With the third and final season of ”The Comeback,” now streaming on HBO Max more than two decades after its 2005 debut, Lisa Kudrow, 62, returns to her cult-favorite role as Valerie Cherish, a veteran sitcom actress navigating a career comeback in a rapidly changing Hollywood — much like Kudrow herself — with the same biting humor and emotional precision that has defined the series.
Created by Kudrow and Michael Patrick King, “The Comeback” was canceled after its first season in 2005 due to low ratings and a mixed reception. Over the years, the show developed a devoted cult following, and by 2014, reality TV culture had evolved to make its satire of celebrity and media more resonant. Recognizing the show’s growing reputation, HBO revived “The Comeback” for a second season in 2014, and now, 12 years later, it’s back for its final run.
But Kudrow’s connection to comedy runs deeper than her Hollywood career. As the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, she grew up in a family where humor wasn’t just entertainment — it was a way to cope.
“My father is really funny and my brother and sister, my whole family is really funny and I’m the youngest, so I was just trying to keep up always,” Kudrow said during an interview at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank. “It was the coping for our household. Also, you know, for my grandparents. I didn’t realize it then, but no matter what was going on, someone would make a joke, even at a funeral. It’s just needed. It’s a needed release.”
Kudrow was seven years old when her paternal grandmother told her how her parents, brothers and sisters had been murdered by Hitler. Years later, as an adult, Kudrow traveled to Ilya, Belarus, where she visited the site of a mass grave in which approximately 900 Jews were killed, including members of her family.
While participating in the U.S. version of “Who Do You Think You Are?,” she also traveled to Gdynia, Poland, where she discovered that a cousin had survived the war but changed his name to pass as Polish. Kudrow later helped reconnect him with her father, Dr. Lee Kudrow, a specialist in treating headaches, who is now 93. Her mother, Nedra, a travel agent, came from a Jewish Eastern European family that immigrated to the United States years before World War II.
Kudrow was born in Encino and attended Portola Middle School in Tarzana and Taft High School in Woodland Hills. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology from Vassar College in New York and initially planned to join her father’s medical practice. However, after encouragement from her brother’s friend, comedian and actor Jon Lovitz, Kudrow discovered her comedic talent and enrolled in The Groundlings, an improv and sketch comedy school
During our interview, she reflected on her more than four-decade career in comedy, spanning television, film and improvisation, saying, “There’s just nothing better than making people laugh … it’s so healing, cathartic and satisfying to do something that actually brings joy to others.”
This dedication to performance is evident in her work on “The Comeback,” where she balances humor with emotional depth, even as the show now confronts modern challenges, including the rise of artificial intelligence and the ways people curate their own realities.
In season three, set in 2026, Valerie returns after a self-styled sabbatical during the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes and is cast in a new sitcom at her former network — only to discover it is entirely written by AI. Her life is documented by her social media manager Patience and returning producer Jane, who follow Valerie as she grapples with technology’s impact on her craft, her public image and her personal life, exploring the challenges of performing in an AI-dominated industry.
Asked why the third season focuses on artificial intelligence, Kudrow said, “Just as reality TV was sort of the almost-extinction event at the time for scripted television, it’s the same feeling about AI.” Positioning Valerie’s struggles within a landscape where technology has transformed not only how shows are made, but how people perform and present themselves, Kudrow said she does not believe AI will entirely replace human creativity. “I firmly believe an audience will always let you know what it likes and what it doesn’t,” she said. “There might be some AI entertainment that audiences like, but it’s not going to take over everything.
Kudrow, who shot to fame as Phoebe Buffay on the iconic sitcom “Friends” in 1994, returned to the same stage for “The Comeback’s” third season.
The show includes a few nods to “Friends” — a choice Kudrow said she couldn’t resist. “It just felt like there was an easy joke there that Valerie didn’t even pay attention to — she was only looking at the movies on the plaque — she didn’t even see the TV show and just, you know, like ‘We’re going to be the first hit for Stage 24!’”
Kudrow’s son, Julian Murray Stern, 27, her only child with husband Michel Stern, makes his acting debut in the final season as an AI tech expert. Reflecting on acting alongside him, Kudrow said, “That was heaven. And a little bit of guilt because I forgot that he was my son. … It was really thrilling.”
The experience was also surreal for the actress because this was the same stage where she used to shoot “Friends” when her son was just a toddler. “I have a picture of him at two years old in the craft service kitchen washing his hands. And then there he is, back there and acting. Oh my God, and he’s part of this finale,” she said.
In an interview with Conan O’Brien a few years ago, she recalled how her co-star Jennifer Aniston used to play with Julian on set and he thought she was his mother. “She’s a love bug and that made sense. I was always glad for anyone that Julian felt love for and felt from,” she said. “But then at home, she’d be on TV and he’d go: ‘Mommy!”
Looking ahead, Kudrow will return to another beloved role, Michele Weinberger, in a sequel to “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion” alongside Mira Sorvino and Alan Cumming. The film is currently in preproduction.
