Lydia Cornell

Lydia Cornell, a women & children's advocate whose great-great grandmother was Harriet Beecher Stowe, is also an award-winning director, writer, actor, and recovery speaker (with 29 years of sobriety.) With 20-34 million viewers Tuesday nights on ABC prime time, and more in worldwide syndication, Best Actress nominee for AFI at Method Fest and People's Choice Award winner Cornell is best known for her starring role on the hit ABC series "Too Close for Comfort" as Emmy legend Ted Knight's daughter 'Sara'. More recently seen on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, Variety's Power of Comedy, and the Kelsey Grammer Comedy Hour, she has over 200 shows and films in 27 countries to her credit. She won Best Director Honors at the Los Angeles Movie Awards and for Best Comedy Film at Paramount Studios UIFF (United International Film Festival) for directing the SAG film "It's My Decision." In 2024, she was named a finalist in the Catalyst Studios "Empowering Women's Script Competition" for her feature-length screenplay 'Venus Conspiracy.' In 2023, she costarred in a new film 'Something About Mother,' with Lawrence Hilton Jacobs and Jayne Kennedy, directed by Millena Gay and produced by Noreen McClendon. Cornell wrote and directed the acclaimed stage show "Relationshop;" wrote "Venus Conspiracy" and is set to direct "The Awesome Adventures of Frankie Stargazer." Cornell received the Southern California Motion Picture Council's Golden Halo Lifetime Achievement Award, and the first Elizabeth Montgomery Humanitarian Award (2018.) One of TV's most popular sex symbols, she is now a writer, director, mother, comedienne, talk show host, women and children's advocate, teen mentor and inspirational public speaker. Sober since September 11, 1994, she had a "catastrophic spiritual awakening" that changed her life. An addiction and recovery expert, she sponsors and mentors young women who are suffering from addiction and depression. With an active following on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and other social media, she also hosts a mental health podcast called "Godshots® all about synchronicity. (Miracle or mere coincidence?) Her Beats 'n Eats Stitcher award-winning podcast on iTunes started in 2013. Her articles have appeared in People, US, Herald de Paris; A&E Biography, Huffington Post, Editor & Publisher, Macon Daily, and Lone Star Icon. She is the author of an upcoming book of hilarious Hollywood stories, and a book series based on her US Trademark "Godshots® as well as two upcoming books. She wrote a book on Stalin. Cornell is creating a new comedy series for 2024 based on her upcoming book. She is also in development on a reboot of "Too Close for Comfort" with the original producers of the show (D.L. Taffner, LTD.) based on a pilot script written by Cornell and her partner Lawrence H. Levy, an Emmy-nominee and WGA award winner. Lydia is a lecturer at the LMU School of Film and Television, teaching Acting and Directing for Screenwriters. She is also an inventor and has a show ready for Discovery Channel. Fact Check: Lydia Cornell went through a frightening incident with a stalker, a convicted felon who posed as a disabled war hero and JAC-C military attorney. He sued Kelsey Grammer, falsely using Lydia Cornell's name to get publicity. Cornell never sued Kelsey, though this was falsely reported in the tabloids and various news outlets. "Kelsey and I both knew the truth all along. We ran into each other at Soho House and discussed how we had both been duped by this stalker but the tabloids refused to correct the story." She has been Invited to contribute her writings to the International Museum of Peace, which houses letters from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mother Teresa and Maya Angelou.