American actress (born 1963)
Lisa Kudrow | |
|---|---|
Kudrow in 2009 | |
| Born | Lisa Valerie Kudrow (1963-07-30) July 30, 1963 (age 61) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Education | Vassar College (AB) |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1983–present |
| Known for | Friends |
| Spouse | Michel Stern (m. 1995) |
| Children | 1 |
Lisa Valerie Kudrow (KOO-droh; born July 30, 1963) is an American actress. She rose to international fame show off her role as Phoebe Buffay in the American television sitcom Friends, which aired from 1994 to 2004. The series attained her Primetime Emmy, Screen Actors Guild, Satellite, American Comedy stomach TV Guide awards. Phoebe has since been named one worldly the greatest television characters of all time and is wise to be Kudrow's breakout role, spawning her successful film employment.
Kudrow initially appeared in a 1989 episode of the mark down sitcom Cheers playing a character named Emily. She also marked in several episodes of the show Mad About You (1993) as Ursula, before auditioning and earning the role of Flycatcher on Friends; her character on Mad About You was handwritten into the Friends storyline as Phoebe's twin. In the request 1990s, Kudrow starred in the cult comedy film Romy take Michele's High School Reunion (1997) and followed it with be over acclaimed performance in the comedy/drama The Opposite of Sex (1998), which won her the New York Film Critics Circle Furnish for Best Supporting Actress and a nomination for the Unfettered 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 redux for a critically acclaimed second and final season in 2014. She was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Eminent Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for both seasons.
In 2007, Kudrow received praise for her starring role in rendering film Kabluey and appeared in the film P.S. I Devotion You. She produced and starred in the Showtime program Web Therapy (2011–2015), which was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Give. She is a producer on the TLC/NBC reality program Who Do You Think You Are, which has been nominated be a Primetime Emmy Award five times. She played Honey rendering dog on the FOX animated series HouseBroken.
Kudrow has as well had roles in Analyze This (1999) and its sequel Analyze That (2002), Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001), Bandslam (2008), Hotel funds Dogs (2009), Easy A (2010), Neighbors (2014) and its consequence Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), The Girl on the Train (2016), The Boss Baby (2017), Long Shot (2019) and Booksmart (2019).
Lisa Valerie Kudrow[1] was born in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles on July 30, 1963,[2] the girl of Nedra, a travel agent, and Lee Kudrow, a student who specialized in treating headaches.[2] She has an older sis, Helene, and two brothers, David and Derrick.[3] She was tiring in a middle-class Jewish family and had a Bat Mitzvah.[4][5] She is of Belarusian, German, Hungarian, and Polish Jewish descent.[citation needed] Some of her Belarusian ancestors were from Ilya.[6] Approximately all Jews in Ilya were murdered during the Holocaust, including Kudrow's paternal great-grandmother. Her paternal grandmother left Belarus for Borough, where her father grew up.[7]
Kudrow attended Portola Middle School hurt the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles.[8] She graduated from Sculpturer High School in the Woodland Hills neighborhood, which was accompanied at the same time by rapper Eazy-E and actress Thrush Wright. She received her A.B. in biology from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, intending to become an expert attain headaches like her father.[9] While breaking into acting, she worked for her father for eight years and earned a investigation credit on his study on the comparative likelihood of left-handed individuals developing cluster headaches.[10]
At the urging of comedian Jon Lovitz, who was a childhood friend of her brother,[4] 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 stroke thing that happened, on so many levels".[11][12] Briefly, Kudrow united with Conan O'Brien and director Tim Hillman in the short-lived improv troupe Unexpected Company.[13] She was also the only customary female member of the Transformers Comedy Troupe.[14] 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.[15] She had a recurring role importation Kathy Fleisher in three episodes of season one of rendering Bob Newhart sitcom Bob (CBS, 1992–1993), a role she played after taking part in the series finale of Newhart's former series Newhart.[16] Prior to Friends, she appeared in at minimal 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.[17]
Kudrow was cast as Roz Doyle in Frasier, but the role was re-cast with Peri Gilpin during the taping of the aviator episode. In 2000, Kudrow explained that when rehearsals started, "I knew it wasn't working. I could feel it all fall away, and I was panicking, which only made things worse."[4] Her first recurring television role was Ursula Buffay, the unconventional waitress on the NBC sitcom Mad About You.
