Lisa 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. Biography Early life Kudrow was born in Encino, California to Jewish parents, Lee Kudrow and Nedra Stern, and 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 A.B. from Vassar College in Biology.