Lisa Kudrow Biography
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Lisa Kudrow first made her name playing Phoebe, the ditzy, New Age member of the titular close-knit pals on NBC’s highly successful sitcom Friends. Since then, she has bridged the gap between television and film with undeniable success, winning particular acclaim for her role as an uptight school teacher in Don Roos’ The Opposite of Sex (1998).
Born in Encino, California on July 30, 1963, Kudrow earned a degree in biology from Vassar College before beginning her acting career. After college, she joined the Los Angeles improvisational group, The Groundlings, at the urging of family friend Jon Lovitz. Improv paved the way for more work, and Kudrow was soon appearing in bit roles in a number of films.
Her first real break didn’t come until 1993, when she began appearing on the TV sitcom Mad About You as Ursula, the waitress from hell. Real fame came in 1994, when the actress was cast as Phoebe on Friends; the enormous success of the show gave her both wide recognition and a steady day job.
Kudrow’s first leading role on the big screen was as one of the titular heroines (alongside Mira Sorvino) of the 1997 comedy Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion; unfortunately, her character was little more than a film version of Phoebe.
Fortunately, Kudrow got to widen her range a little further that same year with a starring role in the independent drama Clockwatchers, portraying a struggling actress alongside the likes of Toni Collette and Parker Posey.
The following year, Kudrow won raves and critical respect for her turn in The Opposite of Sex, a scathing black comedy in which she gave a comic and poignant performance as an embittered woman coping with the death of her brother, the presence of her best friend’s malicious little sister (Christina Ricci), and the romantic attentions of Lyle Lovett. The acclaim she received for her portrayal was complemented the same year with an Emmy Award for her work on Friends.
In 1999, Kudrow shared the screen with Robert DeNiro in the comedy Analyze This, and later that year she starred with Diane Keaton and Meg Ryan as three sisters dealing with the imminent death of their irritating father (Walter Matthau) in the comedy Hanging Up, directed by Keaton and written by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron.
Kudrow was hired to play the role of Roz Doyle in Frasier, but the part was re-cast with Peri Gilpin during the filming of the pilot episode. Kudrow said in 2000 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”. However, one of the people working on Frasier also worked on Friends and suggested Kudrow audition for the show.
Her first recurring television role was Ursula Buffay, the eccentric waitress on the NBC sitcom Mad About You. Kudrow would reprise the character on the NBC sitcom Friends, in which Kudrow co-starred as massage therapist Phoebe Buffay, Ursula’s twin sister. As Kudrow explained in 2009, “I did Mad About You first, and then it was pilot season, and I auditioned for this pilot that turned out to be Friends. And once I got that, the time slot we got was right after Mad About You, so the creative folk thought, ‘Well, we can’t just pretend like it’s not her’”.
For her ensemble starring role as Phoebe on Friends (NBC, 1994–2004) Kudrow would win the 1998 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series; she was the first Friends cast member to win an Emmy, as well as the most frequently nominated of the cast, receiving six nominations. The program was a long-running hit, and Kudrow and her fellow cast-members gained wide renown among television viewers. 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 season of Friends.
Her film credits include comedic roles in Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, Hanging Up, Marci X, Analyze This and its sequel Analyze That. However, Kudrow has also starred in dramatic roles including the biographical Wonderland about the late porn star John Holmes. She has garnered critical acclaim[citation needed] in dramatic roles for writer-director Don Roos in the films The Opposite of Sex and Happy Endings. In 2008, she commenced filming on Hotel for Dogs alongside Emma Roberts and Jake T. Austin.
She has been a vocal performer on episodes of animated television series, including as Aphrodite on Hercules: The Animated Series, and as Springfield Elementary School student Alexandra Whitney on The Simpsons. She was the voice of the female grizzly bear Ava in the live action movie Dr. Dolittle 2. She also voiced the Ghost of Christmas Past in the American Dad Christmas Special: The Best Christmas Story Never Told. After 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. Kudrow received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on The Comeback, making her the first Friends cast member to receive a major award nomination since Friends ended. She has also appeared, alongside her niece, in a television commercial for Nintendo’s Personal Trainer: Cooking, as well as in the Nintendo DS commercial for Professor Layton and the Curious Village with Lynn Brown Kogen. She and Lisa are friends (Lisa was in Lynn’s wedding) and who is married to Jay Kogen (writer/producer for Frasier, Tracey Ullman, Simpsons).
Her latest project is as the executive producer for the American version of the hit UK television series Who Do You Think You Are? for NBC, in which celebrities trace their family trees. The subjects of the first series included Kudrow herself, Susan Sarandon, Sarah Jessica Parker and others. On March 19, 2010 Kudrow’s own search for her own roots in eastern Europe was broadcast.
Lisa Kudrow palyed in the web series called Web Therapy on Lstudio.com. She has had many famous actors as guests, including her former co-star Courteney Cox. Lisa Kudrow and Courteney Cox will reunite on Cougar Town, TVGuide.com has confirmed. Kudrow, 46, will play an accomplished dermatologist whose services become addictive to Jules (Cox), despite the doctor’s impatient temperament. Kudrow’s episode is slated to air during November sweeps.
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