Lisa Kudrow's Profile

Name: Lisa Kudrow

Somebody who works on the set of Friends, named James Burrows, who just happens to work on the set of ‘Frasier’ too, first spotted Lisa when she originally auditioned for the role as Roz, Frasier Crane’s radio producer and in fact was in the pilot episode but fortunately didn’t get it. That is when James Burrows realized that Lisa would fit perfect in the role as Phoebe Buffay the Hippy in this new sitcom about twenty-some things. She was so right for the part that in the debut season (1994-95) of ‘Friends’, Lisa Kudrow earned an Emmy nomination as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She has since won Golden Globe and American Comedy Award nominations as well. Lisa had previously graduated from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., with a B.S. degree in biology. Intending to pursue a career in research, she returned to Los Angeles and began working with her father, a world-renowned headache specialist. In all likelihood, Kudrow would be a researcher today if she had not been inspired to perform by one of her brother's friends, actor/comedian Jon Lovitz as well as in the past people had mentioned and said ‘Hey, you’re funny’! In hopes of achieving her new-found-love of becoming a writer or performer, she auditioned for the famous improvisational theater group The Groundlings in Los Angeles. Although she initially was not accepted into the program, The Groundlings referred her to Cynthia Szigeti, a well-known improvisation teacher based in Los Angeles. In that class she met and became close friends with then-unknown Conan O'Brien. In 1989 her dream became a reality when she became a full-fledged member of The Groundlings. Her other television-series credits include a recurring role on "Bob" and guest-starring parts on "Cheers," "Coach," "Newhart," "Flying Blind" and "Hope & Gloria. Another recurring role includes Lisa as Ursula the ditzy waitress on the show, Mad About You which coincidentally the writers of Friends wrote it in for her to play Phoebe’s evil twin sister. How they do it is they have a split down the middle on the camera and Lisa stands on one side and the other, when they are not on that shot, Lisa has her younger sister to come in and stand in front of her (you only see the back of her head) but they look totally alike! Lisa’s Filmography includes ’romy and Michele's high school reunion’, ’the opposite of sex’, ’mother’ and ’clockwatchers’. In her free time she performs with the improvisation group “The Transformers” and still teaches and performs at The Groundlings. She is also at professional level tennis and pool. She is recently married to Michael stern. they live in Los Angeles. A native Californian, she was born in Encino and raised in Tarzana, California. Her birthday is July 30. Lisa was born on July 30, 1963. Lisa graduated from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY with a B.S degree in Biology