Currently a graduate student in cognitive psychology at Binghamton University. Lari spent her undergraduate years at Wellesley College and McGill University, graduating with a AB from Wellesley in 2002. She majored in cognitive science, concentrating in psychology and computer science, and was involved in psycholinguistics research at McLean Hospital. While in college she worked doing computer tech support, as well as some system administration and developing internet database applications. She was involved in social justice and outreach, including serving on the board of the local chapter of UNHCR, and was an active participant in Wellesley's multi-faith dialogue group. Her "wackier" side surfaced frequently on electronic bulletin boards and through a number of pranks and other projects, culminating in "The Versailles Project" and "Lobster Porn".

Lari grew up in small-town New Jersey, where she did the sorts of things that people do in small-town New Jersey. The daughter of a pair of chemists, she still feels compelled to justify her own work as "science". She freely acknowledges her two younger brothers as "the funniest people I've ever met" and is still likely to spend more time laughing than eating when around a dinner table with them. Her high school years saw her achieving previously unsuspected levels of geekiness competing on school math and science teams, and exploring performance, stagecraft, animation, instrumental music, and for some reason playing the marching xylophone. She worked at the after-school program, then went on to waitressing at the local "dessert theatre" and summer jobs doing typing, filing, making copies, and holding down the receptionist's desk at a number of local businesses, where she learned that the corporate life was something she'd rather not devote her life to.

Larissa married Matthew Kurth in 2003. They live in an out-of-the-way apartment with a pet chinchilla, Harpo, and a wide array of books and video production equipment. It's a match made in heaven: she can cook, and he does laundry and cleans the bathroom. Matthew is an Illinois native with strong family ties in the Iowa farmland, and while his Midwestern sensibilities occasionally clash with her Northeastern perspective the two share a sense of the off-beat: a free weekend might find them comparing Nixon-themed movies and theorizing about Watergate, or interrupting a road trip to photograph highway signs. They startled others by spending part of their honeymoon hiking in Aruba, prompting comments like "Aren't you supposed to go to the beach?"

As a graduate student, Lari spends most of her time at the university in the lab. Off-campus, she plays wing on the local women's hockey team as well as in a co-ed beer league. During the NHL season, she cheers for the Devils and Habs, and turns into an absolute wreck when the schedule has them playing each other. In a less strenuous milieu, Larissa does beadwork and tries to keep plants alive and uneaten by chinchillas in her apartment. Since moving to upstate New York, she and Matthew have taken to hiking the area trails and parks. Her taste in music, and really most of her aesthetic, could be described as "stuck in the 90s" with a pronounced leaning toward rock and folk-rock. An ideal weekend night might find Lari in a bar with a few friends, a pitcher of beer, and a good jukebox.