Craig Robinson Remembers Lisa Kudrow Speaking Up for Him When He Was a Guest Star on “Friends”

Victoria EdelMon, May 25, 2026 at 8:38 PM UTC

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Craig Robinson (left) and Lisa Kudrow (right)
Credit: Getty(2) -

Craig Robinson reflected on how Lisa Kudrow spoke up for him when he was a guest star on Friends

Robinson played a government worker during the show's final season

A year later, he was cast in The Office

Craig Robinson shared a brief scene with Lisa Kudrow on Friends, and he never forgot it.

Robinson, 54, opened up about his appearance on Friends in a May 25 interview with Entertainment Weekly. At the time, Robinson worked as a stand-up comedian and was just beginning to work in television. He appeared on episodes of LAX and The Bernie Mac Show, and he starred in the 2003 FX TV series Lucky.

Then he got the call to come in and read for a part on Friends. "What's crazy about that audition is, I went early, and it was like 14 white guys dressed like limo drivers,” Robinson said. “I walked in and I was like, 'Okay, I think I'm too early.' ” But he was right on time and won the role. "That was a sweet moment too, to find that out, when you're out there in Hollywood trying to make it,” he said of landing the part.

Lisa Kudrow (left) and Craig Robinson on 'Friends'
Credit: Max

Friends ran from 1994 to 2004, and Robinson's appearance came in that final, tenth season in episode 14, "The One with Princess Consuela.” In the episode, Kudrow's Phoebe Buffay goes to change her name to Phoebe Hannigan (shortly after marrying Paul Rudd's Mike Hannigan). While talking with Robinson, she learned she can change her name to anything, and decides to rename herself to Princess Consuela Bananahammock.

"I ended up working with Lisa later. We played a married couple in [the 2017 film] Table 19, actually. So we got real cool," Robinson told EW. "But back then, it was pretty much one scene, there really wasn't much else. We rehearsed it twice and then they did a pitch, and Lisa was cool enough to speak up for me."

While working on the scene, the cast, director and writers all threw out ideas to enhance the back and forth between Phoebe and Robinson's character. "I had thrown out a line that she heard, but nobody else heard it,” Robinson said. “She was like, 'We have a pitch!' "

Robinson got to say his line, "and she got to react to it,” he said. “But that was because of her, because I was just in there like, 'I'm a freaking friend! What are you talking about?' "

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In the final scene, Buffay is quite irksome to Robinson and tells him, "This place is so depressing. If I worked here I'd kill myself."

Craig Robinson on May 6
Credit: Chris Haston/Getty

Robinson appears in a brief scene in the final season's 14th episode. Kudrow's Phoebe Buffay goes to get her name changed following her marriage to Paul Rudd's Mike Hannigan. She gets off on the wrong foot with Robinson's clerk when she loudly observes, "This place is so depressing. If I worked here I'd kill myself."

Once she realizes she could pick any name, she jokes, "Oh, this could take a while.” Robinson's character tells her, "Get out of my line."

Robinson went on to guest roles on 2005's Arrested Development and Curb Your Enthusiasm before he was cast on The Office as warehouse foreman Darryl Philbin. The show was his breakthrough (and won him two Screen Actors Guild Awards for best ensemble).

He later appeared in shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Ghosted, Killing It and The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins. His movie roles have included Pineapple Express, Hot Tub Time Machine and This Is the End. In December 2025, he made his Broadway debut in All Out: Comedy About Ambition.

This summer, he'll star in Toy Story 5as a new toy: Atlas, a talking hippo with GPS.

In 2021, he opened up to PEOPLE about how he ended up with a career in comedy. “Comedy chose me,” he said. “I could not stop being silly. Everything was just joke, joke, joke—to my friends, to strangers, it didn't matter. So I wrote a letter to myself, just a note, that said, ‘You are going to be a great comedian.' And then I crossed it out so it read, ‘You are a great comedian.' I had no idea how to get into it; it was just, ‘This is what I want to do.' ”

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”