best job ever. I have nothing but gratitude for the amount of freedom The Simpsons has bought me in my life." Smith received a Primetime Emmy Award in 1992, but felt it was not worth anything, saying "there's part of me that feels it wasn't even a real Emmy." The Emmy for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance is a Creative Arts and not handed out during the primetime telecast and, prior to 2009, was a juried award without nominations. However, Smith says "if I had to be associated with one character in fiction, I will always be thrilled that it was Lisa Simpson." The show's creator Matt Groening has called Smith very similar to Lisa: "Yeardley has strong moral views about her character. There are lines that are written for Lisa that Yeardley reads and says, 'No, I wouldn't say that. Writer Jay Kogen praised her performance on the show, particularly in the episode "Lisa's Substitute", as able "to move past comedy to something really strong and serious and dramatic". Further career From 1991 to 1994, alongside The Simpsons, Smith was one of the lead cast members in the sitcom Herman's Head as Louise. Her other television roles include recurring appearances as Marlene on Dharma & Greg, and Penny in two episodes of Dead Like Me. Smith has also appeared in Phil of the Future and Teen Angel. Her one-scene role as pregnant checkout girl Nancy in 1991's City Slickers earned her "more attention than all [her] previous roles combined", and taught her "that it's far better to have small parts in big movies that everyone sees." In 1997, she appeared as Lulu the palm reader in the independent film Just Write. Her other roles include parts in Barry Levinson's Toys and James L. Brooks' As Good as It Gets. Brooks, who is also executive producer of The Simpsons, had cast Smith in his 1994 film I'll Do Anything (in one of the film's musical numbers), but her part was cut. Aside from The Simpsons, Smith has recorded few voice-over parts, only commercials and the film We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story. She "had a voice-over agent for about two years, and I used to go out [on auditions] all the time, but it never really came to anything. Everybody said, 'Oh Yeardley, you'll clean up,' and that was definitely not the case." In 2004, Smith performed her own off-Broadway one-woman show entitled