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Lisa Marie Diane Kudrow (born July 30, 1963) is an Emmy Award- and SAG-winning
American actress best known for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the sitcom
Friends.
 Early
life
Lisa Kudrow was born in Encino, California, USA,her Parents are Lee Kudrow and
Nedra Stern.She has one sister and two brothers: older sister Helene Marla Kudrow,
and older brothers, neurologists David Kudrow and Derrick Kudrow. After having
attended Portola Middle School in Tarzana, California, she went on to graduate from
Taft High School in Woodland Hills, California, and then later received her B.A.
from Vassar College in Biology. She is also fluent in French.
Career
Kudrow originally intended to follow in her father's footsteps - researching
headaches. However, she was 'discovered' and began her career as an actress. Kudrow
began her comedic career as a member of The Groundlings, joining the ranks of those
such as Will Ferrell and Janeane Garofalo. Briefly, Lisa 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, a group
directed by Stan Wells that currently plays at the Empty Stage Comedy Theatre. She
tried out for Saturday Night Live in 1990, but the show chose Julia Sweeney
instead. She was hired to play the role of Roz in the TV show Frasier, but was
fired during the filming of the pilot episode because producers didn't think she
was right for the part. However, one of the people working on Frasier also worked
on Friends and suggested Lisa audition for the show. Her first major television
role was Ursula Buffay, the eccentrically silly waitress on Mad About You.
Despite the previous lack of success, this role led to her starring role on Friends
as Ursula's identical twin sister, Phoebe Buffay, a role for which she won the 1998
Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Ursula Buffay
also appeared in a couple of episodes of Friends to explain why Kudrow was
appearing on two different shows at the same time, since Ursula appeared on Mad
About You in the later seasons of the show at the same time Friends had just
started in which Kudrow played Phoebe. She was the most Emmy-nominated cast member
of the show, totaling six nominations. She and Jennifer Aniston were the only two
to win.
Her film credits include Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, Hanging Up, Marci
X, Analyze This and its sequel Analyze That, which did not match the critical or
financial success of the original, and PS, I Love You. She has also starred in the
biopic Wonderland about the late porn star John Holmes. She has garnered critical
acclaim in mostly dramatic roles for writer-director Don Roos in the films The
Opposite of Sex and Happy Endings.
Kudrow portrayed Valerie Cherish, the main character on the HBO original series The
Comeback. The series premiered on HBO on June 5, 2005. She also served as
co-creator, writer, and executive producer. The show was not renewed for a second
season. The show was about a has-been sitcom star trying to make a comeback in
television. Ironically, 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.
Kudrow also guest starred in The Simpsons episode "Lard of the Dance" as Alex
Whitney. In the episode, she tells Lisa Simpson "not to be a Phoebe," referring to
her role in Friends, and that she loved the name Lisa, in reference to Kudrow's own
name. She also voiced the ghost of Christmas past in the American Dad episode "The
Best Christmas Story Never".
Personal
life
Kudrow used to date Conan O'Brien until he moved to New York to host his TV show
beginning in 1993. Since May 27, 1995, Kudrow has been married to Michel Stern, a
French advertising executive. They have one son, Julian Murray (born May 7, 1998).
While Kudrow was pregnant, Phoebe was also written as pregnant, which is why the
storyline of Phoebe being a surrogate for her brother's triplets was
introduced.
Source : Some of the information on
this page came from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU
Documentation License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Lisa Kudrow -
Projector - Biography
