She left a comfy career … and found TV stardom

In the wobbly world of acting, Liza Lapira had found a balance.
She had a day job she liked (as a store manager) and a boss who let her leave for auditions. She did theater and had some TV roles, all while living in her home town of New York, near family and friends.
“I had a really great life,” she recalled by phone. “It felt a little safe and comfortable.” So she left.
These days, that move seems wise – especially if you watch CBS on Sundays. In December, she starred in “Must Love Christmas,” the best of the year’s holiday movies; now “The Equalizer” (shown here) – a ratings hit – is finally back in its 8 p.m. slot.
These are opposite roles – a romance writer who is frozen by indecision, a military veteran who is strong and confident – but she considers them to be compatible. “Every confident person has those moments of neuroses.”
They’re the logical extension of the days in Queens, when her mom would lift the 3-year-old Liza (pronounced “Leeza”) onto a table, so she could sing for the family.
These weren’t show-business people. Her dad trained as an engineer, her mom eventually did social work, but both often worked in the medical field.
But it was a big, extended family that loved music. Lots of people sang, but “I was the one who was not shy (and thought), ‘This is where I should be – on the table.’”
Still, she didn’t think of it as a career until she started seeing Asian-American friends on Broadway and beyond. It’s the same reason it’s important to have women be prominent in science and tech fields, she said: “If you don’t see it, you can’t see yourself in it.”
So Lapira (Filipino, with some Spanish and Chinese roots) boomed ahead as an actress/store manager.
There were some off-Broadway stage roles and small bits in the few TV shows filming in the East – the “Law & Order” ones, “Sex and the City,” “Max Bickford” and such. It was all too comfortable, she decided. Also, she often got job when auditioning in person – but never when auditioning by video.
So in 2004, Lapira moved to California, where “it felt like a privilege to audition all the time.”
A guest spot on “Huff” led to a regular role. There were regular roles in two dramas (“Dollhouse,” “Battle Creek”), lots of comedies (“Traffic Light,” “Super Fun Night,” “9JKL,” “Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23,” “Cooper Barrett’s Guide to Surviving Life”) and movies.
Her dad realized this was a fine career when she did a dozen “NCIS” episodes; he kept re-watching them on reruns. Her mom was convinced when she visited some sets.
Then came the audition for “Equalizer,” a notion Lapira instantly liked. “I loved the twist in the race and the gender; I really liked the way Queen Latifah handles it.”
Latifah took a role that originally went to an Englishman. Lapira plays Mel, a former military sniper who sometimes gets to be in the center of the plot; in the returning episode on Feb. 19 (shown here), she links with as disapproving sister, trying to rescue their brother.
“Equalizer” has become a hit, resisting all the traditions of TV adventures. Lapira praises “the optics of the two females who are so different.”
The 5-foot-10 Latifah, a former basketball player, gets lots of fight help from the 5-2 Lapira, a former dancer. And off-camera, the rap star and the kid-on-the-table have one more thing in common: “We’re singing a lot; the whole cast is.”
These days, that’s her main chance to sing. She used to do open-mic nights at a club near her home in California, but it never re-opened after the pandemic. Besides, “Equalizer” is filmed in New York.
So the cross-country move sort of worked: Lapira went from New York to California, finding steady work … and a hit show in New York.