Lisa Joyner Biography

In the initial days of her career in broadcasting, Lisa Joyner served as an intern at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles. She then moved to Laredo, Texas, where she accumulated experience as a reporter, weekend anchor, editor, and producer. Later, she was hired as a morning presenter in Harlingen, Texas. This tenure helped her convince big media houses to employ her as a health reporter and 5-pm anchor.

After returning to Los Angeles, she served as a celebrity news reporter at KTTV and KCBS-TV. During this period, she reported and produced multiple stories on award ceremonies like the Oscars, Grammys, Razzies, Emmys, and People’s Choice. She also worked as an L.A. entertainment reporter at Fox News between 1996 and 2002, and a weatherperson at Channel 2 Action News between 2002 and 2004. In 2000, she was a commentator at the ‘Sexiest Bachelor in America Pageant’ competition.

Joyner drew national attention for being the host of TV Guide Network’s ‘InFANity’ segments (2005-09). In 2009, she co-hosted the ABC series ‘Find My Family’ with Tim Green. The show was based on an Australian show of the same name, which, in turn, was based on an original Dutch TV-format, titled ‘Spoorloos’, which began airing on KRO in 1990. It is about bringing together long-lost family members.

Her current show, TLC’s ‘Long Lost Family’ is also based on ‘Spoorloos’. However, while ‘Find My Family’ was about bringing together any long-separated family members, ‘Long Lost Family’ focuses on reuniting adopted individuals with their biological families. After premiering on March 6, 2016, the show has aired three seasons to date. Chris Jacobs, who is also an adoptee, co-hosts the show with Joyner. In 2018, she served as the host of the 10-year reunion of the TLC reality series ‘Trading Spaces’ (2000-08).

In 1998, Lisa Joyner played a TV reporter in an episode of the Fox supernatural detective drama series ‘Brimstone’. This was her first appearance as an actress. In 2000, she had her big-screen debut in the romance drama film ‘Bounce’. She shared the screen space with Julia Roberts, Billy Crystal, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cusack, and Hank Azaria in Joe Roth’s 2001 romantic comedy ‘American Sweethearts’. She has mostly guest-starred as media personalities in shows like ‘24’, ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’, and ‘Mom’.

Lisa Joyner was born on December 31, 1966, in San Diego, California, USA. She was placed for adoption right after her birth and was subsequently put into foster care. When she was three months old, she was adopted and went on to have what she called a “great childhood”. However, she always harboured a desire to know where she came from, comparing it to a “primal wound” that needed to be filled. Her ethnicity was one of the questions to which she needed answers. Most importantly, she wanted to tell her biological parents that she was alright, as she could not comprehend “being a parent and having a life out there and not knowing what happened”. Over the years, she made several unsuccessful enquires. Eventually, while she was employed at Fox, a viewer reached out to her and told her that there was a woman who could help her in relocating her biological parents. The moment Joyner spoke to the woman for the first time, she knew that she could help her. A week later, the woman contacted her to inform that she had found her birth parents. They had lived in San Diego five miles apart from each other and had not seen each other since Joyner’s birth. She was in her 30s when she met them for the first time. She was also introduced to a half-sister. Joyner is part Caucasian and part Asian.

On June 16, 2007, Joyner married actor Jon Cryer in Mexico. They have adopted a daughter, Daisy. Born on August 11, 2009, she was adopted by Cryer and Joyner not long after. Joyner is also the stepmother of Cryer’s son, Charlie Austin, from his previous marriage to British actress Sarah Trigger.