Lisa Jakub made a name for herself in the 1990s, with the young actress appearing in some of the decade's most notable films, including Mrs Doubtfire and Independence Day, where she played Lydia Hillard and Alicia Kasse, respectively.
Lisa also made a name for herself in the likes of Matinee, The Beautician and the Beast, Painted Angels, Friday the 13th: The Series, The Twilight Zone and Mentors.
However, despite having some of the biggest films of the 1990s under her belt, Lisa opted to go for a different career path, and at the age of 22, she confirmed that she was retiring from acting.
And it appears that she's extremely happy with her life post-fame, writing in 2014 in a now-deleted post on a WordPress site that she had no intention to return to the big screen.
In 2018, she joked about her life, saying: "Acted for 8 more years, retired from acting, moved across the country, worked for non-profits, married my best friend, went to college, wrote and published two books, became a yoga teacher and public speaker, raised four amazing dogs, and now I'm about to make a burrito."
Lisa's current life
Since leaving behind the silver screen, Lisa has trained as a Kripalu yoga teacher, a form of yoga that promotes the practice as an exercise that combines meditation alongside asanas and pranayama.
Alongside the yoga, Lisa has authored two books, one a memoir on her life of fame, and a second on dealing with conditions like depression and anxiety. She also served as a contributing writer to the 2018 book (Don't) Call Me Crazy.
© InstagramThe star has previously poked fun at her incognito life. Reacting to a story about child stars that had "vanished", she joked: "Big news, everyone. I've just found out that I have 'completely vanished'. Was it my current lack of popularity that made me vanish? I'm not sure how I was able to evaporate entirely (have I been a wizard all along?), but as soon as we have more information, I'm sure this publication will let you know."
In 2005, she married Jeremy Jones, a theatre director and her long-term friend, and the pair have remained together ever since. In 2025, Lisa revealed that the couple had moved back to her home country of Canada, citing the ongoing political situation in the United States, feeling homesick and the desire for a "new adventure".
© InstagramShe told fans: "I don't feel aligned in America right now, I have been away from my homeland for decades, and I missed it, and Jeremy and I were both ready to have a big shift, a big adventure."
Impact of acting
On her website, Blue Mala, Lisa explained how acting had a major impact on her life, including having a panic attack when she was 11, as she battled her own mental health struggles.
In one passage, she wrote: "The panic attacks started when I was about eleven. I had what I termed a 'major breakdown' just before my thirteenth birthday. I was highly sensitive to everything - light, noise, emotions, worry, conflict, sadness, suffering. I felt like I had six fewer layers of skin than everyone else."
© Alamy Stock PhotoShe added: "My anxiety, depression, and panic attacks had become debilitating, and my life no longer felt like my own. Life felt like it was collapsing around me. I sat on the edge of my bathtub with a razor blade in my hand. I realized if I was going to survive myself, that I needed help. But mental wellness can be expensive, and as a working actor (not the 'movie star' some assumed) therapy was not always in my budget.
"I needed to leave L.A. The Hollywood life was not for me, with its superficiality, misogyny, and endless competition. At age 22, I moved across the country to find a life that wouldn't leave me curled up in a ball sobbing. When I got to Virginia, I thought everything would be different. But changing your external circumstances doesn't fix your internal issues. So I started doing the inner work. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Meditation. Yoga. Therapeutic Writing. I got very, very honest about the work I needed to do. It wasn’t easy. It took a long time. And it saved my life."
