Lisa Kudrow facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Lisa Kudrow
Kudrow in 2009
Born	Lisa Valerie Kudrow (1963-07-30) July 30, 1963 (age 60) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1983–present
Known for	Friends
Spouse(s)	Michel Stern ​ ​ (m. 1995)​
Children	1
Signature

Lisa Valerie Kudrow (/ˈkuːdroʊ/ KOO-droh; born July 30, 1963) is an American actress. She rose to international fame for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the American television sitcom Friends, which aired from 1994 to 2004. The series earned her Primetime Emmy, Screen Actors Guild, Satellite, American Comedy and TV Guide awards. Phoebe has since been named one of the greatest television characters of all time and is considered to be Kudrow's breakout role, spawning her successful film career.

Kudrow starred in the cult comedy film Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997) and followed it with an acclaimed performance in the comedy/drama The Opposite of ... (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. She created, produced, wrote, and starred in the HBO mockumentary series The Comeback, which initially lasted for one season in 2005 but was revived for a critically acclaimed second and final season in 2014. She 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 critically panned 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/NBC reality program Who Do You Think You Are, which has been nominated for an Primetime Emmy Award five times. She currently is a voice actress on the animated series HouseBroken.

Kudrow has also had roles in Analyze This (1999) and its sequel Analyze That (2002), 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).

Early life

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.

Career

1989–1994: Pre-Friends

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 the show chose Julia Sweeney 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 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). 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. Phoebe is considered to be Kudrow's breakout role, credited with making her the show's second most famous cast member, after Jennifer Aniston, and for spawning her successful film career. 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 .... 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: Post-Friends

Following Friends, Kudrow starred as protagonist Valerie Cherish on the single-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. In 2020, Kudrow played Hypatia of Alexandria in season 4 episode 12 of The Good Place "Patty", and starred as Maggie Naird in the Netflix comedy series, Space Force. She reunited with her Friends cast mates for an HBO Max unscripted television special titled Friends: The Reunion in May 2021. She is currently, along with Mary McCormack, an executive producer of the syndicated game show, 25 Words or Less; sometimes, Kudrow herself is one of the two celebrity guests playing with a contestant on the show.

Personal life

Kudrow married French advertising executive Michel Stern on May 27, 1995. They reside in Beverly Hills, California, and have a son named Julian who was 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
1983	Overdrawn at the Memory Bank	Extra
1986	America 3000	Warrior Women Leader	Uncredited
1989	L.A. on $5 a Day	Charmer
1991	To the Moon, Alice	Friend of Perky Girl	Short film
	The Unborn	Louisa
1992	Dance with Death	Millie
	In the Heat of Passion	Esther
1994	In the Heat of Passion 2: Unfaithful	Teller
1995	The Crazysitter	Adrian Wexler-Jones
1996	Mother	Linda
1997	Romy and Michele's High School Reunion	Michele Weinberger
	Clockwatchers	Paula
	Hacks	Reading Woman
1998	The Opposite of ...	Lucia DeLury
1999	Analyze This	Laura MacNamara Sobel
2000	Hanging Up	Maddy Mozell
	Lucky Numbers	Crystal
2001	All Over the Guy	Marie
	Dr. Dolittle 2	Ava	Voice
2002	Bark!	Dr. Darla Portnoy
	Analyze That	Laura Sobel
2003	Marci X	Marci Field
	Wonderland	Sharon Holmes
2005	Happy Endings	Mamie
2007	Kabluey	Leslie
	P.S. I Love You	Denise
2009	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 Gladstone
2016	El Americano: The Movie	Lucille	Voice
	Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising	Carol Gladstone
	The Girl on the Train	Martha
2017	Table 19	Bina Kepp
	The Boss Baby	Janice Templeton	Voice
2018	Lovesick Fool – Love in the Age of Like	Ozma	Voice, Short film
2019	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
TBA	The Parenting

