Jennifer Aniston (Actor)

About Jennifer Aniston

Thanks to a rare combination of winsome girl-next-door charm and vulnerability, as well as wholesome sex appeal and whip-smart comic timing, actress Jennifer Aniston found television stardom playing Rachel Green, the spoiled rich girl making her way in life as a waitress and fashion buyer on the hit sitcom, "Friends" (NBC, 1994-2004). Perhaps one of the most popular television actresses of her era, Aniston emerged from relative obscurity after toiling in the backwater of television on several comedy series that failed to survive long enough to make an impression. But with “Friends,” Aniston suddenly found herself at the top of the celebrity heap while dominating much of the publicity of an ensemble cast that boasted the likes of Courteney Cox and Matthew Perry. Meanwhile, she began a strong second career in features that allowed her to display a wider array of talent. Aniston essayed both dramatic and comedic roles in films like “The Object of My Affection” (1998), “Office Space” (1999) and “The Good Girl” (2002), which confirmed that she was not to be confined by mere sitcoms. But aside from her career, she was the subject of sometimes unfortunate tabloid coverage – mainly over her very public divorce from husband Brad Pitt, as well as her shorter relationships with Vince Vaughn and John Mayer – confirming that Aniston was in a celebrity class all her own.

Born on Feb. 11, 1969 in Sherman Oaks, CA, Aniston was raised in New York City by her father, longtime daytime soap actor John Aniston, and her mother, Nancy, a former model-actress turned photographer. Despite her father’s television career, Aniston was actively steered away from watching TV, though she found ways around the prohibition. When she was six, Aniston began attending the Rudolf Steiner School, a Waldorf educational school that applied the Rudolf Steiner philosophy of integrating artistic and analytic learning to fulfill a child’s unique and untapped destiny. In perhaps a sign of thing to come, Aniston’s father left her mother for another woman when she was nine. Meanwhile, after discovering acting at 11 while attending Rudolf Steiner, Aniston enrolled at the Fiorello LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts, where she joined the school’s drama society. After graduating, she began performing in several off-Broadway productions, including “For Dear Life” at the Public Theater, while working as a bicycle messenger – among other odd jobs – to pay the rent.

Following a stint as a regular on Howard Stern’s terrestrial radio show, Aniston moved to Los Angeles and immediately began landing supporting roles on several short-lived sitcoms, mainly playing the spoiled or bratty sibling on the likes of "Molloy" (Fox, 1989) and "Ferris Bueller" (NBC, 1990-91). After making her television movie debut in “Camp Cucamonga” (NBC, 1990), Aniston had a short stint on the Fox variety sketch series "The Edge" (1992-93), which helped to further hone her comedic chops, especially in a memorable skit as a member of the paranoid, weapons-toting “Armed Family.” Though she was landing enough roles to qualify as a working actress – including episodes of “Quantum Leap” (NBC, 1988-1993), “Herman’s Head” (Fox, 1991-94) and “Burke’s Law” (CBS, 1993-95) – by the time she appeared in the widely-rejected film “Leprechaun” (1993), Aniston was prepared to call it quits. But when an agent suggested she drop 30 pounds – which apparently was preventing her from landing better roles – Aniston decided to continue making the push. Her persistence paid off when in 1994 she landed the role of Rachel Green on a new sitcom called “Friends.”

No one who was a part of the “Friends” phenomenon could have ever predicted beforehand the show’s unbridled success and substantial influence on the cultural zeitgeist. From the first season until its last a decade later, “Friends” was one of the most watched and discussed sitcoms on television. The show focused on six close-knit Gen-X friends struggling to make good in Manhattan: Monica Geller (Courteney Cox), a would-be chef with an obsession for neatness and order; Rachel Green (Aniston), Monica's pampered best friend from high school who walks out on her groom; Ross (David Schwimmer), Monica's older brother and a paleontologist with an age-old crush on Rachel; Chandler (Matthew Perry), a lovable wiseguy who works as a corporate numbers cruncher; Joey (Matt LeBlanc), a struggling actor and resident airhead; and Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), an offbeat folk singer and massage therapist. Throughout the course of the show’s 10 seasons, Aniston’s Rachel – one of the standout characters – went from being a pampered daddy’s girl to an assured, self-reliant woman whose on-again, off-again romance with Ross was the hot topic around office water coolers. But perhaps the character’s greatest influence in the first few seasons was her shag hairdo – known simply as The Rachel” – that was widely copied by young women in the mid-1990s.

