Lisa Kudrow's Son Julian Grew Up On The Friends Set — Now He's Her Co-Star

Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe Buffay on "Friends," had some of her real life written into the show. When Kudrow got pregnant with her son with husband Michael Stern, a storyline was written for Phoebe to be a surrogate for her brother's triplets. That pregnancy led to some sweet behind-the-scenes moments for Kudrow, and after Julian Murray Stern was born, he spent time on the set of his mom's famous show. Kudrow's son is now all grown up, and he joined the cast of HBO's "The Comeback," which stars Kudrow as Valerie Cherish, a sitcom actress trying to hold onto her relevance, for its third and final season. The season, which premiered in March 2026, features Kudrow's character acting in an AI-developed sitcom, with Julian playing the role of Evan, the tech guy who takes care of the AI system.

It was Julian's first major role in a TV show, but not his first time performing. And Kudrow wasn't worried about him being able to handle it. She's talked about how well he did during a production of "The Laramie Project" in high school. "My husband and I were boo-hoo-hooing, and I went, 'OK, he's got something,'" Kudrow told The Hollywood Reporter. Julian's other IMDb credits include the 2022 TV movie "Doomed" and a 2024 episode of sketch comedy show "That's Hollywood, Baby."

When they worked together on "The Comeback," it sounds like Kudrow's extensive experience helped Julian's performance. "As soon as we go into the scene, she locks in," Julian explained. "This is not the person that raised me ... this is a completely different person. So it was actually really easy," Stern revealed to Gold Derby.

Even though it turned out to be easy working with his mom, Julian Stern had some insecurities about joining the cast of "The Comeback." "I'm terrified to be here," Stern told Gold Derby. "This is the biggest job I've ever done." But it may have actually been a benefit; he channeled those feelings into the character, who is tense and full of anxiety. "My nerves worked perfectly for that character... A lot of those quirks unfortunately are just me," Stern said.

Stern's similarity to his character on "The Comeback" actually helped him get the role as the script was being developed. Kudrow explained how it happened: "When we were writing episodes for this season, we had a role of an AI guy come up and I was just like, 'Well, it's him,'" per The Hollywood Reporter.

Julian has been around TV production since he was little. As one of the kids of the "Friends" cast, Kudrow started bringing him to set when he was about 3 years old. Seeing all the love and happiness that the audience got from the show helped influence Julian's decision to get into show business himself. He graduated with a degree in film and TV production from the University of Southern California in 2021.