Kudrow describes the moment as the most bizarre interaction she’s had with a fan.

Lisa Kudrow recalls being mistaken for Dionne Warwick during Friends: ‘She doesn’t know who I am?’

Kudrow describes the moment as the most bizarre interaction she's had with a fan.

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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May 28, 2026 6:46 p.m. ET

Lisa Kudrow and Dionne Warwick. Credit:

Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/WireImage; Arturo Holmes/Getty

- Lisa Kudrow had an easy answer when she was asked about her most bizarre encounter with fans.

- The *Friends* star had been excited to be recognized by a restaurant employee.

- The woman had mistaken her for singer Dionne Warwick, however.

Lisa Kudrow is not Dionne Warwick, okay?

While the two actually look very different from one another, the *Friends *actress recalled being mistaken for the highly decorated singer — a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Kennedy Center honoree, and recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, to name just a few of her accolades. Kudrow was taking part in the *The Hollywood Reporter*'s Comedy Actresses Emmy Roundtable when participants were posed a question about the most bizarre encounters with fans.

"It was during *Friends*, and I was going to Jerry's Deli or something and the hostess had an accent," Kudrow said. "She was from somewhere in Eastern Europe and just went [whispering], 'I know who you are.' I went, 'Aw, yeah.' And she said, 'You are Dionne Warwick.' I just went, 'No, I'm not. I am not.'"

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Kudrow said she was seriously taken aback.

"I kind of felt this, *She doesn't know who I am?*" she remembered. "And then it was, *Wait…Dionne Warwick?*"

Kudrow's fellow comedian Quinta Brunson chalked it up to "American face blindness."

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Meanwhile, *I Love Boosters* star Keke Palmer joked, "Girl, if you’re Dionne Warwick, I'm Stevie Nicks." She then sang a line from Fleetwood Mac's song "Landslide," which Nicks famously takes the lead on: "I took my love, and I took it down."

** has reached out to Warwick for comment.

Kudrow, of course, is accomplished in her own right. The star of movies such as *Easy A*, *Hanging Up, and Romy and Michele's High School Reunion *also reprised her role as actress Valerie Cherish on a third season of HBO comedy series *The Comeback* that ended this month.

Lisa Kudrow on 'Friends' in 2001.

And *Friends*, on which she played the delightfully weird Phoebe Buffay for 10 seasons, from 1994 to 2004, never really went away. The show, for which she won an Emmy in 1998, continues to be a big hit in reruns.

As an example of how much people continue to discuss it, Kudrow clarified her stance on whether Ross (played by David Schwimmer) had been a bad boyfriend to Jennifer Aniston's Rachel.

"He wasn't [a good boyfriend] *at that moment*," Kudrow said, "and then he got better by the end."

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