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1989	Married to the Mob		Pilot
	Cheers	Emily	Episode: "Two Girls for Every Boyd"
	Just Temporary	Nicole	Television film
1990	Newhart	Sada	Episode: "The Last Newhart"
	Life Goes On	Stella	Episode: "Becca and the Band"
1991	Murder in High Places	Miss Stich	Television film
1992	Room for Two	Woman in Black	Episode: "Not Quite... Room for Two"
1993	Flying Blind	Amy	Episode: "My Dinner with Brad Schimmel"
	Bob	Kathy Fleisher	3 episodes
1993–1999	Mad About You	Ursula Buffay	24 episodes
1993–1994	Coach	Lauren / Nurse Alice	2 episodes
1994–2004	Friends	Phoebe Buffay	Main role, 236 episodes
1995–2001		Ursula Buffay	Recurring role, 8 episodes
1996	Hope & Gloria	Phoebe Buffay	Episode: "A New York Story"
	Duckman	Female Beta Maxians	Voice, episode: "The One with Lisa Kudrow in a Small Role"
	Saturday Night Live	Host	Episode: "Lisa Kudrow/Sheryl Crow"
1997	Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist	Lisa	Voice, episode: "Reunion"
1998	The Simpsons	Alex Whitney	Voice, episode: "Lard of the Dance"
1998–1999	Hercules	Aphrodite	Voice, 4 episodes
2001	King of the Hill	Marjorie Pittman	Voice, episode: "The Exterminator"
	Blue's Clues	Dr. Stork	Voice, episode: "The Baby's Here!"
2005	Father of the Pride	Foo-Lin	Voice, 2 episodes
	Hopeless Pictures	Sandy	Voice, 2 episodes
2005, 2014	The Comeback	Valerie Cherish	21 episodes; also co-creator, writer and executive producer
2006	American Dad!	Ghost of Christmas Past	Voice, episode: "The Best Christmas Story Never Told"
2008–2014	Web Therapy	Fiona Wallice	132 episodes; also co-creator, writer and executive producer
2010	Cougar Town	Dr. Amy Evans	Episode: "Rhino Skin"
2010–present	Who Do You Think You Are?	Herself	Executive producer; Episode: "Lisa Kudrow"
2011	Allen Gregory	Sheila	Voice, episode: "Mom Sizemore"
2011–2015	Web Therapy	Fiona Wallice	44 episodes; also co-creator, writer and executive producer
2013	Wendell and Vinnie	Natasha	Episode: "Swindel & Vinnie"
	Scandal	Congresswoman Josephine Marcus	4 episodes
2015	BoJack Horseman	Wanda Pierce	Voice, 7 episodes
2016	Angie Tribeca	Monica Vivarquar	Episode: "Pilot"
	Must See TV: An All-Star Tribute to James Burrows	Herself	Television documentary
2016–2019	Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt	Fairy Godmother, Lori-Ann Schmidt	3 episodes
2017	RuPaul's Drag Race	Guest	Episode: "She Done Already Done Brought It On"
2018	Grace and Frankie	Sheree	3 episodes
	Bright Futures	Narrator	Unsold television pilot
2018–present	25 Words or Less	Herself	Recurring guest, also executive producer
2019	Ghosting: The Spirit of Christmas		Television film, executive producer
2020	The Good Place	Hypatia	Episode: "Patty"
	Space Force	Maggie Naird	Recurring role
	Death to 2020	Jeanetta Grace Susan	Television special
2020–2021	Feel Good	Linda	Main role
2021	Friends: The Reunion	Herself	HBO Max special; also executive producer
	History of the Sitcom	Herself	Television documentary
2021-present	HouseBroken	Honey	Voice, main role
2022	Celebrity Iou	Herself	HGTV
	Rick and Morty	Tyrannosaurus	Voice, episode: "JuRicksic Mort"
TBA	Time Bandits	Penelope	Upcoming miniseries

Awards and nominations

Kudrow has been honored with numerous accolades over her career. For her role in the sitcom Friends, she received six nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards, winning in 1998 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, she won two Screen Actors Guild Awards, one Satellite Award, one American Comedy award and one TV Guide award.

In total, she has received fifteen Emmy nominations, with her most recent nomination in the 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards, twelve nominations and two wins at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, one win and eight nominations at the American Comedy Awards, one Golden Globe nomination, one Banff Rockie award, one Blockbuster Entertainment award, one Chicago Film Critics Association nomination, one Chlotrudis award, two Critics' Choice Television nominations, one Dorian award, one Gracie award, one Independent Spirit nomination, one MTV Movie & TV nomination, one National Society of Film Crtiics nomination, one New York Film Critics Circle award, one Nickelodeon Kids' Choice nomination, one Online Film Critics Society nomination, one People Magazine award, five nominations and one win at the Satellite Awards, three nominations and one win at the Teen Choice Awards, two Streamy nominations, two nominations and one win at the TV Guide Awards, one Viewers for Quality Television nomination and seven nominations and four wins at the Webby Awards.

See also

In Spanish: Lisa Kudrow para niños