In 1995, her mother went on national television and divulged personal childhood information that infuriated Aniston to the point of cutting off communication. Four years later, her mother exacerbated the estrangement by publishing a book, From Mother and Daughter to Friends (1999), which documented their strained relationships while detailing her own life’s ups and downs. Meanwhile, Aniston reveled in the success of “Friends,” which helped launch a second career in mainly independent feature films. She landed a supporting turn as the unhappily married wife of a womanizing stockbroker in Edward Burns' "She's the One" (1996), then had an acerbic cameo as an overwhelmed young woman juggling career and motherhood in the otherwise forgettable "'Til There Was You" (1997). Her first lead, playing an ambitious advertising executive who creates a fake boyfriend to insure her climb up the corporate ladder, in "Picture Perfect" (1997) proved both a critical and box-office disappointment. But Aniston bounced back in the more dramatic role of a pregnant woman who forms a bond with her gay roommate (Paul Rudd) in the modest hit, "The Object of My Affection" (1998).

To the delight of film geeks everywhere, Aniston had a memorable supporting role in “Office Space” (1999), Mike Judge’s hilarious satire on the drudgery and absurdity of corporate life. Aniston played Joanna, a dissatisfied waitress who meets a bored office drone (Ron Livingston) acting out his inner slacker fantasies after a mishap with a hypnotist. Meanwhile, in 1998, Aniston became romantically linked to Hollywood’s resident golden boy, Brad Pitt, which immediately became the obsession du jour of tabloids around the world. In fact, the two were Hollywood’s reigning “It” couple for the next several years, especially after they were married in fairy tale-like fashion in July 2000. For a spell, they were considered a Hollywood oddity – a down-to-earth married couple who seemed destined to remain together for the rest of their lives. Despite their constant appearances together in the public eye, the couple worked together professionally only once when Pitt appeared on a 2001 episode of "Friends" as a formerly fat high school classmate with a long-simmering resentment of Rachel. Meanwhile, Aniston’s film career continued unabated, as she appeared as the love interest of a salesman (Mark Wahlberg) who joins a heavy metal band in "Rock Star" (2001), anchoring the lightweight, high-concept film as its most convincing and emotional presence.

In 2002, Aniston had an impressive turn on the indie-film scene in "The Good Girl," playing a bored and forlorn Midwestern housewife dissatisfied with her life and pot-smoking husband (John C. Reilly), who discovers that bucking her staid life is harder than she imagined. For her subtly measured performance, Aniston rightly earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead. The following year, Aniston paired with Jim Carrey for the hit comedy feature "Bruce Almighty" (2003) as the girlfriend of a man gifted with God's powers. She fared even better in her follow-up, "Along Came Polly" (2004), playing against type as a free spirit who teaches her risk-fearing new beau (Ben Stiller) how to take chances. That year, Aniston and company made their final bows on “Friends.” A hit during its first few seasons, “Friends” lagged a bit in the middle, only to make a dominant resurgence in the latter seasons, exiting the airwaves at the top of its ratings and comedic game. Meanwhile, the role made Aniston a superstar, earning her four consecutive Emmy nominations (2000-03) – twice as Best Supporting Actress and twice as Best Lead Actress – which led to a win in the Lead Actress category in 2002, as well as a Golden Globe the following year.

As she moved on to her next projects, Aniston found herself in the center of a media tempest when she announced her separation from husband Brad Pitt, who allegedly began a romance with actress Angelina Jolie on the set of their film "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (2005) – a rumor that later proved to be true. The drama played out in the entertainment media for several months, with Aniston finally giving a teary-eyed interview to Vanity Fair that – while taking some pains to play fair and amicable – decidedly cast her as the unsuspecting victim, Pitt as the cad and Jolie as the home wrecker. As the media story took shape, Aniston soon became ridiculed by some who saw her as desperately holding on to Pitt’s flame, while her ex – they finalized their divorce in October 2005 – traipsed around the world with Jolie, donating to world relief efforts and adopting children from impoverished countries. Some of her friends like Cox and singer Sheryl Crow rose to her defense, claiming the media portrayal was unfair – and in some cases misogynist – but by then, the damage was done to Aniston’s reputation.

