Lisa Valerie Kudrow ( ; born July 30, 1963) is an American actress and writer. She is best known for her roles as Phoebe Buffay in the television sitcom Friends (1994–2004) and Valerie Cherish in the HBO mockumentary cult classic The Comeback (2005–2026). Her accolades include two Actor Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award.
In late 1980s, Kudrow began her career in improv comedy and performed with The Groundlings in Los Angeles. Her early television credits include portraying Ursula Buffay in the NBC sitcom Mad About You, a role she later reprised on Friends after it was written in her character Phoebe's storyline. After Friends, Kudrow's television career progressed with roles in the comedy series The Comeback, Web Therapy (2011–2015), Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2016–2019), Feel Good (2020–2021), Space Force (2020–2022), HouseBroken (2021–2023), Time Bandits (2024), and No Good Deed (2024). She also produced the reality program Who Do You Think You Are? (2010–2022) and the game show 25 Words or Less (2018–present).
In film, Kudrow earned praise for her performances in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997), The Opposite of Sex (1998), and Kabluey (2007). She has also appeared in several success comedies, including Analyze This (1999), P.S. I Love You (2009), Easy A (2010), Neighbors (2014), The Boss Baby (2017), and Booksmart (2019).
Early life Lisa Valerie Kudrow was born in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles on July 30, 1963, the daughter of Nedra, a travel agent, and Lee Kudrow, a doctor who specialized in treating headaches. She has an older sister, Helene, and two older brothers, David and Derrick. She was raised in a middle-class Jewish family and had a bat mitzvah.Harris, Rob. (June 26, 2012) Oh, what a tangled 'Web' Lisa Kudrow weaves. The Times of Israel. Retrieved July 25, 2012. Some of her ancestors came from Ilya (present-day Belarus). Almost all Jews in Ilya were murdered during the Holocaust, including Kudrow's paternal great-grandmother. Her paternal grandmother left Belarus for Brooklyn, where her father grew up.
Kudrow attended Portola Middle School in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles. She graduated from Taft High School in the Woodland Hills neighborhood, which was attended at the same time by rapper Ice Cube and actress Robin Wright. She received her Bachelor of Arts in biology from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, intending to become an expert on headaches like her father.Justine Elias. "Lisa Kudrow: No Problem Playing Two Roles". Indiana (PA) Gazette, August 21, 1982, p. TV 7. While breaking into acting, she worked for her father for eight years and earned a research credit on his study on the comparative likelihood of left-handed individuals developing cluster headaches.
Career
1989–1994: Early career At the urging of comedian Jon Lovitz, who was a childhood friend of her brother, Kudrow began her comedic career as a member of The Groundlings, an improv and sketch comedy school in Los Angeles. She has credited Cynthia Szigeti, her improv teacher at The Groundlings, for changing her perspective on acting, calling her "the best thing that happened, on so many levels". Briefly, Kudrow joined with Conan O'Brien and director Tim Hillman in the short-lived improv troupe Unexpected Company. She was also the only regular female member of the Transformers Comedy Troupe. She played a role in an episode of the NBC sitcom Cheers. She tried out for Saturday Night Live in 1990, but Julia Sweeney was chosen instead. She had a recurring role as Kathy Fleisher in three episodes of season one of the Bob Newhart sitcom Bob (CBS, 1992–1993), a role she played after taking part in the series finale of Newhart's previous series Newhart. Prior to Friends, she appeared in at least two network-produced pilots: NBC's Just Temporary (also known as Temporarily Yours) in 1989, playing Nicole; and CBS' Close Encounters (also known as Matchmaker) in 1990, playing a Valley girl.
Kudrow was cast as Roz Doyle in Frasier, but the role was re-cast with Peri Gilpin during the taping of the pilot episode. In 2000, Kudrow explained that when rehearsals started, "I knew it wasn't working. I could feel it all slipping away, and I was panicking, which only made things worse." Her first recurring television role was Ursula Buffay, the eccentric waitress on the NBC sitcom Mad About You.
1994–2004: Friends and worldwide recognition Kudrow, the oldest actor of the main cast, reprised the character of Ursula on the NBC sitcom Friends, in which she co-starred as massage therapist Phoebe Buffay, Ursula's twin sister. Praised for her performance, Kudrow was the first Friends cast member to win an Emmy Award with her 1998 honor as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her starring role as Phoebe on Friends (NBC, 1994–2004).Lisa Kudrow Emmy Nominated. Emmys.com. Retrieved July 25, 2012. Kudrow received critical acclaim for playing Phoebe. According to the Guinness Book of World Records (2005), Kudrow and co-stars Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox became the highest paid TV actresses of all time, earning $1 million per episode for the ninth and tenth seasons of Friends. Phoebe has since been named one of the greatest television characters of all time. She played Phoebe until the show ended in 2004. The program was a massive hit and Kudrow, along with her co-stars, gained worldwide recognition. Her character, Phoebe, was especially popular. Entertainment Weekly voted Phoebe on Friends as Kudrow's best performance.
