Lisa Kudrow

Known to millions as Phoebe Buffay on Friends, Lisa Kudrow is an Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award winning actress, writer, and producer.

Born and raised in the Los Angeles area, Kudrow originally intended to research headaches, the same career as her physician father. She received a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Vassar College, and worked as part of her father's staff for eight years. During that time, actor Jon Lovitz, a friend of her brother, encouraged Kudrow to try out for the improv troupe the Groundlings.

In 1993, Kudrow was cast as Roz in Frasier, but ended up getting replaced before the show debuted. Months later, she was cast as Ursuala Buffay on Mad About You, and in 1994 came the show Kudrow is best known for today: Friends. She played Phoebe for ten years (and also reprised her role as Ursula, Phoebe's twin sister, for a handful of episodes), picking up the 1998 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. During the run of Friends, Kudrow starred in perhaps her most famous film role to date, playing Michele in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.

After Friends ended, Kudrow appeared in films including P.S. I Love You and Easy A. She also did voiceover work for shows like The Simpsons and American Dad. In 2005, Kudrow starred as Valerie Cherish on the HBO series The Comeback. She was also a co-creator, writer, and executive producer of the show. The series returned to HBO for a second season in 2014. Kudrow is also the co-creator and star of the long running improvised series Web Therapy. She plays Fiona Wallace, a therapist who sees patients for three minutes at a time via web cam. Originally online-only, the show won several Webby awards before being picked up for a television version by Showtime. 

In addition to serving as an executive producer for Web Therapy and The Comeback, Kudrow is also an executive producer of Who Do You Think You Are?, a show which traces the ancestry of celebrities. She has also found time to continue making guest appearances on television shows such as Cougar Town, which reunited her with Friends costar Courteney Cox, and Scandal, a show which also featured Dan Bucatinsky, who produces Web Therapy, The Comeback, and Who Do You Think You Are? along with Kudrow.

Kudrow has been married to advertising executive Michel Stern since 1995, and has one child - a pregnancy which was written into Friends.