005, she joined

Warren Beatty Henry Warren Beatty (né Beaty; born March 30, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker, whose career spans over six decades. He was nominated for 15 Academy Awards, including four for Best Actor, four for Best Picture, two for Best Director, ...

Rob Reiner Robert Norman Reiner (born March 6, 1947) is an American actor and filmmaker. As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence with the role of Michael "Meathead" Stivic on the CBS sitcom ''All in the Family'' (1971–1979), a performanc ...

Kurtwood Smith Kurtwood Larson Smith (born July 3, 1943) is an American television and film actor. He is known for playing Clarence Boddicker in ''RoboCop'' (1987), Robert Griggs in ''Rambo III'' (1988), and Red Forman in ''That '70s Show'' (1998–2006), as ...

and

Jason George Jason Winston George (born February 9, 1972) is an American actor and model. He is best known for his roles as Michael Bourne on the NBC daytime soap opera ''Sunset Beach'', as J.T. Hunter on the UPN television sitcom '' Eve'', as Dr. Otis Col ...

to help voice commercials against proposals made by California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 2014, she won a Voice Arts Award (VAA) for outstanding body of work and outstanding national television commercial. Alan's on-camera roles include ''

Desperate Housewives ''Desperate Housewives'' is an American comedy-drama soap opera television series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Marc Cherry, Cherry Productions. It aired for eight seasons on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from Octobe ...

'', ''Ray Donovan'', Comedy Central's ''Workaholics'', ''Bones'', ''

Southland Southland may refer to: Places Canada * Dunbar–Southlands, Vancouver, British Columbia New Zealand * Southland Region, a region of New Zealand * Southland County, a former New Zealand county * Southland District, part of the wider Southland Re ...

'', '' CSI'', '' 90210'', '' Law & Order: LA'', ''Law & Order'' and many more. On stage credits include ''

The Pee-wee Herman Show ''The Pee-wee Herman Show'' is a stage show developed by Paul Reubens in 1980. It marks the first significant appearance of his comedic fictional character, Pee-wee Herman, five years before '' Pee-wee's Big Adventure'', and six years before ''P ...

'', solo show ''Lori Alan: The Musical'', Queen Celia in the hit musical ''Sneaux!'', and the award-winning musical ''

Reefer Madness ''Reefer Madness'' (originally made as ''Tell Your Children'' and sometimes titled ''The Burning Question'', ''Dope Addict'', ''Doped Youth'', and ''Love Madness'') is a 1936 American propaganda film about drugs, revolving around the melodramat ...

''. Her 1999 performance in ''Reefer Madness'' as a "Reefer Madam" was praised by the

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

. She revisited her role in the ''

'' tenth Anniversary Cast in 2015. Her vocals on the song "The Stuff" was considered both sultry and comical by Broadway World.

Filmography

Film

Television

Web

Video games

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alan, Lori 1966 births Living people Actresses from Maryland American child actresses American film actresses American people of Jewish descent American television actresses American voice actresses Emerson College alumni People from Potomac, Maryland Tisch School of the Arts alumni 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses