Trained as an actor at the American Theatre Wing, winning the Helen Menken Scholarship, Lisle is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. As an actor, Lisle has worked professionally for over thirty years, appearing on and off broadway, as well as in film, television and commercials, ranging from Dragnet, The Movie and Medical Center to Boys in the Bend on Broadway. He has also directed at the Hartford Stage Company and the New York Shakespeare Festival. Lisle is currently the Director of Instruction of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts West, which graduated such film and TV greats as Danny DeVito, Kirk Douglas, Florence Henderson, Judd Hirsch, Grace Kelly, Robert Redford, Spencer Tracy, Third Rock from the Sun's French Stewart, Ally McBeal's Gil Bellows, and Nothing Sacred's Scott Campbell.