Lisa Kudrow

Lisa Valerie Kudrow (; born July 30, 1963) is an American actress. After making appearances in several 1980s television sitcoms, Kudrow came to international prominence in the 1990s for portraying Phoebe Buffay in the American sitcom Friends, which aired from 1994 to 2004. The series earned her Primetime Emmy and Screen Actors Guild awards. Kudrow also portrayed Phoebe's twin sister Ursula in both Friends and Mad About You. Kudrow has received several awards, including a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series from six nominations, two Screen Actors Guild Awards from 12 nominations, and a Golden Globe Award nomination. Her Friends character was widely popular while the series aired and was later recognized as one of the greatest female characters in American television. Kudrow starred in the cult comedy film Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997) and followed it with an acclaimed performance in the romantic comedy The Opposite of Sex (1998), which won her the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress and a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female. In 2005, she went on to produce, write and star in the HBO comedy series The Comeback, which was revived nine years later for a second season. Kudrow was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for both seasons. In 2007, Kudrow received praise for her starring role in the film Kabluey and appeared in the box office hit film P.S. I Love You. She produced and starred in the Showtime program Web Therapy (2011–2015), which was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. She is a producer on the TLC reality program Who Do You Think You Are, which has garnered her five Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Kudrow has also made several notable film appearances, including roles in Analyze This (1999), Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001), Bandslam (2008), Hotel for Dogs (2009), Easy A (2010), Neighbors (2014) and its sequel Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), The Girl on the Train (2016), The Boss Baby (2017), Long Shot (2019) and Booksmart (2019). Her films have grossed over US$2 billion worldwide.

On May 27, 1995, Kudrow married French advertising executive Michel Stern. They have a son, Julian Murray Stern. Kudrow's pregnancy was written into the fourth season of Friends with her character, Phoebe, having triplets as a surrogate mother for her younger half-brother Frank (Giovanni Ribisi) and his wife Alice (Debra Jo Rupp). In 2019, during an interview with Marc Maron, Kudrow revealed that she experienced body dysmorphic disorder while working on the show.

Lisa Kudrow was born in Encino, Los Angeles, California, to Nedra, a travel agent, and Lee Kudrow, a physician who specialized in the treatment of headaches. She has an older sister, Helene, and two brothers, David and Derrick. Kudrow was raised in a middle-class Jewish family and had a Bat Mitzvah ceremony. Her ancestors emigrated from Belarus, Germany, Hungary and Poland, and some of them lived in the village of Ilya, in the Minsk area. Kudrow's paternal grandparents were David Kudrow (born in Mogilev, Belarus) and Gertrude Farberman (born in Ilya, Belarus). Her paternal great-grandmother Mera Mordejovich was murdered in Ilya during the Holocaust. Her paternal grandmother emigrated to Brooklyn, where her father grew up.Kudrow attended Portola Middle School in Tarzana, Los Angeles. She graduated from Taft High School in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles where then N.W.A. members Ice Cube, Eazy-E and actress Robin Wright also attended. Kudrow received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from Vassar College, intending to become an expert on headaches like her physician father. Kudrow worked on her father's staff for eight years while breaking into acting, earning a research credit on his study on the comparative likelihood of left-handed individuals developing cluster headaches.