Phyllis Smith Biography | Phyllis Smith

Phyllis Smith is an American actress and casting associate. She is best known for playing Phyllis Vance in the television series The Office and her critically acclaimed voice role as Sadness in the film Inside Out. She has a regular role on the Netflix series The OA.

Phyllis Smith Age

Phyllis Smith is 67 years old as of 2018. She was born on July 10, 1951, in The Hill, St. Louis, Missouri, United States. She is known for her work on Inside Out (2015), The Office (2005) and Bad Teacher (2011).

Phyllis Smith Height

She stands with a height of 5 feet and 7 inches and weighs 57 kg. She has a body measurement of 36-30-37 inches. Talking about her dress size its7 US and shoe size is 10 US. She has dark brown colored hair and blue colored eyes.

Phyllis Smith Early life

Smith was born on The Hill, a neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. She is the second eldest of 9 siblings.

Phyllis Smith Image

Phyllis Smith Married Life and Her Husband

Unlike her reel life, it is mysterious about her marriage in real life. According to the sources she isn’t a married woman even if she is she prefers to keep it as a secret.

The additional information about her marriage isn’t revealed. However, while playing the role of Phyllis Lapin in the series The Office, she married her on-screen partner Bob Vance in the third season of the show. The audiences their appearance as a couple on screen.

Caption: Phyllis Smith and her on-screen husband, Bob Vance.

Despite having a chance to work as a wife with Robert yet in real life, she seems to have no interests in marriage and stuff. Once in her interview with Vulture.com the star discloses about residing in the New York City apartment with  her four cats, where she said:

Apart from these things she has never spoken out about her family. If Phyllis were secretly married, she would have talked about her husband in the interview. However, it looks like she is still single with no dating history of her young age or current affairs. She has once worn the wedding veil in the show The Office itself. We will update you once we collect the information. Stay tuned!

Phyllis Smith Education

Smith graduated from the University of Missouri–St. Louis in 1972 with a degree in elementary education. In the 1970s and 1980s, she worked as a dancer, a cheerleader for the old St. Louis Cardinals football team, and a burlesque performer.
She said that there was “no stripping, but I did wear feathers.” She was forced to quit dancing after suffering a knee injury. Following this, Smith worked briefly as a telemarketer, lasting only 3 hours before resigning.

She later worked in Hollywood, California, as an actress and in casting. Smith’s first paid acting role was as an extra in the film Caddyshack.

Phyllis Smith Career

Smith was working as a casting associate on The Office when she was offered the role of Phyllis Vance, a character created specifically for her: a soft-spoken saleswoman who tends to disagree with the pompous office manager Michael Scott.
She received Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2006 and 2007 for her performance in The Office in the category “Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.” In June 2008, Smith appeared with the cast of The Office on Celebrity Family Feud. In 2011, she played a supporting role in the film Bad Teacher.

In 2015, she voiced the character Sadness in the Pixar film Inside Out, receiving high critical praise for her performance. In 2016, she appeared in the Netflix series The OA.

Phyllis Smith Quotes

• Everybody wants to shine a little bit, even a wallflower.
• In every character, there are little bits and pieces of yourself.
• I have been very blessed. I always say this and I mean it, God had a better plan than I ever anticipated for me.
• I am a very spiritual person. I believe in angels
• I was fortunate to have a mom, where she would look at my face and know what was going on and was able to get me to talk and draw it out.
• In my eye, I was never thin enough, but when I look back at the pictures, I’m like, ‘Oh yeah. I rocked that.’
• I know I’m not supposed to talk about God and stuff, but my spiritual life is very strong and I really feel that a big part of whatever success I’m having is due to that as well.
• I always wanted to be a dancer. My mom says I used to dance in my crib
• I grew up when Disney was doing movies like Cinderella, and all the girls were princesses
• Just go for it. Don’t be afraid of trying new things. You have absolutely no idea what’s going to present itself to you. Don’t be frightened. Just buckle down and do whatever your heart desires.
• [About her success in Inside Out] Its the other people, I just got lucky.
• We are all mixes of emotions depending on the time and day
• [When asked about her humor in the TV series] I think I’m just weird.
• [About interest in dancing even as a kid] All I knew was I wanted to express myself
• I was a very shy child
• As an actor, you try to bring something special to the character

