Rarely seen ‘Saved by the Bell’ star Lark Voorhies gives TV interview after mental health diagnosis

Lisa Turtle is back.

Former “Saved by the Bell” star Lark Voorhies is speaking out in a rare interview following her schizoaffective thought disorder diagnosis, and her retreat from the spotlight. 

“For any young women, if they’re in this business…don’t give up,” Lark, 52, says in a new “Hollywood Demons” docuseries episode airing Monday.

The episode, which Page Six has seen, is titled “After The Bell, and features former “Saved by the Bell” cast and crew members reflecting on their experiences. 

Former cast member Ed Alonzo exclusively told Page Six that he saw Lark last year at “Saved by the Bell” producer Peter Engel’s memorial, and she seemed “good.” 

He remembered her as a “quiet and shy” girl, who would “explode and come to life” when the cameras were on. 

“The documentary talks about some things that might be going on with her, but I didn’t really notice any of that,” he told Page Six, adding that she seemed “normal” and “shy.”  

In the doc, Lark also says that even though she spent years out of the spotlight, she is not retired.

“I look forward to working,” she noted.

Lark starred as the fashionable Lisa Turtle on “Saved by the Bell” from 1989 to 1993, and later went on to act in “Days of Our Lives,” “The Bold and the Beautiful” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” 

She reprised her “Saved by the Bell” role on the 2020 Peacock revival, but she had a career gap from 2001 to 2008. 

Her mom, Tricia Voorhies, also appears onscreen to talk about Lark’s diagnosis of schizoaffective thought disorder.

During Lark’s seven years out of the spotlight, Tricia says she was going through mental and emotional “conflicts,” including “bouts of anger…she sometimes would be slamming the doors, or yelling out of frustration.”

Tricia says that Lark also would “run out of the house, and I didn’t know where she was.” 

Her mother worried that there was something in Lark’s childhood that she “didn’t know about…I was seeing something impacting my daughter that wasn’t healthy, that wasn’t good.” 

Lark gave a rambling interview to Entertainment Tonight in 2015, alarming the public. She was diagnosed around 2015, and publicly disclosed her condition in 2020. 

“First, I was told she was bipolar. Then the recent diagnosis is that she has schizoaffective thought disorder,” her mother explained. 

Dr. Drew Pinsky also appears in the doc to explain that the disorder often comes on when someone is between 18 to 22, and Lark was 19 when she finished “Saved by the Bell.” 

He notes that it’s different from schizophrenia, it’s not “progressive” and not “disabling.” 

Symptoms include hallucinations, delusions and disorganized speech, he says. 

Lark’s father, Wayne, “had indicators of things…when we were married, his anger scared me,” Tricia explains onscreen, adding that she divorced Lark’s father when Lark was a toddler. 

“When she was around 12 or 13, she spent time with him, and talked about his anger fits,” Tricia recalls. 

When he died around 2016, Tricia found paperwork with, “medication which indicated there was some sort of personality disorder,” she says onscreen. 

When asked if Lark knew about this, her mother says, “I don’t think so, no. I didn’t tell her that, so she’ll learn, now.’” 

Text onscreen in the doc says that Lark “embraces” treatment, and is currently “accepting opportunities in podcasting, TV, film, and convention appearances that provide a structured production environment.”

The doc also says that Lark was the only “Saved by the Bell” cast member who reached out to Dustin Diamond before he died of cancer at 44 in 2021.

“That was my good friend, I miss him,” she says onscreen.

Lark also dated her “Saved by the Bell” co-star Mark Paul Gosselaar, 52, from 1989 to 1992. 

“It all happened in the span of the show, none of us dated after the show was cancelled,” he said on the “Inside of You With Michael Rosenbaum” podcast in 2022. 

“After the Bell” airs Monday, May 4 at 9 p.m. on ID and streams on HBO Max.