Phyllis Kroll is a fictional character on the Showtime television network series The L Word. She is played by the American actress Cybill Shepherd. Phyllis is secretly bisexual, married with children, and is Bette Porter's boss at California University, who comes out in the fourth season. She has a short affair with Alice Pieszecki, with whom she falls in love, but who ends the relationship because Phyllis has a husband and two college age daughters. Phyllis was moving too quickly for Alice. Bette and Jodi Lerner support Phyllis through her difficult breakup. She remains undecided as to what she should do in her marriage, seeing that she cannot change her lesbian feelings. Phyllis is confronted by her daughter Molly and husband Leonard in episode 4.11 Literary License To Kill.