Phyllis Smith Net Worth

Phyllis Smith Movies And Tv Show

• Riley’s First Date? 2015
• Inside Out 2015
• The Office 2005 – 2013
• Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked 2011
• Butter 2011
• Bad Teacher 2011
• The OA Since 2016

Phyllis Smith Burlesque

Exclusive: ‘The Office’ star Phyllis Smith sets us straight about her NFL cheerleader and burlesque-dancer past

In “The Office,” Phyllis Smith is endlessly amusing as Dunder Mifflin Sabre sales rep Phyllis Lapin-Vance, who is sweet with a sassy side. In the years the show has been on the air, we’ve grown used to seeing her character in cardigan sets and carrying knitting needles, so when we discovered a photo — purportedly of Smith — from her days as an NFL cheerleader, we were all over it. Our original story, which you can read here, detailed her yearlong cheering gig with the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1970s. The accompanying photo showed a pretty young woman in red-and-white cheer gear — and really awesome helmet hair, popular in that era. The only problem? While Smith was a cheerleader, the photo — which is all over the Internet — isn’t of her, and she called us out on it.

Color us embarrassed!

Smith, who is hard at work of Season 9 of the show, is a great sport, though, and called us up to discuss this case of mistaken identity, which has been following her for some time. (Just do an image search for “Phyllis Smith cheerleader” and you’ll see what we mean.) The 61-year-old actress, who hails from St. Louis and started dancing at the age of 7, provided us with real photos of her from her time in burlesque dancing, which she did for seven years after she hung up her pompoms. We have never been so happy to be wrong because not only are these photos even better but also we were able to chitchat with the affable actress.

First, let me apologize for our mistake. 
Oh, that’s OK — this is the third time this picture surfaced, and I don’t even know who that woman is. I don’t think that we even cheered together. She must have been a different year than me.

What did you think when you saw our story saying that woman was you? “Those dummies …”
Well, the article was accurate, but I went, “Here we go again!” with the photo. The first time it happened, I was being interviewed for “Bad Teacher” — you know, the film with Cameron Diaz — and the gentleman [interviewing me] was so happy and proud because he found a picture of me as a cheerleader. We were on camera and I didn’t want to embarrass him, but I couldn’t own it either because it’s just not me. I said, “Oh, that’s a lovely photo, but it’s not of me.” And then during a second interview that I did in St. Louis, [the reporter] showed it to me before we went on air, so I was able to stop that before it hit the airwaves.

Was that even the uniform that you wore back then — a red V-neck sweater with white stripes along the neckline and a white skirt? 
No, we had midriff blouses tied up in the front, hot pants, and white boots up to our knees. The year I cheered was the second or third year after cheerleaders were first coming into being — the beginning of cheerleading days. I think the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders had been around one year; then we came in around the second year. It was when the Cardinals were still in St. Louis, which is where I am from.

How did your cheerleading career come about? I know that your dad was a season ticket holder, and you went with him to the home games. 
He had season tickets, but how it came about [was] that I auditioned for the Municipal Opera of St. Louis. Out of that audition the lady, who was also the choreographer for the St. Louis Cardinal cheerleaders, asked me to audition for the cheerleading squad — and I made it! It was just the perfect job for me at the time. I really enjoyed it because I loved football, so I was able to watch the game, dance, and be there and look at the cute guys across the field. So it was the triple threat there (laughs).

Phyllis Smith Twitter

Phyllis Smith Obituary

Published in The Examiner on Oct. 31, 2018

Phyllis Smith Pumped Up Kicks

“Pumped Up Kicks” is a song by American indie pop band Foster the People. It was released as the group’s debut single in September 2010, and the following year was included on their EP Foster the People and their debut album, Torches. “Pumped Up Kicks” became the group’s breakthrough hit and was one of the most popular songs of 2011.

The song was written and recorded by frontman Mark Foster while he was working as a commercial jingle writer. Contrasting with the upbeat musical composition, the lyrics describe the homicidal thoughts of a troubled youth.

