Pyle has guest starred on many television shows, including
Heroes,
Mad About You,
Boston Legal,
Frasier,
The Sarah Silverman Program, and
2 Broke Girls. She started her film career with a minor role in
As Good as It Gets, starring
Helen Hunt and
Jack Nicholson. After her breakout role in
Galaxy Quest, Pyle had supporting roles in
Bringing Down the House (for which she and
Queen Latifah were nominated for an
MTV Movie Award for Best Fight),
Josie and the Pussycats,
Home Alone 4,
Exposed,
Big Fish,
Along Came Polly,
Soul Plane,
Stormbreaker, and
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. She was the female lead in
BachelorMan and appears in
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. Pyle had a brief appearance in
50 First Dates and starred in
A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song. '' at the 2011
Cannes Film Festival; (left to right)
Ludovic Bource (composer),
Michel Hazanavicius (director), Missi Pyle (actress),
Bérénice Bejo (actress),
Jean Dujardin (actor),
Guillaume Schiffman (cinematographer), and
Thomas Langmann (producer) Pyle played Jake's elementary school teacher Ms. Pasternak on
Two and a Half Men. However, the role was recast in 2009 for undisclosed reasons. Pyle returned to the series in the same role in 2011 and again in the series finale "
Of Course He's Dead" in 2015. In 2008, Pyle starred in the Broadway play
Boeing-Boeing opposite
Christine Baranski,
Mark Rylance,
Greg Germann,
Paige Davis and
Rebecca Gayheart. The play closed in January 2009. Pyle was scheduled to ring the closing bell for the trading day at the
New York Stock Exchange on September 29, 2008, to promote
Boeing-Boeing, but backed out minutes before the close of trading so as not to associate herself with ending a calamitous day of financial turmoil which resulted in the
Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 778 points, the largest point loss ever in a session during the
2008 financial crisis. She watched from the floor as an NYSE staffer pushed the button and gaveled the end of trading instead. Pyle was part of a country music group with actress
Shawnee Smith called
Smith & Pyle. They met while filming an
ABC comedy pilot titled
Traveling in Packs. The band started after Smith invited Pyle to join her in attending the
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. While stuck in traffic, Pyle talked about her dream to be a rock star and Smith agreed to form a band with her. Their first album, "It's OK to Be Happy", was released digitally through
iTunes and
Amazon.com in July 2008. The debut album was recorded in
Joshua Tree, California at
Rancho De La Luna and was produced by
Chris Goss. The two actresses have also become business partners and formed their own record label called Urban Prairie Records, under which "It's OK to be Happy" was released. According to an interview Smith did with pretty-scary.net in August 2008, a Smith & Pyle television or webisode series might be in the works. Smith also mentioned the idea of a series on
Fangoria radio with
Dee Snider. Currently there are three videos posted on
YouTube that show the making of the record. They also have a 10-minute "making of" video on
Vimeo called
Smith & Pyle: Desert Sessions. ==Personal life==