Lisa Marie Diane Kudrow (born July 30, 1963) is an Emmy Award and SAG-winning American actress best known for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the sitcom Friends.
Kudrow was born in Encino, California to Jewish parents, Lee Kudrow and Nedra Stern, and has one sister and two brothers: older sister Helene Marla Kudrow, and older brothers David Kudrow and Derrick Kudrow. After having attended Portola Middle School in Tarzana, California, she went on to graduate from Taft High School in Woodland Hills, California, and then later received her A.B. from Vassar College in Biology. She's also fluent in French.
Kudrow began her comedic career as a member of The Groundlings, joining the ranks of those such as Will Ferrell and Janeane Garofalo. She tried out for Saturday Night Live in 1990, but the show chose Julia Sweeney instead. She was hired to play the role of Roz in the TV show Frasier, but was fired during the filming of the pilot episode. Her first major television role was Ursula Buffay, the eccentrically silly waitress on Mad About You. Despite the previous lack of success, this role led to her starring role on Friends as Ursula's identical twin sister, Phoebe Buffay, a role for which she won the 1998 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. (Ursula Buffay appeared in a couple of episodes of Friends, making that series arguably a spin-off of Mad About You.) She was the most Emmy-nominated cast member of the show, totalling six nominations. She and Jennifer Aniston were the only two to win.
Her film credits include Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, The Opposite of Sex, Hanging Up, Marci X, Analyze This and its sequel Analyze That. She has also starred in the biopic Wonderland about the late porn star John Holmes.
Kudrow portrayed Valerie Cherish, the main character on the HBO original series The Comeback. The series premiered on HBO on June 5, 2005. She also served as co-creator, writer, and executive producer. The show was not renewed for another season.
Kudrow also guest starred in The Simpsons episode "Lard of the Dance" as Alex Whitney. In the episode, she tells Lisa Simpson "not to be a Phoebe" referring to her role in Friends.
Since May 27th, 1995, Kudrow has been married to Michel Stern, a French advertising executive, They have one son, Julian Murray (born May 7, 1998). She was rumored to have lost her virginity on her wedding night at age 31, but said in interviews that it was age 20.
She also dated Conan O'Brien for a short while during the late 1980s.
On The Tonight Show, aired on August 1, 2006, she mentioned to Jay Leno that she was unable to receive proper medical attention while vacationing in France and had to resort to calling her own doctor in California. The French publicly-funded health care system provides for medical doctor visits at home for a nominal fee and provides for medical personnel to be available every day of the year. In addition there is private medical treatment available. Her comment therefore has caused puzzlement among the users of the French health care system.