The track received considerable attention after it was posted online in 2010 as a free download, and it helped the group garner a multi-album record deal with Columbia Records imprint Startime International. “Pumped Up Kicks” proved to be a sleeper hit; in 2011, after receiving significant airplay on modern rock stations, the song crossed-over onto contemporary hit radio stations.

The song spent eight consecutive weeks at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States, making it the first Billboard Alternative Songs number-one single to crack the U.S. top 5 since Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody” in 2009.

The song was widely praised by critics, and it has been licensed for use in a wide range of popular media since its release. “Pumped Up Kicks” received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.

Phyllis Smith Instagram

Phyllis Smith Interview

Phyllis Smith interview: Inside Out, Sadness, The Office

It’s a curious feeling to have Alcatraz Island pointed out to you by the voice of Sadness in Inside Out, but there’s something comforting about it, too. We’ve just sat down with actress Phyllis Smith in a San Francisco hotel, and she’s pointing out the landmarks looming out of the fog outside the window. “That’s Alcatraz over there,” she says, pointing at an ominous looking building on a rock. “And the Golden Gate Bridge is this way…”

In person, Smith’s gently self-deprecating about the importance of her part in Inside Out, but she’s arguably one of the key reasons why Pixar’s animated comedy-fantasy-drama was such a success. Aside from the expected excellence of the film’s animation, the voice cast really shone, with Smith’s compassionate, affecting turn as Sadness a true stand-out even among the likes of Amy Poehler as Joy, Bill Hader as Fear and Richard Kind as Bing Bong. In a family film of unusual depth and subtlety, Smith brought pathos to Sadness – one of several emotions rattling around in the head of the lonely 11-year-old Riley (voiced by Kaitlyn Dias). Along with Poehler’s Joy, Smith is one of the film’s lynchpins – one half of a very funny and well-written double act.

Did you have a chance to help develop Sadness from the beginning?

I think that Pete [Docter, director] and Jonas Rivera [producer] and Josh [Cooley, co-writer] and everybody, they work on these films for five years. The actors are generally attached in the third year. So they had a clear idea of what they wanted by then. But I think, right from the very first pitch, Pete was saying that he didn’t want Sadness to be one-note. Because it’s easy to play sad just annoyingly crying and whiny. Pete’s so good at his job, he was able to draw levels out of me – my insecurities, and use that with the character. It gave her more avenues to travel than just being upset about something. I instinctively add that weird part of me to the character, but I was really under the guidance of the Pixar hands – I give them credit.

And the editors – the editors are amazing. That they can make five characters look as if we’re standing together at the board when we weren’t even at the same recording session. The editors were able to make it look as if we were having a conversation. That’s a lot of genius going on there as well.

Is that quite difficult, to keep the performance fresh when you don’t have the other actors there to bounce off of?

I was fortunate because I had three sessions with Amy Poehler. Because of the nature of our scenes together in the movie, it was better for the process for her and me to work together.

It’s really a double act, isn’t it?

Yeah. It was easier. Especially when she’s leaving me and I’m very morose. It was easier to play off of someone than by myself. But again, they’re such pros that they know when it’s better to have these dual sessions and when to have separate ones. You trust that they’ll get what they need.

I liked the observation that Sadness also has the most empathy.

With Bing-Bong?

Yes. Joy tends to steam-roller people and takes control. But Sadness, because of her nature, she listens.

She listens, and she knew that he needed to vent and talk. That was another part of the brilliance of the writing team. They did their homework as far as the emotions were concerned. They knew that there were 28-plus emotions or something, but they homed in on the five. They knew that the emotions…

They mesh together. The film as a whole, which is what I think is refreshing about it, is that it does have that empathy. It’s not about heroes and villains.

Right. And that the unlikely people are the ones who are saving the day. They take you down a different path.

Was there one specific scene that you found difficult?

I think when Joy made the decision to leave me behind. There were parts of that scene that I don’t think made it into the film – they might be on the DVD I’m not sure. I haven’t seen the deleted scenes. That was difficult. As an actor, when you have to keep quality and timbre to your voice for the character, but you also have to project it – like when they’re on Friendship Island, you have to project from here to there. Because your tendency is to raise not just the volume but the timbre of your voice; that was difficult to mechanically keep my voice where it needed to be, and also be heard.

