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Lisa Loeb — news, coverage & facts — IJR

The Very Best of Lisa Loeb, Purple Tape, Camp Lisa album and non-profit (2006–2008)

Her greatest hits compilation, The Very Best of Lisa Loeb, was released through Universal in January 2006 as well as a Japanese version of the album. Loeb was a judge for the 1st and 8th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists.

In 2006, Loeb contributed to the album A World of Happiness, designed to disseminate messages of kindness, compassion, tolerance, and self-reliance to children of all ages. She performed as Lady Leonali the Ladybug singing "In the Details".

In 2008, she released her Purple Tape album remixed and remastered on a double CD. It included an interview by Andy Denemark, highlighting the creative process behind each song. There were extensive liner notes and photos documenting her early history in New York City. That same year, she released Camp Lisa, which was also released by Loeb's own Furious Rose Productions with distribution through Redeye, and produced by Loeb with Michelle Lewis and Dan Petty. The disc includes a mix of 21 original and classic camp songs and guest performers including Kay Hanley, Dave Gibbs, Nina Gordon, Jill Sobule, Lee Sklar, Maia Sharp, and funnyman/banjo player Steve Martin.

As Loeb spent many summers of her childhood at summer camp, Camp Lisa is inspired by her camp memories as well as 1970s-style rock and pop. Camp Lisa garnered National Parenting Publications Awards Honors, 2008 Parents' Choice and NPR's year-end Top 10 list of the best kids' music for 2008. In July 2010, she debuted her children's musical Camp Kappawanna, which is based on the songs from Camp Lisa.

In conjunction with Camp Lisa, she launched her own non-profit, The Camp Lisa Foundation, designed to help underprivileged kids attend summer camp through its partnership with SCOPE (Summer Camp Opportunities Promote Education, Inc.) In 2009, The Camp Lisa Foundation provided funding for many camp scholarships, enabling economically disadvantaged children to attend ACA-accredited overnight camps.

A Simple Trick to Happiness album, Together Apart musical (2020–2021)

A Simple Trick to Happiness was released on February 28, 2020. The album is Loeb's most personal and reflects her interest in simple and direct songwriting paired with inspiration from her children and personal life. Loeb was inspired to write positive, uplifting music due to the complexity of modern life and after having written several albums of children's music. In October 2019, Loeb preceded the album's release with the premiere of her single "Sing Out" on the largest LGBTQ news site Queerty, in honor of National Coming Out Day. In December 2019, she premiered the music video for "Skeleton", the first official single from the album. The album received positive reviews. She has subsequently released music videos for many of the tracks on the album, including "This Is My Life", "Another Day", "Sing Out', "For the Birch", "Shine", "The Upside", "Doesn't It Feel Good", "Most of All", "I Wanna Go First" and "Wonder".

In March 2020, Loeb launched #StayAtHomeTogether, a series of live virtual concerts during the COVID-19 lockdown. She performed a special virtual show for hospital frontline workers through the organization Musicians on Call.

In August 2021, Loeb saw the premiere of Together Apart, a musical consisting of a collection of 10 seven-minute-long mini-musicals all about connecting on Zoom at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Loeb conceived and executive produced the musical, in which she also stars. Benefiting the Actors Fund, Together Apart was written, composed, directed-by and starring Loeb's fellow Brown University alumni, including Julie Bowen (Modern Family), Emmy Award Winner Josh Hamilton (13 Reasons Why), Ann Harada (Avenue Q) and JoBeth Williams (Kramer vs. Kramer). It was produced by Tony Award winner Beth Wishnie.

Together Apart evolved out of a Brown Musical Theatre class reunion on Zoom held during the pandemic. The reunion was attended by graduates from the early 80s through the late 90s. Loeb, a ’90 Graduate, was energized by the digital reconnection and was inspired to find a solution to everyone’s concern about how theater could exist during the pandemic. She began collaborating with her fellow graduates to create Together Apart. Together Apart was intentionally created using the Zoom platform as a reflection of life during the pandemic.

Film and television appearances

In 1989, Loeb appeared in the low-budget comedy horror anthology film Tabloid, in a segment entitled "Killer Vacuum Destroys Town". The film was shot in and around Fort Worth, Texas.

Loeb shared title billing with then-boyfriend Dweezil Zappa on the reality show Dweezil & Lisa, which premiered on Food Network on January 16, 2004. The series showed the two musicians touring the country together and sampling unique and diverse dishes. In the opening for each episode, Loeb announced she was a vegetarian who enjoyed eating an occasional piece of bacon.

In the fall and winter of 2005, following her breakup with Zappa, Loeb taped a reality show called #1 Single, which premiered in January 2006 on the E! Channel in New York City. The show dealt with her quest for love, success, career, and family. A re-recording of Loeb's selection "Single Me Out" was used as the program's theme.

Loeb has made several guest appearances on television shows such as The Nanny in 1997, and Cupid the following year. In September 1999, she made an appearance on the comedy show MADtv, singing the theme song for a WB drama sketch called "Pretty White Kids with Problems". In 2007, Loeb appeared on an episode of Jack's Big Music Show singing the song "Jenny Jenkins". In 2008, she made a guest appearance on Gossip Girl, followed by a cameo on an episode of The Sarah Silverman Program in which the cast formed a mock band called "The Loeb Trotters". On the final episode of Gossip Girl on Monday, December 17, 2012, Lisa ended up with the character Rufus Humphrey in the five years after glimpse.

In addition to television shows, Loeb has also appeared in the horror films House on Haunted Hill (1999), Serial Killing 4 Dummys (1999), and Fright Night (2011). She has done voice work including the voice of Mary Jane Watson for the animated show Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, broadcast on MTV. Loeb also voiced the character of Lutina in the video game Grandia Xtreme and characters for The Rugrats Movie and Shorty McShorts' Shorts. As of 2012, Loeb provided the voice of Princess Winger on the Disney Junior animated series Jake and the Never Land Pirates.

In 2008, Loeb was one of the contributors to Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna's book Cherry Bomb; she gave advice on how to be the perfect hostess.

In 2010, Loeb provided guest voices for Disney's Special Agent Oso. In 2012, she provided voice over talent for BonTon industries in their spring TV spots. In December 2012, Loeb made a brief cameo as Matthew Settle's (Rufus Humphrey) love interest in "New York, I Love You XOXO", the final episode of Gossip Girl.

In February 2013, Loeb also made a cameo in an episode of Workaholics where her song "Stay (I Missed You)" is referenced several times. In January 2014, Loeb appeared on the cover of Making Music. In April 2014, Loeb appeared in the first episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver in a short musical sketch about Oregon's health care website failure.

In 2015, Loeb appeared as Julie, lead singer of the fictitious band "Natalie is Freezing", in the episode "Advanced Safety Features" of the TV series Community. She also appeared as herself in Hot Tub Time Machine 2. Other shows she has recently been involved in include Orange Is the New Black, About a Boy, King of the Nerds, Sunny Side Up Show, and Fuller House.

In 2021, Loeb appeared in a GEICO commercial campaign singing her hit “Stay” setup as an audition.

In 2024, Loeb made a guest star appearance in That 90s Show playing herself in a daydream had by the main character, Leia, of Loeb's music video, “Stay”.