As physicist Charlie Wheeler, Aisha Tyler made an immediate and significant impression on Friends.
Despite appearing in only nine episodes, she was at the centre of a love triangle plot with Joey Tribianni, portrayed by Matt LeBlanc, and Ross Geller, played by David Schwimmer.
Viewers recall Aisha’s performance on the comedy so clearly that some admirers still call out her character’s name to her in public, despite the fact that the show concluded nearly 20 years ago.
‘To this day, people come up to me and go, “Charlie, Charlie,” or they just go, “Black girl from Friends”’.
The programme is frequently chastised for its lack of diversity, with Quinta Brunson tackling the issue most recently while hosting Saturday Night Live.
During her opening monologue she said: ‘I have a show called Abbott Elementary. And it’s kind of unique. It’s a network sitcom, like say, Friends. Except instead of being about a group of friends, it’s about a group of teachers. And instead of New York, it’s in Philadelphia. And instead of not having Black people, it does!’
Aisha does have positive memories of working alongside the cast of Friends, particularly Matthew Perry, who played Chandler Bing.
She told Entertainment Tonight that when the nerves got the best of her, Matthew stepped in: ‘As we’re backstage, Matthew Perry just leans in and goes, “Get ready for your life to change.”
‘It was a really sweet, kind thing to say to someone who’s just petrified and just trying not to pee on herself a little bit from fear.’
Aisha was so anxious that her “knees were knocking” and her “teeth [were] chattering,” knowing that being on the programme was a “big deal.”
Fortunately, she’d done her homework and viewed every single show prior to her first audition.
‘The performance had a tempo,’ the astute performer observed. It had a way of flipping things around and emphasising words in different ways… [than] regular discourse.
‘They just had a way with wordplay and a way with them with delivering lines. It just felt unique to the show.’
Jennifer Aniston portrayed Rachel Green, Courteney Cox played Monica Geller, and Lisa Kudrow played Phoebe Buffay in Friends.