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Phoebe Buffay
Phoebe Buffay lived in uptown New York until when she was twelve her mother killed herself and she lived a life on the street. Previous to that her father had abandoned her, her twin sister Ursula, and her mother. Early on in the series a grandmother is shown but later dies.
Phoebe was not really the main character in any episodes until late in the show. Early on she had a relationship with David the "science guy" who had to move to Minsk for scientific study.
Throughout the show Phoebe was always involved in strange situations. Unable to have their own children, Phoebe's brother and his wife ask her to be a surrogate mother. Reluctant at first, she agrees and ends up giving birth to their triplets.
Phoebe has a twin sister names Ursula. Ursula, like Phoebe is quirky and a little air-headed but unlike her she seems heartless and at times uncaring.
Phoebe discovered in the third season that the woman whom she thought was her mother was infact her birth mother's best friend.
Phoebe did not find a new serious love interest until season 8, Mike, a unemployed lawyer who played piano on the side. It seemed as though everything would be wonderful until she found out that Mike never wanted to get married and the two ended their relationship.
After the break up with Mike, David the science guy returns from Minsk and confesses that he is still in love with Phoebe. Phoebe who is desperately trying to get over Mike but is obviously still in love with him tries hard to fall in love with David again. David, sensing that Phoebe is not over Mike, decides to propose to Phoebe in hopes that marrying him will help her forget Mike. Just as David is about to propose Mike shows up and proposes to Phoebe instead. Shockingly, Phoebe says no. She does not want a proposal from Mike, she just wants to know that someday they will be married. She ends it with poor heartbroken David and rekindles her and Mikes relationship.
During season 10 Mike and Phoebe are married and in the series finale they discuss wanting to have children.
Lisa Kudrow
While Lisa Kudrow has made her name portraying slightly ditsy, even flaky characters on the small screen, she has also proven to be a strong actress in features. While capable of projecting the quintessential "Valley girl" persona (in fact she was raised in the San Fernando Valley), this intelligent woman holds a degree in biology from Vassar. Although she had initially harbored dreams of a medical career (following in her father's wake), Kudrow turned to show business partly at the urging of her brother's friend Jon Lovitz. Lovitz encouraged her to audition for the famed L.A. improv group The Groundlings and while she did not make the cut on her first try, Kudrow was impressive enough to be referred to acting teacher Christine Szigeti. Eventually, the then-brunette actress was accepted as a member of the troupe where she honed her impeccable deadpan delivery and comic timing.
By 1989, Kudrow had begun to make inroads as a guest actor on TV sitcoms, beginning with an appearance as a dizzy acting classmate of bartender Woody (Woody Harrelson) in an episode of "Cheers". Roles on other shows such as the final episode of "Newhart", "Coach" and a recurring part on "Bob" followed. The now bottle blonde Kudrow established her TV presence in the recurring role of the bumbling space cadet waitress Ursula on NBC's "Mad About You". After being fired from the role of radio producer Roz during the shooting of the pilot of "Frasier", she bounced back by landing the star-making part of Phoebe Buffay, the loopy would-be folksinger and twin to Ursula, on the NBC sitcom "Friends" (1994-2004). Over the course of the show's run, her character matured by seeking her birth mother and acting as surrogate mother to her brother. For her efforts, the actress received the Emmy Award as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1998 and earned additional nominations in 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000 and 2001.
Kudrow nearly made her big screen debut in Sandra Locke's "Impulse" (1990) but her role ended on the proverbial cutting room floor. Her first released film was "The Unborn" (1991) and she subsequently appeared in a handful of largely forgettable features (e.g., "In the Heat of Passion" 1992). Kudrow landed her first important film role after her small screen success playing a pushy blind date to Albert Brooks in "Mother" (1996). The following year, "Clockwatchers" premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and cast her as a promiscuous aspiring thespian working as an office temp alongside Parker Posey, Alanna Urbach and Toni Collette. Reprising a favorite stage role, she undertook a variation of her TV persona as half of a pair of underachievers who attend a class reunion in the uneven comedy "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion" (also 1997).
1998 brought Kudrow one of her best role to date as the repressed spinster Lucia (pronounced LOO-sha) in the superb black comedy "The Opposite of Sex". Downplaying her looks by wearing little make-up and unflattering hairstyles and adopting a more reserved tone, she offered a well-rounded portrait of a woman stung by life's disappointments, nearly stealing the film from its superlative cast that included Christina Ricci, Martin Donovan, Lyle Lovett and Ivan Sergei. Continuing her hot streak, Kudrow was tapped to play the wife of psychiatrist (Billy Crystal) treating a mobster (Robert De Niro) in the comedy "Analyze This" (1999), a role she reprised for the 2002 sequel, "Analyze That." Her subsequent film roles in "Hanging Up" and "Lucky Numbers" (both 2000) both were unworthy of her talents and her turn as a woman who suffers a nervous breakdown and becomes convinced she's a dog in "Bark" (2002) did not raise expectations, nor did the long-shelved comedy "Marci X" (2003), a critically reviled film that barely saw the light of day that cast Kudrow as the spoiled daughter of a record industry titan who becomes involved in his ignored hip-hop clients' culture. But as she headed into the final season of her sit-com, Kudrow demonstrated her potent dramatic chops when she appeared in the dizzying but ultimately unsatisfying "Wonderland" (2003), playing Sharon Holmes, the estranged wife of porn legend John Holmes (Val Kilmer), who became embroiled in the real-life 1981 drug murders on Los Angeles' Wonderland Avenue.
