Lisa Kudrow Trivia | 45 facts about the actress

Lisa Kudrow is an American actress. She rose to international fame for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the American television sitcom Friends.

1. Out of the six Friends (1994) stars, Kudrow was the first to receive an Emmy Award for her performance.
2. She has also been nominated for the Emmy Award more times than any other “Friends” cast member.
3. She was terrified of the duck which joined the cast of Friends (1994) in season three.
4. Meryl Streep politely asked Kudrow if she could make a guest appearance on Kudrow’s show Web Therapy (2011). Kudrow was admittedly star-struck and surprised by the approach.
5. Accepted her role in Hotel for Dogs (2009), as a favor for her son, who at the time was too young to see any of the films or television series she had previously starred in.
6. First played Ursula on Mad About You (1992), then played her twin sister, Phoebe, on Friends (1994), and has played both characters at once in a few episodes of “Friends”.
7. Was originally cast as Roz Doyle on Frasier (1992), but the producers and writers decided they were changing the character too much to fit Kudrow’s personality. Both parties decided it would be better to recast the role, and Peri Gilpin was chosen instead.
8. Her character Phoebe Buffay on Friends (1994) became pregnant with her brother’s triplets (by artificial insemination) to cover up Kudrow’s own pregnancy.
9. On the day she gave birth to her son Julian, NBC aired the season finale of Friends (1994) – “The One With Ross’ Wedding, Parts 1 and 2”. She sent these episodes as her Emmy tape submissions and subsequently won the Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy.
10. She speaks French fluently, as does her Friends (1994) co-star, Matt LeBlanc.
11. Received her Bachelor of Science degree in Psychobiology from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York (1985).
12. Even though her son was only 6 months old at the time, she chose to voice Aphrodite in Hercules (1998) so that her son would find her work more interesting.
13. Convinced to quit her job as a Medical Researcher to become a full-time actress by Jon Lovitz.
14. Teri Garr has played her mother twice: in Kabluey (2007) and Friends (1994).
15. Lisa’s paternal grandparents, David Kudrow and Gertrude Farberman, were Jewish emigrants (David from Mogilev, Belarus, and Gertrude from Ilya, Vilna Province, Belarus). Lisa’s maternal grandfather, Henry Stern, was from a Hungarian Jewish family, and Lisa’s maternal grandmother, Johanna Sand, was born in Germany, to Russian Jewish parents.
16. Lisa knew her paternal great-grandmother, Mera Mordejovich, had been murdered by the Nazis during World War II but, in March 2010, on an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? (2010), she visited Ilya, Belarus and was shocked when she was shown the records that reported how Mera had been ‘killed and burned’ with 900 other Jews in the town.
17. When filming the split Ursula/Phoebe scenes on the set of Friends, her real life sister was frequently used as her back double.
18. She has a B.S. in Psychobiology from Vassar College, while Mira Sorvino has a degree in Asian Studies from Harvard University. During production of Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (1997) they nicknamed each other “Smart and Smarter”.
19. She and Jennifer Aniston both auditioned for regular cast member spots on Saturday Night Live (1975) prior to their success on Friends (1994).
20. Dislikes singing.
21. Publicly, she has only done it in order to gain laughs, including some memorable musical moments on Friends (1994), The Comeback (2005) and as the role as a rock star in Hotel for Dogs (2009).
22. Filmed all her scenes for Wonderland (2003) in three days.
23. Gave birth to her only child at age 34, a son Julian Murray Stern on May 7, 1998.
24. Child’s father is her husband, Michel Stern.
25. Attended grade school with Daniel Pearl, the journalist who was murdered in Pakistan.
26. Until 2004, she was the only cast member of Friends (1994) to have a child.
27. Matt LeBlanc’s daughter, Marina Pearl, was born February 8, 2004, and Courteney Cox’s daughter, Coco Riley, was born June 13, 2004.
28. Matt LeBlanc was the one who informed her about her Emmy nomination for the second season of The Comeback (2005). LeBlanc was also nominated the same year.
29. The storyline of Phoebe Buffay having her brother’s babies on Friends (1994) was thought up when Kudrow announced her real-life pregnancy. However, as she was not big enough to be having triplets, and the sitcom was shot in “TV time”, the costumers had to pad her to make her look bigger for the sitcom.
30. Was 7 months pregnant with her son, Julian, when she completed filming of the fourth season of Friends (1994).
31. Although her Friends (1994) character Phoebe Buffay was the only female lead not to become a mother on the series (albeit she acted as a surrogate for her brother and his wife), Kudrow was actually the first to become a mother in real life.
32. Chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World (1997).
33. Was a guest at the wedding of Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux.
34. Her real-life middle name Valerie has been used for two of her characters. It was the name of her lead role on The Comeback (2005), and it was the nickname that Phoebe gave herself when briefly she changed her name to ‘Princess Consuela Bananahammock’ on the tenth season of Friends (1994).
35. She’s the tallest female cast member and eldest of the six lead actors on Friends (1994).
36. Is a huge fan of Diane Keaton.
37. She supported the WGA strike, which started in 2007 and ended in 2008.
38. Attended and graduated from William Howard Taft High School in Woodland Hills, California on June 18, 1981.
39. She was considered for the role of Joan Baxter in Evan Almighty (2007), which went to Lauren Graham.
40. As of 2016, she’s the only female cast member on Friends (1994) not to star in a movie opposite Jim Carrey.
41. Her motion picture debut was set to be in the film Impulse (1990), but her scenes were deleted before the film’s release.
42. She has an Erdös-Bacon-Sabbath number of only 15.
43. Cousin of Thea Mann.
44. Born at 4:37am-PDT.
45. Her character, Phoebe Buffay on “Friends” (1994), became pregnant with her brother’s triplets, by acting as a surrogate through gestational surrogacy (also known as host or full surrogacy) when Kudrow became pregnant.