Lisa Vidal

Early life

Vidal was born in Whitestone, Queens, the daughter of Josie, a secretary, and Manny Vidal, a tax consultant and businessman. Her parents moved from Puerto Rico and settled in Manhattan, New York, where Vidal and her two sisters Christina and Tanya were born. She also has a brother named Christian. After Vidal finished her elementary education, she auditioned and was accepted in the High School of Performing Arts. When she graduated, Vidal went to work with La Familia Theater Company, alongside Raul Julia and Julia Roberts. Vidal was 14 years old when she acted in the theater series Oye Willie and later on made her feature debut with a small role in Delivery Boys. Soon, she was working in T.V. with parts in shows such as The Cosby Show.

Career

From 1994–1995, Vidal appeared in New York Undercover in a recurring role as a reporter named Carmen. In the series she was sister to Det. Eddie Torres, played by Michael DeLorenzo. In 1995, she did some Off-Broadway and worked in The Commish. Vidal has also appeared in number of films, such as Odd Girl Out (2005), Naughty or Nice (2004); Chasing Papi (2003); I Like It Like That (1994); The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (1998) and in Night and the City (1992), alongside Robert De Niro and Jessica Lange, directed by Irwin Winkler.

Vidal was series regular in the ABC police drama High Incident (1995–1996), and on The Brian Benben Show in 1998, and later had major recurring roles on Third Watch from 1999–2001 as Dr. Sarah Morales, and ER from 2001–2004 as firefighter Sandy Lopez. From 2001 to 2004, Vidal starred opposite Bonnie Bedelia in the Lifetime drama series The Division, for which she received the 2002 nomination for the ALMA Award in the Best Actress Category. In 2006, she had a brief role in the short-lived action series Smith, as one of the federal agents looking for Ray Liotta's group of thieves. In 2010 she starred in NBC drama The Event.

In 2013, Vidal began starring opposite Gabrielle Union in the BET drama series Being Mary Jane.

Personal life

She has been married to real estate agent Jay Cohen since 1990 and has two sons, Scott (b. 1992) and Max (b. 1998) and daughter Olivia (b. 2003) and lives in Los Angeles, California with them. She used to own a children's clothing store called Oodles in Studio City, California.