Ironically, during the media firestorm surrounding her painful public split from Pitt, Aniston was shooting "The Break-Up" (2006) in Chicago with actor Vince Vaughn, playing a couple struggling to continue to cohabitate in the condo both refuse to leave, despite having ended their relationship. Rumors swirled of a budding relationship between the two stars, and despite denials, they did appear to be a couple by fall of 2005 when Aniston had two films hitting theaters – "Derailed," which cast the actress and Clive Owen as two married business executives who are blackmailed by a violent criminal after they have had an affair; and Rob Reiner's "Rumor Has It," which starred Aniston as a woman who learns that her family was the inspiration for the book and film "The Graduate" (1967). Meanwhile, more rumors swirled that her and Vaughn were engaged, but by October 2006, it was clear the couple was no longer together. In April 2008, Aniston was then linked to songwriter and notorious playboy, John Mayer, who later hinted to reporters that the rumors were indeed true. Four months after Aniston and Mayer were no longer together, back-and-forth stories over who dumped who plagued the tabloids, as Aniston was again unfairly portrayed as the “desperate girl” who was unlucky in love.

Thankfully, Aniston had no shortage of projects lined up to take her mind off of personal tribulations. The often cruel blog press took gleeful delight in the title of her next project, “He’s Just Not That Into You” (2009), based on the best-selling guidebook for women in bad relationships, written by former “Sex and the City” (HBO, 1998-2004) scribe, Greg Behrendt. Beating the romantic comedy into the theaters was Aniston’s turn in the tender love story of a man and his dog, again based on a bestseller, “Marley & Me” (2008), co-starring Owen Wilson – no stranger to the hard-knock press, himself, following an attempted suicide in the fall of 2007.

Family

Name:	Relation:	Notes:
Brad Pitt	husband	Met in 1998; married July 29, 2000 in Malibu, CA; announced separation Jan. 6, 2005, after more than fours years of marriage; Aniston filed for divorce in March 2005; their divorce was finalized in October 2005
John Aniston	father	Born c. 1933; appeared in NBC daytime serial "Days of Our Lives"; divorced Aniston's mother in 1980, leaving her for another woman; family name was originally Anastassakis
Nancy Aniston	mother	Born c. 1936; previously married before her 1965 marriage to John Aniston; divorced from Aniston in 1980; because of comments made in a TV interview c. 1995, daughter has ceased contact; wrote book From Mother and Daughter to Friends (1999)
John Melick	half-brother	Born c. 1959; mother, Nancy Aniston
Telly Savalas	godfather	Her father, John Aniston was good friends with the fellow Greek actor at the time of her birth; best known for his series “Kojak” (CBS, 1973-79); died in 1994

Companions

Name:	Relation:	Notes:
John Mayer	companion	Began dating in April 2008; split in August 2008
Adam Duritz	companion	With the band Counting Crows; briefly dated in 1995
Paul Sculfor	companion	Rumored to have dated for a few months in 2007
Tate Donovan	companion	Born in 1963; together from 1995-1998
Vince Vaughn	companion	Rumors of the pair dating began while filming "The Break Up" (2006); they were first spotted kissing at a wrap party in August 2005; relationship troubles reported in September 2006 with an "official" split by December 2006
Daniel MacDonald	companion	Dated in the 1990s; split just before Aniston was cast in "Friends" (NBC) in 1994
Charlie Schlatter	companion	Dated when they co-starred together on "Ferris Bueller" (NBC) in 1990