Pete was great about being able to say, “Okay, when you say this, they’re not here, they’re two blocks away.” So he was able to give us direction with that. As an actor, that was hard. Another thing that’s hard in animation is where they have you make sounds. Like, just guttural sounds [laughs] Things you don’t generally think of, you know? You just do it. And when you’re asked, you’re like, “Oh. Okay… I’d never thought about how that was supposed to sound…”

Like, [makes agonized groaning sound, as though trying to grasp something just out of reach], you know, reaching. Or things that you don’t give a thought to until you’re in the spotlight. I found those sound days difficult – but fun.

Is it quite playful, then?

Yeah, it depends. It’s a serious thing because there’s so much you have to get done in a short amount of time. But it’s the creative team – they know how to do it. They’re decent people. They’re decent guys. Even the sad parts of fun.

What are your memories of making Bad Teacher? It was your performance in that film that got you Inside Out.

I was really fortunate to play that. I was kind of the afterthought in that movie – they couldn’t find that role. When we were doing The Office, there was an area backstage where they worked on hair and makeup, and I was sitting there waiting to get ready to go on, and one of the writers went, “I want you to audition for Bad Teacher.” I went, “Okay!”

They had me go reread for the casting director, and Cameron [Diaz] came up to me in the table read, and she put her arm around me. I’d never met her before, but she said, “I saw the tape, and you are this person.” Right off the bat, she told me. We hit it off really we did. She couldn’t be lovelier to work with, either. Whether it was six in the morning or 12 midnight, she’s lovely.

There was one scene in Bad Teacher where she didn’t get her close-up until 10 o’clock at night, and she’s so professional that she was just as on eight or 10 hours later as she was when we started. Because they had multiple parts. By the time it was her turn… really, you’d think they’d have shot her first! But it wasn’t – it was 10 hours later! But she was so professional. So the eating scene that Jonas saw – I’d have to say thank you. Thank you for watching it!

Did he say specifically what it was that he liked in that scene?

No, he just told me that he picked the phone up and called Pete and said, “I think we found our Sadness.” I guess it was my weird crazy insecurity. Because I was very, “Uhh, I don’t know.” That kind of a mood. “Maybe I’ll sit in the back, maybe I’ll sit in the front…” I think Sadness has that in her – she’s insecure. I guess he could see the relationship between the two. I’m just happy he did!

What was working on The Office like?

It was a good nine years. A quick nine years. The first season we started out, they kept us all on set, all the periphery characters, all the time, because they weren’t sure what element of the office was going to be shot. So they had to have the backs of our heads or this or that. So for the whole first season, we were there all the time pretty much – even if we weren’t on camera, we’d be on set. Then as the years progressed, they said, “We’re not going to see them. Don’t bring them in!” They knew how to splice it down so that we wouldn’t be sitting there for 12 hours and not be on camera. The scripts were wonderful. It kind of morphed, you know, after Steve [Carrell] left. The showrunner changed. It went on a different path for a while, but then when the old showrunner came back, it got back on track.

Do you have a personal favorite episode?

Well, there were so many that were good. Of course, I enjoyed my wedding with Bob Vance [Phyllis’ Wedding] and Steve playing Santa Claus [Secret Santa]. When Steve sat on my lap like Santa Claus, you know, or when Kevin sat on Steve’s lap and you hear Steve go, “Uhhh!” [Laughs] There are so many…

Then, one of my favorites is a weird little scene. Michael and Dwight went to the boss to get him to not close the branch down, and they make a decision to keep it open. Then they chest bump each other and they’re so happy. And then they go, “What did we do?” “Well, I don’t know.” [Laughs] It’s a stupid little scene, but I loved that. “I dunno what we did.” But they were happy about it! There are so many. I remember shooting the pilot and Steve saying, “You know, this might be the best television we’ll ever be involved in.” I think he got it pretty much right, you know?

I liked that it was so different from the British one.

Yeah. It maybe took the pilot and the first episode or two. They were pretty in line with the British version, but then they started to get the American humor in there a bit, and it took off on its own. We got to work with Stephen Merchant, of course. We never got to work with Ricky [Gervais]. Ricky never worked on the show or directed – because Stephen directed a couple of episodes and acted. We got to meet Ricky but not really work with him.

Phyllis Smith, thank you very much.