Lisa Kudrow

In the first season of "Friends"(1994-95), Lisa Kudrow recieved an Emmy Award nomination as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comdedy Series for her performance as the spacey but lovable massage therapist/folk singer Phoebe. Since then, she has been nominated for Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globe and American Comedy Awards including another Emmy Award nod in 1997. She won her first Emmy Award in 1998 for Best Supporting Actress. Lisa was nominated for Outstanding Actress in a TV Series, Comedy at the SAG Awards in 1999 but lost to Tracy Ullman.

Kudrow graduated from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York with a B.S. degree in biology. She hoped to steer into a research career so she returned to Los Angeles and started working with her father a headache specialist known all over the world. Kudrow would still be a researcher today if she was not told to perform by one of her brother's friends Jon Lovitz.
So Lisa Kudrow started studying with Cynthia Szigeti, an improvisation teacher in Los Angeles. In class she met and bacame friends with the then-unknown Conan O'Brien. Her dream of being a performer came true in 1989 she was accepeted as a member of the famous improv group The Groundlings.

Her recurring role as the dizty waitress Ursula on the recently ended hit show "Mad About You" led to her role on "Friends." Ursula and Phoebe are identical twins. Her other small-screen credits include a recurring role on "Bob" and guest-starring roles on "Cheers," "Coach," "Newhart," "Flying Blind" and "Hope & Gloria." She was originally cast to play Peri Gilpin's role of Roz Doyle on "Frasier."

Kudrow has also had success on the big-screen. She starred opposite Mira Sorvino in the hit super-ditz comedy "Romy & Michele's High School Reunion." She had a small part in "Mother," with Albert Brooks. Kudrow stared in "Clockwatchers" with Toni Collete and she starred with Christina Ricci, Lyle Lovett and Martin Donovan in "The Opposite of Sex." Her role in "The Opposite of Sex" got great reviews and nominated her for many awards and gave her a New York Film Critics Award. In fact, Entertainment Weekly predicted her having an Oscar nod but was snubbed when the nominations were announced. Lisa's movie, Analyze This, with Billy Crystal and Robert DeNiro, has received good reviews and comes to video August 17th.