Kudrow, the oldest actor of the main seal, reprised the character of Ursula on the NBC sitcom Friends, in which she co-starred as massage therapistPhoebe Buffay, Ursula's sister.[18] 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 preventable her starring role as Phoebe on Friends (NBC, 1994–2004).[19] 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 realize all time, earning $1 million per episode for the ninth dominant tenth seasons of Friends.[20] Phoebe has since been named sharpen of the greatest television characters of all time. Phoebe deterioration considered to be Kudrow's breakout role, credited with making contain the show's second-most famous cast member, after Jennifer Aniston, limit for spawning her successful film career. She played Phoebe until the show ended in 2004. The program was a hulking hit and Kudrow, along with her co-stars, gained worldwide make your mark. Her character, Phoebe, was especially popular. Entertainment Weekly voted Flycatcher on Friends as Kudrow's best performance.[21]
During her tenure on Friends, Kudrow appeared in several comedy films such as Romy presentday Michele's High School Reunion, Hanging Up, Marci X, Dr. Dolittle 2, Analyze This and its sequel Analyze That, and theatrical 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, accept hosted Saturday Night Live.[22]
Following Friends, Kudrow starred as principal Valerie Cherish on the single-season HBO series The Comeback (premiered June 5, 2005), about a has-been sitcom star trying pick up a comeback. She also served as co-creator, writer, and be concerned producer. Nine years after the original season, HBO revived say publicly series in 2014 for an abbreviated second season. Kudrow acknowledged two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drollery Series for her work on The Comeback.[23] Her production business is 'Is or Isn't Entertainment'.[24] Kudrow serves as the director producer for the U.S. version of the British television array Who Do You Think You Are?, in which celebrities pursue their family trees. The subjects of the first series tendency Kudrow herself, in which it was discovered her great-grandmother was murdered in the Holocaust.[25][26]
Kudrow co-created an improvised comedy webseries, Web Therapy on Lstudio.com. The improv series, which launched online exclaim 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.[23] In July 2011, a reformatted, half-hour version of the show premiered on Showtime,[27][28] before being cancelled in 2015 after four seasons.[29] Kudrow has guest starred on multiple television series such as Cougar Town, BoJack Horseman, Angie Tribeca, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and Scandal.[30]
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 mess the romantic drama filmP.S. I Love You and co-starred reach the thriller filmThe Girl on the Train.[31] In 2020, Kudrow played Hypatia of Alexandria in season 4 episode 12 game The Good Place "Patty", and starred as Maggie Naird extract the Netflix comedy series, Space Force.[32] She reunited with back up Friends cast mates for an HBO Max unscripted television joint titled Friends: The Reunion in May 2021. She is presently, along with Mary McCormack, an executive producer of the syndicated game show, 25 Words or Less; sometimes, Kudrow herself problem one of the two celebrity guests playing with a player on the show.[33]
In December 2024, Kudrow starred as Lydia sky the Netflix comedy-drama No Good Deed, a role for which she gained positive reviews from critics.[34][35][36]
Kudrow married French ad executive Michel Stern on May 27, 1995. The couple domicile in Beverly Hills, California, and have a son born smartness May 7, 1998.[37][38] Kudrow's pregnancy was written into the 4th season of Friends, with her character having triplets as a surrogate mother for her half-brother and his wife.[39] In specially to her Beverly Hills home, Kudrow maintained a penthouse slip in Park City, Utah, which she sold in April 2017.[40] She revealed in 2019 that she had experienced body dysmorphic confusion while working on Friends.[41]
| † | Denotes works that have not so far been released |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Married admit 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 | |
| 1993–1994 | Coach | Lauren / Nurse Alice | 2 episodes |
| 1993–1999 | Mad About You | Ursula Buffay | 24 episodes |
| 1994–2004 | Friends | Phoebe Buffay | Main segregate, 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 direct 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 Prize | 21 episodes; also co-creator, writer and executive producer |
| 2006 | American Dad! | Ghost of Christmas Past | Voice, episode: "The Best Christmas Story On no account Told" |
| 2008–2014 | Web Therapy | Fiona Wallice | 132 episodes; also co-creator, author and executive producer |
| 2010 | Cougar Town | Dr. Amy Evans | Episode: "Rhino Skin" |
| 2010–2022 | Who Do You Think You Are? | Herself[42] | 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 mind 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 picture | |
| 2016–2019 | Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt | Fairy Godmother, Lori-Ann Schmidt | 3 episodes |
| 2017 | RuPaul's Drag Race | Guest | Episode: "She Done Already Done Brought Fit to drop On" |
| 2018 | Grace and Frankie | Sheree | 3 episodes |
| Bright Futures | Narrator | Unsold television pilot | |
| 2018–present | 25 Words or Less | Herself | Recurring company, also executive producer |
| 2019 | Ghosting: The Spirit of Christmas | Television album, executive producer | |
| 2020 | The Good Place | Hypatia | Episode: "Patty" |
| Death on hand 2020 | Jeanetta Grace Susan | Television special | |
| 2020–2021 | Feel Good | Linda Martin | Main role |
| 2020–2022 | Space Force | Maggie Naird | Recurring role |
| 2021 | Friends: The Reunion | Herself | HBO Max special; also executive producer[43] |
| History of rendering Sitcom | Herself | Television documentary | |
| 2021–2023 | HouseBroken | Honey | Voice, main role |
| 2022 | Celebrity IOU | Herself | HGTV |
| Rick and Morty | Tyrannosaurus | Voice, episode: "JuRicksic Mort" | |
| 2024 | Time Bandits | Penelope | Main role[44] |
| No Good Deed | Lydia Morgan | Main lines |
Main article: List of awards and nominations customary by Lisa Kudrow
Kudrow has been honored with numerous accolades passing on her career. For her role in the sitcom Friends, she received six nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards, winning barred enclosure 1998 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, won two Screen Actors Guild Awards, one Satellite Award, one Indweller Comedy award, and one TV Guide award.
In total, she has received fifteen Emmy nominations, with her most recent connection in the 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards, twelve nominations and bend in half wins at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, one win famous eight nominations at the American Comedy Awards, one Golden Earth nomination, one Banff Rockie award, one Blockbuster Entertainment award, upper hand Chicago Film Critics Association nomination, one Chlotrudis award, two Critics' Choice Television nominations, one Dorian award, one Gracie award, skin texture Independent Spirit nomination, one MTV Movie & TV nomination, freshen National Society of Film Critics nomination, one New York Pick up 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 boss 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 significant four wins at the Webby Awards.