Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan is a fictional character from the NBC sitcom Friends, portrayed by Lisa Kudrow.For her portrayal of Phoebe Buffay, Kudrow received a Golden Globe Award nomination, as well as winning the Primetime Emmy Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, Satellite Award, and American Comedy Award.
Phoebe Buffay is the younger twin daughter born to Phoebe Abbott (Teri Garr) and Frank Buffay (Bob Balaban), circa 1970; her identical twin sister Ursula (also portrayed by Lisa Kudrow, and spun off from the character of the same name whom Kudrow portrayed on Mad About You), was born one minute earlier.[3] Frank was married to Abbott's best friend, the unstable Lily, at the time; Lily adopted Phoebe and Ursula. She is from upstate New York, her father abandoned the family when she was very young, and Lily remarried an unnamed man. She mentions that her family was very poor (her stepfather sold his blood on her birthday to buy them food) and claims that her mother was a drug dealer. Lily committed suicide when Phoebe and Ursula were thirteen, by carbon monoxide poisoning; afterward their stepfather went to prison. She occasionally mentions Lily's strange behavior and methods of raising her children. By age 15, Phoebe was living on the streets. Her relationship with Ursula appears strained, ostensibly due to the latter's personality, which is portrayed as markedly aloof by comparison.