Of African-American and Jewish ancestry, Lisa Bonet is best known for being on The Cosby Show alongside Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashad, among others, but Bonet actually began acting when she was 11, attending many auditions and participating in several television commercials before she became a star.

Bonet was known to have a wild side. In 1987 she accepted the role of Epiphany Proudfoot in the movie Angel Heart opposite Mickey Rourke, directed by Alan Parker. Her appearance caused controversy and some scenes had to be cut to avoid an X rating. Her explicit sex scenes in the film (and later a nude photo shoot for Rolling Stone Magazine) drew concern from the producers of The Cosby Show, who felt it detracted from her character's image. She was initially fired by the producers at the urging of Bill Cosby; however, when she threatened legal action, the spinoff series A Different World was created as a compromise. The movie appearance made headlines, but didn't greatly boost her film career. On her 20th birthday, she married singer Lenny Kravitz.

After giving birth to daughter Zoe Isabella Kravitz in 1989, Bonet's erratic professional behavior began to worsen. She was constantly late (or did not show up) for tapings of her sitcom, and eventually she was removed from it entirely. (It seemed to fare well in the ratings without her). Her character was brought back to The Cosby Show, but as she continued to behave unprofessionally, she was eventually fired. She and Kravitz divorced in 1993 and she began to accept jobs on straight-to-video releases and made-for-TV movies. She soon after changed her name legally, deciding to continue using her birth name on the productions she participated in. Soon she started dating yoga instructor Brian Kest, with whom she had a son, and in 1998 she had a supporting role in Enemy of the State with Will Smith. In 2000 she appeared in the movie High Fidelity. Her most recent film appearance was in Biker Boyz which reunited her with former co-star Kadeem Hardison of A Different World.

As an interesing aside Lisa appears in a palindrome: "Lisa Bonet ate no basil" as listed in the Fun With Words website

A hip-hop album dedicated to Lisa Bonet called "Felt 2: A Tribute to Lisa Bonet" was created by Slug (see Atmosphere) and Murs and produced by Ant (also see Atmosphere) was released on June 12, 2005. This album was the sequel to "Felt: A Tribute to Christina Ricci". Each CD was released lightheartedly, supposedly to ressurect the carrers of each struggling B-level actress.