Phoebe Buffay
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.
Background
Phoebe Buffay is the younger twin daughter born to Phoebe Abbott (Teri Garr) and Frank Buffay (Bob Balaban), February 16, 1965; 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. 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 14, Phoebe was living on the streets, although Ursula apparently was not; no explanation for why one twin became homeless while the other apparently grew up under adult supervision of some kind was ever provided.