Lisa Kudrow's Third Comeback: Emmy Nominations, a Romy and Michele Sequel, and a Career Refusing to Sit Still
Lisa Kudrow is 63, holds 17 career Emmy nominations, and is not slowing down. The actor sat down with The Hollywood Reporter at the publication's Los Angeles offices for an interview published 18 August 2026, covering a career that now spans three revivals of one HBO comedy, a forthcoming film sequel, and the early rejections that shaped all of it.
The freshest thread: The Comeback returned for a third season in 2026, and the Television Academy noticed. Kudrow earned Emmy nominations for both Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series and, shared with co-creator Michael Patrick King, Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series — her writing submission was the episode "Valerie Does It All" (Gold Derby, 28 May 2026). The Television Academy's own listings confirm her nomination (Television Academy). Those two nominations brought her career total to 17, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Comeback — co-created by Kudrow and King for HBO — follows Valerie Cherish, a former sitcom actress desperate to stay relevant. The premise has aged into something uncomfortably close to documentary. The series has now aired in three instalments across three decades: 2005, 2014, and 2026. Kudrow received Lead Actress in a Comedy Emmy nominations for the first two seasons as well, meaning she has been recognised for every incarnation of the show (Deadline, 8 July 2026).
There is also a sequel to Romy and Michele's High School Reunion filming right now. Titled Romy and Michele 2, it reunites Kudrow with Mira Sorvino in their original roles, with Keegan-Michael Key and Breckin Meyer joining the cast. The film is a direct sequel to the 1997 cult comedy and is slated to stream on Hulu, with a premiere expected in 2027 (Variety, 8 June 2026; People, 8 June 2026). Kudrow told The Hollywood Reporter she had been wanting to revisit the characters.
The throughline of Kudrow's career is how many times it almost did not happen. She was fired from the pilot of NBC's Frasier before Friends came along. She trained at the Groundlings, the Los Angeles improv troupe and school, which she credits with shaping her approach. Early on, she was told she was "not gorgeous" and that casting directors wanted gorgeous women. She initially wanted to play Rachel on Friends — the role that went to Jennifer Aniston — because Rachel was Jewish and Kudrow wanted to build a Jewish American Princess character. She got Phoebe Buffay instead, and played her from 1994 to 2004 on NBC.
In 1998, Kudrow became the first of the Friends core six to win an Emmy. During the show's run she also appeared in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997), Clockwatchers (1997), The Opposite of Sex (1998), and Analyze This (1999). Before Friends, she had been a cast member on NBC's Mad About You, with the two roles overlapping.
All of these facts come from Kudrow's own account in The Hollywood Reporter's 18 August 2026 interview (The Hollywood Reporter).
What stands out is the rhythm of the career. Three seasons of one show, spaced across twenty-one years. A film sequel arriving three decades after the original. An actor fired from one iconic NBC sitcom before landing on another, told she did not look the part, and now sitting on 17 Emmy nominations. The work keeps finding its way back into slots.
