Background and career
Phyllis Smith (born August 15, 1949) is an American actress and casting director. She is best known for playing Phyllis Vance in the television series The Office and her voice role as Sadness in Pixar's animated franchise Inside Out.
Smith was born on August 15, 1949, in St. Louis, Missouri. She graduated from Cleveland High School. Smith graduated from the University of Missouri–St. Louis in 1972 with a degree in elementary education. In the 1970s and 1980s, she was a dancer, a cheerleader for the 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, and later worked in Hollywood, California, as an actress and in casting.
Smith was working as a casting associate under the direction of Allison Jones on the television series The Office, when she was offered the role of Phyllis Lapin, a character created specifically for her, a soft-spoken saleswoman who tended to disagree with 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, she appeared with the cast of The Office on Celebrity Family Feud. In 2011, Smith 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 starred as Betty Broderick-Allen in the Netflix series The OA. She reprised her role as Sadness in Inside Out 2 in 2024.