As "Friends" wound down to its final episode in 2004, Kudrow was perhaps the cast member best positioned to continue her career on the big screen in roles both comedic and dramatic. To the comedic end, she inked a pact with HBO and teamed with "Sex in the City" writer-producer Michael Patrick King to co-create "The Comeback" (2005 - ), a single camera, 30-minute comedy that cast Kudrow as Valerie Cherish, a neurotic, fading one-time sitcom star desperately hoping to revive her career with a new series while also having her return to primetime documented by a reality TV crew. Kudrow multi-tasked on the show as star, co-writer and producer and provided a knowing glimpse into fragile Hollywood egos, and the series had its admirers, though at times the character's self-centered, desperate bid to reclaim stardom was, however well observed, more painful than funny. On the dramatic--or at least seriocomic--end, she reteamed with writer-director Roos for the ensemble film "Happy Endings" (2005) to tackle a part written specifically for her: Mamie, a tightly controlled woman whose teen dalliance with her step-brother resulted in her giving away her child, only to be confronted by a young wannabe filmmaker who claims to know her son's identity and drawn into a elaborate scheme to obtain the information. Exploring her character's sometimes absurd course of self-discovery, Kudrow delivered another sharply etched performance.
Joey Tribbiani
Joey Tribbiani is an Italian-American New Yorker who is the only male out of 8 children, and passionately addicted to eating. He is a dim-witted, shirt-chasing actor, mostly desperately unemployed except for two periods as Dr. Drake Ramore in the soap Days of Our Lives, who is yet likeable due to his disarmingly naive personality and an almost infallible womanizer, to his mates's envious admiration. He is for years roommate with his best friend Chandler, and later a while with Rachel. When Chandler and Monica leave Manhattan, Joey moves to Los Angeles to continue his acting career and goes live with his bossy sister Gina and her academically brilliant teenage son Michael, who looks up to dumb uncle Joey as a dating god.
Matt LeBlanc
A former model and commercial actor who utilized his working-class ethnic good looks for comedic effect in several sitcoms, LeBlanc began his professional career in commercials for Heinz Ketchup, Levi's Jeans and Doritos. He entered series TV with the high school drama, "TV 101" (CBS, 1988-89) and appeared in sitcom guest spots before co-starring, opposite Joseph Bologna, in the "Married With Children" spin-off "Top of the Heap" (Fox, 1990-91). As Vinnie, the younger half of a blue-collar father-son team that attempted to prey on rich women, LeBlanc demonstrated that he could smile, wear tight jeans and act dim-witted. After that short-lived gig, he reprised the role for another failed effort, "Vinnie and Bobby" (Fox, 1991-92).
LeBlanc finally struck sitcom gold as part of the twentysomething ensemble series, "Friends" (NBC, 1994-2004), as aspiring actor Joey Tribiani. The beefy actor provided enough charm and wit to his character to elevate what could have been just another "himbo" role. He has also appeared in more serious TV projects including "Anything to Survive" (ABC, 1990), a telefilm co-starring Robert Conrad, and two feature-length installments of Showtime's stylish "Rebel Highway" (1994) series: the John Milius-directed "Motorcycle Gang" and "Reform School Girl", helmed by Jonathan Kaplan. The former was a "family against nature" tale while the latter two were zesty remakes of two 1957 American International Pictures drive-in flicks. His feature debut, "Ed" (1996), in which he played straight man to a chimp, however, failed to win over critics and audiences. LeBlanc fared somewhat better with his turn as Major Don West in the feature version of the 60s TV series "Lost in Space" (1998). He also brought a dash of Joey-esque charm to his role as Lucy Liu's Hollywood actor boyfriend in the smash 2000 remake "Charlie's Angels."
In 2002, LeBlanc challenged his beefy boy image in his starring turn as O'Rourke in the war comedy "All The Queen's Men," in which he is asked to cross enemy lines while cross-dressed in order to infiltrate a factory which exclusively employs women but the film was roundly panned, but LeBlanc re-earned audience's goodwill with another small but sparkling turn in "Charlie's Angels 2: Full Throttle" (2003) and a heavily hyped storyline on "Friends" that had womanizing Joey falling for his close gal pal Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), a turn of events LeBlanc pulled off with surprising vulnerability and his increasingly disarming comedic delivery. As the venerable series headed into its final season, NBC announced that upon the conclusion of "Friends" the character of Joey Tribiani would be spun off into his own solo series, produced by a team of "Friends" scribes and starring LeBlanc, who would also have a creative and financial stake in the new venture.