Lisa Kudrow is a native Californian, born in Encino in July 30th, 1963 and raised in Tarzana. She was born in a secure household, her father being a headache specialist and her mother a travel agent. Lisa was always a good student and studied, but she always had a knack and intrigue for acting. She would lip sync to the soundtrack form Fiddler on the Roof, pretending to be one of the musical's characters.

Lisa graduated William Howard Taft High School in 1981. Lisa played varsity-level tennis in high school and college. She then attended Vassar College in New York where she majored in Biology and graduated four years later, in 1985. Lisa intended to go into a career in the field of medical research and returned to Los Angeles to work with her father. By that time, her dream of acting was tucked far away somewhere in the back of her mind.

When she got home, one of her brother's friends, Jon Lovits, was cast on Saturday Night Live and the yearn and passion for acting came back into Lisa's life. Jon Lovits motivated Lisa to audition for the comedy, The Groundlings. Luck was not with her and she was rejected, but she was referred to Cynthia Szigeti. There she met Conan O'Brain, who was then unknown. They became close friends. After a while she was accepted into the Groundlings in 1989. She gained a lot of experience during that time.

Afterwards, Lisa landed a role in a small production called The Ladies Room. From there her career took off. In 1993 Lisa was cast as Ursula, a ditzy waitress on the NBC show Mad About You (who happens to be Phoebe's twin sister). NBC encouraged Lisa, after being impressed with her talent to audition for a larger role on another NBC show.

She took their advice and tried out for the part of Roz on Fraiser. She was turned down because the role did not suit Lisa's character. Later she landed the role on Friends, that completely changed her life.