Milestones

	Appeared Off-Broadway in "For Dear Life" at New York's Public Theater
	Born in Sherman Oaks, CA
	Lost 30 pounds after her agent suggested she wasn't being cast because of her weight
	Raised in New York City after parents' divorce
1989	Moved to Los Angeles
1990 - 1991	Cast as Jeannie Bueller in "Ferris Bueller" (NBC) a TV adaptation of the 1986 hit movie
1990	TV series debut, "Molloy" (FOX) playing the spoiled stepsister of the title character
1990	TV-movie debut, "Camp Cucamonga" (NBC)
1992	Appeared in two episodes of FOX sitcom "Herman's Head"
1992 - 1993	Cast as a regular in the Fox sketch variety series, "The Edge"
1993	Feature acting debut, "Leprechaun"
1994 - 2004	Breakthrough role as Rachel Green in the NBC ensemble comedy, "Friends"; earned Emmy (2000, 2001, 2003, 2004), Golden Globe (2002) and SAG (2002, 2003) nominations for Best Actress
1996	Made guest appearance on the short-lived Fox series "Partners"; featured her then boyfriend Tate Donovan
1996	Returned to features in Edward Burns' "She's the One"
1997	First leading role in the romantic comedy "Picture Perfect"
1998	Played a pregnant woman who falls in love with her gay roommate in "The Object of My Affection"
1999	Cast in Mike Judge's first live-action feature "Office Space"
2001	Co-starred with Mark Wahlberg in "Rock Star"
2002	Earned critical acclaim playing an unglamorous cashier in a small town in the low-budget, "The Good Girl"; directed by Miguel Arteta; earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination
2003	Played the girlfriend of title character (Jim Carrey) in "Bruce Almighty"; her biggest box office success to date
2004	Co-starred with Ben Stiller in the romantic comedy "Along Came Polly"
2005	Co-starred with Clive Owen in the Hitchcockian thriller "Derailed"
2005	Co-starred with Kevin Costner in the Rob Reiner directed "Rumor Has It"
2006	Appeared in the low-budget drama, "Friends with Money"; premiered at the Cannes Film Festival
2006	Co-starred with Vince Vaughn (who also wrote and produced) in "The Break Up"
2007	Appeared in the season finale of Courteney Cox's FX series "Dirt" as a rival magazine editor
2007	Made co-directorial debut with the short, "Room 10"; part of the Glamour Reel Moments short film series; screened film at the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films
2008	Formed the production company Echo Films, with a first-look deal with Universal

Notes

"Her emphasis is the home, friends and family," Pitt says. "We all kind of crowd around her like moths to the flame. She's like a magnet; she brings a lot of people together that way. Jen's the fireplace; she provides the warmth." - Brad Pitt on his wife, quoted in Vanity Fair magazine, June 2004

"I didn't shoot this movie so that people would go see it because it reflects what's happening in my private life," she says. "I'd like to be given a little bit more credit. I know that that's been said, but I don't give a s**t what people think. I do parts based on what speaks to me and what I feel I could do a good job at. This just happens to be that." - Aniston on taking a role in "The Break-Up" to Entertainment Weekly, June 2, 2006

"I was 23 years old when we started. Now here we are in our 30s and some of us have been married and some babies have been born. What's so weird about this show is that so much of our lives get in there. Whether it was a relationship thing or a parental thing, a situation in our lives is somehow always being played out on the show. It did feel like I was growing up in front of everybody." - Aniston on saying goodbye to "Friends" in People magazine, April 19, 2004

"I was happy as a pig in shit. I was working and it felt amazing that I was even doing that!" - Aniston on her early TV career as quoted in Empire magazine, January 1998

"I'm baffled. I mean, you think you're just the most uninteresting person in the world, and then all this happens, and you have to wonder, is any of it real?" - Aniston quoted in Rolling Stone magazine, March 7, 1996

"It's a strange thing to be watched, talked about and have people making up stories about you. Some of what is written is really hurtful. The good thing is that as a cast we are very close and protective of each other. We've had each other to hold on to during this scary explosion." - Aniston quoted in the London Times, July 3, 1997

"Q: What's the most gratifying thing about acting?

Aniston: There's always another hurdle to go, which I love. I kind of love the challenge because I never want to get stagnant and comfortable." - Aniston quoted in USA Today, July 24, 1997

"There's something that radiates from her that is so warm and generous in a very real way. It just makes her more beautiful." - Ben Stiller, Aniston's co-star in "Along Came Polly" to People magazine, May 9, 2005

"When somebody follows you 20 blocks to the pharmacy, where they watch you buy toilet paper, you know your life has changed." - Aniston quoted in People magazine, Aug. 11, 1997

"You have to be very careful, because you want to make the right choice. You want to hang around for a while." - Aniston on selecting the right film projects, to USA Weekend, July 25-27, 1997

Aniston and her mother, Nancy were estranged for nearly a decade after Nancy talked about her daughter on a TV show and later wrote a book titled From Mother and Daughter to Friends: A Memoir (1999).

Aniston was the cover girl for People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People of 2004

Aniston was the first woman to be named GQ's Man of the Year in 2005, along with Vince Vaughn and 50 Cent.