Background and career
Lori Beth Denberg (born February 2, 1976) is an American actress and comedian. She is best known for her work as an original cast member of the Nickelodeon sketch comedy series All That and for her role as Lydia Liza Gutman on The WB sitcom The Steve Harvey Show.
Denberg was born February 2, 1976 in Northridge, a sub-section of Los Angeles, California. She was raised in a Jewish family.
She began her career appearing on Nickelodeon's sketch comedy series All That (from 1994 to 1998), after graduating from high school. At 18, she was the oldest cast member. In 1997, she appeared in the film Good Burger with fellow All That castmates Josh Server, Kenan Thompson, and Kel Mitchell. She appeared in the first three seasons of the Nickelodeon game show Figure It Out as a regular panelist (from 1997 to 1998). In April 1998, Denberg was promoted as a special guest for a Nickelodeon showcase at the third Big Stinkin' International Improv & Sketch Comedy Festival in Austin. She then appeared on The WB's The Steve Harvey Show (from 1998 to 2002). She had a minor role in the film Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story in 2004, playing cheerleader Martha Johnstone. Denberg reunited with her All That cast members for the 2011 Comikaze Expo. She joked at the expo that she was now "living out her old age." She made a brief cameo in a 2012 episode of Workaholics as herself. In 2014, Denberg appeared as Goody Schmidt, a recently blinded widow, in the comedy television pilot Goody Goody, which was filmed in Pennsylvania and scheduled for a public screening at Civic Theatre in Allentown. In February 2018, she joined fellow All That castmates for a semi-reunion on the MTV show Wild 'n Out, which aired the following month. She also appeared in an episode of Double Dare that pitted Thompson against Mitchell to assist in the demonstration of physical challenges. In December 2018, Denberg appeared in "Discontinued", a special hosted by YouTube star Andre Meadows. The special looks at the rise and fall of the world's most famous discontinued foods, toys, customs, and businesses. Denberg returned as a recurring guest star in the 2019 revival of All That, reprising her Loud Librarian role and "passing the torch" as the host of Vital Information to new cast member Reece Caddell. She also made a cameo appearance playing Uno in the independent film Ham on Rye in 2019. She competed on the twenty-fourth season of Worst Cooks in America, the show's seventh celebrity edition titled That's So '90s, which aired in 2022. In 2024, Denberg gave an interview to Business Insider in which she accused Dan Schneider, the creator of All That and several other Nickelodeon shows, of touching her inappropriately, showing her pornography, and attempting to initiate phone sex with her when she was 19. Denberg also accused Schneider of having her banned from the set of The Amanda Show in 1999 after she voiced concern for the well-being of the show's star, her friend and former All That costar Amanda Bynes. Schneider denied much of the allegations, calling them "wildly exaggerated".
