Lisa Kudrow discusses the lack of diversity on Friends

• Kudrow, who portrayed Phoebe Buffay in the hit sitcom, said the show’s creators, wrote the series about their own personal lives
• She further said that they did not have the experiences of being a person of colour
• She felt like it was a show created by two people who went to Brandeis and wrote about their lives after college.

Lisa Kudrow has spoken out about the lack of diversity on the hit sitcom Friends, claiming that the show’s white creators “had no business” writing stories about people of colour (POC).

Kudrow, 59, who portrayed Phoebe Buffay in the hit sitcom, said the show’s creators, David Crane and Marta Kauffman, wrote the series about their own personal lives and did not have the experiences of being a person of colour in their latest interview for The Daily Beast.

Friends, which aired from 1994 to 2004, has been criticised for its predominantly white cast.

“Well, I feel like it was a show created by two people who went to Brandeis and wrote about their lives after college. And for shows especially, when it’s going to be a comedy that’s character-driven, you write what you know,” she said

“They have no business writing stories about the experiences of being a person of color,” she added. At that time, Kudrow said, “the big problem that I was seeing was, ‘Where’s the apprenticeship?’”

Kudrow’s latest comments come after Friends co-creator Kauffman recently donated $4million to create a fund supporting scholars studying African and African American Studies at Brandeis University.

Announcing the fund in June, Kauffman told the Los Angeles Times that she was “embarrassed” by not understanding criticisms of the show in the past.