Lauralee Bell comes from soap opera royalty. Her father, the late William J. Bell, wrote for several classic soaps, helped develop ANOTHER WORLD, and created THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS and THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL with her mother, Lee Phillip Bell.
As a teenager Lauralee took on the part of Cricket on Y&R, a role that lasted two decades. It would have been easy to stay in that comfortable position and rest on her laurels, but Lauralee left the nest and has found great success in multiple areas. Her boutique, On Sunset, is thriving, and she has landed a variety of roles in film and television. As her latest project, the web-based comedy series, FAMILY DINNER, launches this week at
funnyordie.com, she talked with
We Love Soaps about her famous family, her time on Y&R, how the new show came together and the many hats she wore to make it happen.
We opened our conversation by discussing the classic
article I posted in March about her famous parents.
Lauralee Bell: You found pictures I had never seen. I sent it directly to my husband and said, 'please print this picture of them on the bridge.' They have so many scrapbooks and I'm always going over to their house and going through my Mom's albums, and I had never seen that picture. And seeing the two of them at the desk was so exciting. I made sure my Mom got it right away. It was great.
We Love Soaps: The article was a total reversal of what many people's perception was about them.
Lauralee Bell: Unless you're a Chicagoan and knew my Mom and her show, you are absolutely right. But he was in total awe that she would even go out on a date with him. In Chicago, we couldn't go anywhere without being stopped.
We Love Soaps: Between her long-running talk show in Chicago and Y&R, your mom has earned so many Emmys.
Lauralee Bell: She has. It's really cool to walk up to my Dad's office where they are kept. My son loves going up there now. There's an old typewriter and an almost life-sized picture of my Dad and there's all the Emmys. She has her Chicago Emmys and the Y&R Emmys. It's very cool. It's like going up to a little museum. I'm hoping this year will be [my brother] Brad's year [for THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL]. That would be so great.
We Love Soaps: I feel that THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL is the most deserving of the three drama series nominees. It seems like some shows submit stunt episodes to get nominated, and your sister-in-law Maria Arena Bell at THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, did not want to do that.
Lauralee Bell: I emailed her and told her my Dad would say that ratings are most important thing, and she is consistently number one. I'm super proud of her. It's not an easy job.
We Love Soaps: With such creative parents and so many creative people in your family, was there ever any doubt you would end up in the entertainment field or doing something creative?
Lauralee Bell: I suppose I didn't really realize it at the time, but when I was younger I would make little pictures of art and have an art show in our living room. Or I would watch
The Wizard of Oz a hundred times and know what everyone was doing. I even knew the Mrs. Butterworth commercial, and hoped someone would ask for waffles in the morning, so I could recite that commercial. I see young girls now who want to be Miley Cyrus or I want to be an actress. I don't remember saying that so much. I feel like there were just artistic signs, and once I did Y&R, the bug was there, no Cricket reference intended. [laughs]
We Love Soaps: Did your parents or anyone in your family do any acting? Were you the first actor?
Lauralee Bell: What people don't really know about my Dad, and he's very much like Brad, was that he was the most approachable boss ever. He was a jokester, and was always waiting for a punch line, and was never really angry or mad, and was like a mini-comic in my eyes. I feel like what I'm doing now in FAMILY DINNER, which people think is so different from Christine, is really my natural instinct, to always go to a humorous place. Our rehearsals at THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS were also so funny because we would do it exactly opposite of how it was written. Doug Davidson and I would have the best time. So even though my Dad wasn't an actor per se, he definitely had some show business in him.
We Love Soaps: How did your role on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS first come about? You were still living in Chicago at that point, right?
Lauralee Bell: We were all in Chicago, and my Dad brought out each one us (Lauralee, and brothers Brad and Bill) separately to see the set. I think my first day on the set was as an extra in a scene with David Hasselhoff. After it was over I said, 'Wow, that is so easy. It's easy being an extra.' And then my Dad waited a couple of years and said I didn't get the right impression of the whole thing the first time or understanding of the work involved.
I was going to be on two days and I was nervous and excited. [Former Y&R executive producer] Wes Kenney was trying to break me out of my shell and I was a little scared. But when the two days were over, I thought it was really cool. I said I would take dancing lessons or singing lessons if I could just have two more days. It was two days in June and I came back for two more days in August. Some fans wrote in and said it was so nice to see a young person actually playing a young character on the show. So it just grew, and luckily I had a great supporting group around me like Tricia Cast.
Comedian Phyllis Diller has died at age 95.
Daytime soap opera fans know Lauralee Bell as an actress from her many years playing Christine on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS. But the daughter of the legendary Bill and Lee Philip Bell has also proven to be an accomplished producer and director as well over the past few years. Her first web series, FAMILY DINNER, won rave reviews and multiple Indie Soap Award nominations. She's now produced, written and directed a new show, JUST OFF RODEO, about three fashion forward twenty something's who work together in a boutique just off the infamous Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Fans can watch the show and then buy clothes or jewelry the characters wore in the episode, and have them delivered in a matter of days to their homes, all one one web page. 
ATWT in New York Times: Stay Tuned for Soap Stars’ Next Acts
Lauralee Bell's FAMILY DINNER was chosen as an Official Honoree for the 14th Annual Webby Awards on Tuesday. When We Love Soaps spoke with Bell in September 2009, she mentioned possibly winning a Webby someday: "Our big joke is, 'The Golden Webby goes to... FAMILY DINNER.' Everyone says, 'There's Emmys and everything in your family, what's going on?' And I say, 'Maybe I'll be the first Bell to win a Webby.' This year there was almost as big of a celebrity turnout for the Webbys as the Emmys."
The nominees and official honorees for the 14th Annual Webby Awards have been announced. Indie Soaps were recognized in several categories.