Sexier than your friend’s hot mom, but not nearly as stunning as most Hollywood ladies, Lisa Kudrow has the sexy elegance and intelligence that still manages to bypass most men’s wet dreams. Although she plays a ditz on the NBC sitcom “Friends,” Lisa proved to be the smartest of the bunch when she organized the group of six friends into an “all for one and one for all” mentality that followed in a number of salary increases throughout their ten years on the show. As a youngster, Lisa never even considered acting as a full-time gig, graduating from Vassar College in 1985 with a degree in Biology, she returned to Los Angeles to pursue a career in medicine when she met comedian Jon Lovitz, a family friend. Jon wisely encouraged Lisa to audition for the improve-comedy group The Groundlings and was accepted to perform as an official member in 1989. After a stint on the stage, Lisa was invited to guest star on a number of popular TV sitcoms including “Cheers,” “Coach” and “The Simpsons.”
In 1993, Lisa was cast as the eccentric waitress Ursula on the sitcom “Mad About You” and impressed the NBC big shots so much that they offered her an audition for a larger role on another upcoming sitcom. After being cast for the role of Roz on “Frasier,” Lisa instead vied for the role of the hipster Phoebe on the hugely popular “Friends.” Lisa has received an abundance of recognition over the years as an actress, including receiving the Screen Actor’s Guild Award for Best Actress on “Friends” and a nomination for an American Comedy Award for her role in the film “Analyze This.” In 1997, “People Magazine” also selected Lisa as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World. Without a doubt, Lisa’s career is in for a big change with the end of “Friends,” but we’re sure that her prior success in both TV and film will make it possible for this laugh queen to carry her own in whatever projects she chooses in the future.
Lisa Kudrow on the Screen
Lisa’s performance as Phoebe on the hit show “Friends” will always be remembered as the role that paved her road to Hollywood, but her appearances in a number of other mainstream projects like the retro comedy “Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion” and the Robert DeNiro/Billy Crystal mob comedies “Analyze This” and “Analyze That” have also shown critics that she’s not as one-dimensional as they’d like to believe. Her latest stab came when she starred as John Holmes’ wife in “Wonderland,” the independent biopic of the celebrated porn star.
Lisa Says
On “Friends”:
“You know we all get along, and we still have fun and the writers are still working really hard and they do good stories. You look around and you see that a lot of reasons shows finish is [that] the ratings are really bad. We were number one for the first time in our eighth season.”
On becoming an actress:
“I always felt like I could be funny, but there was a part of me that always judged actors so harshly…I thought all actors were dumb–that they must have serious emotional problems. Even if they don’t, that’s the perception I had of them. I didn’t want anyone to see me that way.”
On her college life:
“In college I castrated 21 rats, and I got pretty good at it.”