Friends is one of the most popular sitcoms of all time and its amazing characters were the heart of the show—and we’re not just talking about the main cast. We were introduced to more amazing supporting characters than we can count and some of them were played by superstars who made a big splash on set.
Screenshot from "Friends"
From household names to rising stars, Friends gave us some pretty epic cameos over the course of its ten seasons, and here are forty stars that you may have forgotten appeared on the show.
George Clooney & Noah Wyle (Season 1)
George Clooney and Noah Wyle were playing dreamy doctors on ER when they were asked to make cameos on Friends. They took on similar roles, playing Dr. Michael Mitchell and Dr. Jeffrey Rosen, who asked Monica and Rachel on a double date.
Screenshot from "Friends"
Some viewers believed this was a crossover between two shows, but Clooney and Wyle played completely different characters. It was just a network stint that paid off big time for NBC because both shows were still relatively new, with only a few days in between their debuts in September 1994.
Jon Lovitz (Season 1 & 9)
Some guest stars were so great that the mastermind behind Friends couldn’t resist bringing them back more than once. That was the case with Jon Lovitz, a cast member on Saturday Night Live and the star of A League of Their Own.
Screenshot from "Friends"
Lovitz played the role of Steve, a restaurant owner who shows up high to interview Monica for a job. He made a comeback 193 episodes later—the longest span for any character on the show—as one of Rachel’s blind dates.
Helen Hunt (Season 1)
Before joining Friends, Lisa Kudrow played the role of dizzy waitress Ursula on Mad About You. The worlds of the two shows collided when Ursula was introduced as Phoebe’s twin sister on Friends, but that wasn’t the only connection between these popular sitcoms.
Screenshot from "Friends"
Mad About You’s leading lady Halen Hunt appeared on an episode of Friends and her character Jamie Buchman mistook Phoebe for her sister—a cheeky reference that only fans of both shows could appreciate.
Julia Roberts (Season 2)
Julia Roberts is one of the biggest Hollywood stars of her generation and she joined Friends in the role of Chandler’s childhood friend Susie Moss. She was dating Matthew Perry at the time and he was the one who convinced her to appear on the show, according to executive producer Kevin Bright.
Screenshot from "Friends"
“Matthew asked her to be on the show. She wrote back to him, ‘Write me a paper on quantum physics and I’ll do it.’ My understanding is that Matthew went away and wrote a paper and faxed it to her the next day,” Bright told The Hollywood Reporter.
Steve Zahn (Season 2)
Steve Zahn’s star was still on the rise before he joined Friends for an episode in 1996, playing Duncan Sullivan, Phoebe’s first ex-husband and a Canadian ice skater who married her to get a green card.
Screenshot from "Friends"
Over 25 years later, Zahn has almost 100 credits under his name, but people still ask him about his guest-starring role on Friends. He most recently starred in the HBO mini-series The White Lotus, but he’s also known for the movies Stuart Little, Sahara, and War for the Planet of the Apes.
Brooke Shields (Season 2)
Brooke Shields was already a huge star before playing Joey’s crazy stalker Erika Ford. But one episode was all it took for fans to see her in a new light. She even claimed this small cameo helped her land the titular role in Suddenly Susan.
Screenshot from "Friends"
"It was because of my Friends episode that NBC wanted to do a show with me as the lead. Had it not been for that crazy part, I don't think anybody necessarily would've known that was what I love to do more than anything," Shields told PureWow.
