Joely Fisher growing up in a Beverly Hills mansion, well-fed, well-educated, and well-traveled - what could be more perfect? But absentee father Eddie Fisher, an alcoholic and self-confessed drug addict, and sexpot mother Connie Stevens introducing a succession of men into her life made growing up very complicated. Childhood was emotional and problem filled.

Having so vivacious a mother produced jealousy and an eating disorder and by adolescence she was overweight and playing the "fat friend" in summer stock and on TV. Entertaining was however in her blood, and her first show business gig was in Las Vegas when she was 7. Two years later she and her sister Tricia Leigh Fisher joined her mother in a nightclub act. Travel became a part of her life as the act toured the world.Schooling was sporadic, with many different schools and tutors, until high school when she and Tricia entered the Beverly Hills High School. But even there the fast lane, experimenting with drinking, drugs, smoking. Also after school jobs in an ice cream parlor and as a receptionist. A semester at the University of Paris was followed by Emerson College, but she left before graduating to start a serious acting career.

Fisher's weight cost her parts - she went into therapy, lost weight, and turned the career corner with "I'll Do Anything" (1994). On the personal front she reestablished relations with her father by 'dropping in' unannounced in New York as she was traveling to the University of Paris, and forced her way into his life.