diff --git a/polars/polars-lazy/polars-plan/src/dsl/python_udf.rs b/polars/polars-lazy/polars-plan/src/dsl/python_udf.rs
index e5d73d696869..46bf0d97795b 100644
--- a/polars/polars-lazy/polars-plan/src/dsl/python_udf.rs
+++ b/polars/polars-lazy/polars-plan/src/dsl/python_udf.rs
@@ -56,8 +56,9 @@ impl Serialize for PythonFunction {
         S: Serializer,
     {
         Python::with_gil(|py| {
-            let pickle = PyModule::import(py, "pickle")
-                .expect("Unable to import 'pickle'")
+            let pickle = PyModule::import(py, "cloudpickle")
+                .or(PyModule::import(py, "pickle"))
+                .expect("Unable to import 'cloudpickle' or 'pickle'")
                 .getattr("dumps")
                 .unwrap();
 
@@ -83,7 +84,8 @@ impl<'a> Deserialize<'a> for PythonFunction {
         let bytes = Vec::<u8>::deserialize(deserializer)?;
 
         Python::with_gil(|py| {
-            let pickle = PyModule::import(py, "pickle")
+            let pickle = PyModule::import(py, "cloudpickle")
+                .or(PyModule::import(py, "pickle"))
                 .expect("Unable to import 'pickle'")
                 .getattr("loads")
                 .unwrap();
@@ -122,7 +124,8 @@ impl PythonUdfExpression {
         let remainder = &buf[reader.position() as usize..];
 
         Python::with_gil(|py| {
-            let pickle = PyModule::import(py, "pickle")
+            let pickle = PyModule::import(py, "cloudpickle")
+                .or(PyModule::import(py, "pickle"))
                 .expect("Unable to import 'pickle'")
                 .getattr("loads")
                 .unwrap();
@@ -169,7 +172,8 @@ impl SeriesUdf for PythonUdfExpression {
         ciborium::ser::into_writer(&self.output_type, &mut *buf).unwrap();
 
         Python::with_gil(|py| {
-            let pickle = PyModule::import(py, "pickle")
+            let pickle = PyModule::import(py, "cloudpickle")
+                .or(PyModule::import(py, "pickle"))
                 .expect("Unable to import 'pickle'")
                 .getattr("dumps")
                 .unwrap();
diff --git a/py-polars/polars/utils/show_versions.py b/py-polars/polars/utils/show_versions.py
index f34db533ec26..2f7ff9ed42f6 100644
--- a/py-polars/polars/utils/show_versions.py
+++ b/py-polars/polars/utils/show_versions.py
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ def _get_dependency_info() -> dict[str, str]:
     # see the list of dependencies in pyproject.toml
     opt_deps = [
         "adbc_driver_sqlite",
+        "cloudpickle",
         "connectorx",
         "deltalake",
         "fsspec",
diff --git a/py-polars/pyproject.toml b/py-polars/pyproject.toml
index 724f6638ce6e..b6a615424d50 100644
--- a/py-polars/pyproject.toml
+++ b/py-polars/pyproject.toml
@@ -51,8 +51,9 @@ pydantic = ["pydantic"]
 sqlalchemy = ["sqlalchemy", "pandas"]
 xlsxwriter = ["xlsxwriter"]
 adbc = ["adbc_driver_sqlite"]
+cloudpickle = ["cloudpickle"]
 all = [
-  "polars[pyarrow,pandas,numpy,fsspec,connectorx,xlsx2csv,deltalake,timezone,matplotlib,pydantic,sqlalchemy,xlsxwriter,adbc]",
+  "polars[pyarrow,pandas,numpy,fsspec,connectorx,xlsx2csv,deltalake,timezone,matplotlib,pydantic,sqlalchemy,xlsxwriter,adbc,cloudpickle]",
 ]
 
 [tool.mypy]
diff --git a/py-polars/requirements-dev.txt b/py-polars/requirements-dev.txt
index 1d05bc42f0bc..96d05a38d370 100644
--- a/py-polars/requirements-dev.txt
+++ b/py-polars/requirements-dev.txt
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ xlsx2csv
 XlsxWriter
 adbc_driver_sqlite; python_version >= '3.9' and platform_system != 'Windows'
 connectorx==0.3.2a5; python_version >= '3.8'  # Latest full release is broken - unpin when 0.3.2 released
+cloudpickle
 
 # Tooling
 hypothesis==6.79.4; python_version < '3.8'
diff --git a/py-polars/tests/unit/test_serde.py b/py-polars/tests/unit/test_serde.py
index 0734a8eb9b5a..fe5939e1bc56 100644
--- a/py-polars/tests/unit/test_serde.py
+++ b/py-polars/tests/unit/test_serde.py
@@ -152,3 +152,17 @@ def test_pickle_lazyframe_udf() -> None:
 
     q = pickle.loads(b)
     assert q.collect()["a"].to_list() == [2, 4, 6]
+
+
+def test_pickle_lazyframe_nested_function_udf() -> None:
+    df = pl.DataFrame({"a": [1, 2, 3]})
+
+    # NOTE: This is only possible when we're using cloudpickle.
+    def inner_df_times2(df: pl.DataFrame) -> pl.DataFrame:
+        return df.select(pl.all() * 2)
+
+    q = df.lazy().map(inner_df_times2)
+    b = pickle.dumps(q)
+
+    q = pickle.loads(b)
+    assert q.collect()["a"].to_list() == [2, 4, 6]