During her tenure on Friends, Kudrow appeared in several comedy films such as Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, Hanging Up, Marci X, Dr. Dolittle 2, Analyze This and its sequel Analyze That, and dramatic films, such as Wonderland and The Opposite of Sex. She also guest-starred on numerous television series during Friends, including The Simpsons, Hope and Gloria and King of the Hill, and hosted Saturday Night Live.
2004–present: Later career Following Friends, Kudrow starred as protagonist Valerie Cherish on the experimental three-season HBO series The Comeback (premiered June 5, 2005), about a has-been sitcom star trying for a comeback. She also served as co-creator, writer, and executive producer. Nine years after the original season, HBO revived the series in 2014 for an abbreviated second season. Kudrow received two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on The Comeback. Her production company is 'Is or Isn't Entertainment'. Kudrow serves as the executive producer for the U.S. version of the British television series Who Do You Think You Are?, in which celebrities trace their family trees. The subjects of the first series included Kudrow herself, in which it was discovered her great-grandmother was murdered in the Holocaust.
Kudrow co-created an improvised comedy webseries, Web Therapy on Lstudio.com. The improv series, which launched online in 2008, has earned several Webby nominations and one Outstanding Comedic Performance Webby for Kudrow, who plays therapist Fiona Wallice. She offers her patients three-minute sessions over iChat. In July 2011, a reformatted, half-hour version of the show premiered on Showtime, before being cancelled in 2015 after four seasons. Kudrow has guest starred on multiple television series such as Cougar Town, BoJack Horseman, Angie Tribeca, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and Scandal.
Kudrow has appeared in multiple comedic films such as Happy Endings, Hotel for Dogs, Easy A, Neighbors and its sequel Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, Long Shot, and Booksmart. She also appeared in the romantic drama film P.S. I Love You and co-starred in the thriller film The Girl on the Train.
Along with Mary McCormack, Kudrow has been an executive producer of the syndicated game show 25 Words or Less since 2019; Kudrow herself sometimes plays as a celebrity guest on the show. Kudrow played Hypatia of Alexandria in a 2020 episode of The Good Place, and starred as Maggie Naird in the Netflix comedy series Space Force. She reunited with fellow Friends cast mates for the HBO Max unscripted television special Friends: The Reunion in May 2021.
Kudrow starred as Lydia in the Netflix comedy-drama No Good Deed in December 2024, earning positive reviews from critics. Kudrow reprised her role as Valerie Cherish in 2026 for the critically acclaimed third season of The Comeback.
Personal life Kudrow married French advertising executive Michel Stern on May 27, 1995. They live in Beverly Hills, California, and have a son born on May 7, 1998. Kudrow's pregnancy was written into the fourth season of Friends, with her character having triplets as a surrogate mother for her half-brother and his wife. In addition to her Beverly Hills home, Kudrow maintained a penthouse in Park City, Utah, which she sold in April 2017. She revealed in 2019 that she had experienced body dysmorphic disorder while working on Friends.
Filmography +Key Denotes works that have not yet been released
Film Year Title Role Notes 1986 America 3000 Warrior Women Leader Uncredited 1989 L.A. on $5 a Day Charmer Short film1991 To the Moon, Alice Friend of Perky Girl Short film The Unborn Louisa1992 Dance with Death Millie In the Heat of Passion Esther 1994 In the Heat of Passion II: Unfaithful Teller 1995 The Crazysitter Adrian Wexler-Jones 1996 Mother Linda1997 Romy and Michele's High School Reunion Michele Weinberger Clockwatchers Paula Hacks Reading Woman 1998 The Opposite of Sex Lucia DeLury 1999 Analyze This Laura MacNamara Sobel2000 Hanging Up Maddy Mozell Lucky Numbers Crystal2001 All Over the Guy Marie Dr. Dolittle 2 AvaVoice2002 Bark! Dr. Darla Portnoy Analyze That Laura Sobel2003 Marci X Marci Field Wonderland Sharon Holmes 2005 Happy Endings Mamie2007 Kabluey Leslie P.S. I Love You Denise2009 Hotel for Dogs Lois Scudder Powder Blue Sally Paper Man Claire Dunn Bandslam Karen Burton The Other Woman Dr. Carolyn Soule 2010 Easy A Mrs. Griffith 2014 Neighbors Carol Gladstone2016 El Americano: The Movie LucilleVoice Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising Carol Gladstone The Girl on the Train Martha2017 Table 19 Bina Kepp The Boss Baby Janice TempletonVoice 2018 Lovesick Fool – Love in the Age of Like Ozma Voice, Short film2019 Long Shot Katherine Booksmart Charmaine Antsler 2020 Like a Boss Shay Whitmore 2021 The Boss Baby: Family Business Janice Templeton Voice 2022 Better Nate Than Ever Heidi 2025 The Parenting Liddy 2027 Michele Weinberger Filming
Television