Kennedy was the host of MTV's now-defunct daily late-night alternative-rock program Alternative Nation throughout much of the 1990s.

[4] Lisa Kennedy Montgomery was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and raised in Lake Oswego, Oregon,[5] a suburb of Portland.

[9] She attended Santa Monica College before transferring to the University of California, Los Angeles; she later completed a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 2005.

[13] By 1995, she had become such a recognizable cultural figure that the sitcom Murphy Brown introduced a new character named McGovern, modeled after her.

[15] That same year, she moved to Seattle to host The Buzz on KQBZ radio; the show was a mix of news, local issues, and comedy.

[3] Beginning June 3, 2002, Kennedy hosted Game Show Network's Friend or Foe?,[17] which ran for two seasons.

Beginning September 23, 2005, Kennedy appeared as an occasional panelist on VH1's Best Week Ever and MSNBC's Scarborough Country.

[20] On January 18, 2011, she began appearing as Anthony Sullivan's assistant on PitchMen, looking for new inventions to promote in infomercials.

[26] She is also a contributor to Reason.com and Reason.tv, and occasionally serves as guest host for Bill Carroll, John and Ken, and Tim Conway Jr. on KFI.

Kennedy served as a regular host of Fox News Saturday Night from June 2023 through January 2024.

[28] She is a supporter of same-sex marriage,[29][30] and officiated at the wedding of fellow Fox contributor Guy Benson to husband Adam Wise.

"[33][38] She was first introduced to libertarianism when Kurt Loder suggested she read Ayn Rand's Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology.

[37] In September 2012, during an appearance on Red Eye, Kennedy said she had been diagnosed with celiac disease,[47] leading her to change to a more meat-based diet.