Jennifer Aniston was born in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California on February 11, 1969 to actor and actress John Aniston and Nancy Dow. Aniston has two half-brothers, John and Alex. As a child, Aniston lived in Greece for a year, which is where her father was from, before the family moved to New York, where her mother was born. She went to school at the New York Rudolf Steiner School, and then graduated from Manhattan’s Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and performing Arts.
Coming from this background, and from a working showbiz family, it was only natural that Jennifer decided to become an actress, especially after she worked on some Off-Broadway productions. She supported herself with several part-time jobs at this time, until she made the move to Los Angeles in 1989.
She landed her first television role a year later, on the short-lived series “Molloy”, and then followed that up with a TV movie and more short-lived TV shows, including the TV adaptation of the film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”. But after appearing in the cult B-movie horror film “Leprechaun” in 1992, she was about ready to quit the business.
Then she got cast in a new sitcom set to debut on NBC’s 1994-1995 fall lineup, called “Friends”, and the rest is TV history. “Friends” ran from 1994 until 2004, and was a phenomenal hit, making stars out of each of the main cast members, including Aniston. She will forever be associated with her character on the show, although her career and celebrity status are good enough that she isn’t stereotyped forever as ‘Rachel Green’. “Friends” received 152 nominations and 56 awards from various award-giving bodies, and Jennifer Aniston was the recipient of many of these, like multiple People’s Choice Favorite Female Television Performer prizes, and even a Golden Globe for Best TV Supporting Actress in 2002. She also got the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series that year.
The cast became the highest-paid ensemble on television when they bargained for, and got, the $1 million per episode salary they wanted for their tenth season. An estimated US audience of 51.1 million people tuned in for the show’s final episode, making it one of the most-watched finales ever, behind only “M*A*S*H*”, “Cheers” and “Seinfeld”.
Jennifer’s character was so influential that her hairstyle on the show’s early episodes became very popular , and was known as “The Rachel”.
With her star shining bright in Hollywood because of the show, Aniston then turned to acting on the silver screen, being known primarily for romantic comedies like her first one 1996, “She’s The One”, but also trying edgier roles occasionally, like 2002’s “The Good Girl”. Her most successful role was opposite Jim Carrey in “Bruce Almighty” which was a smash hit in 2003, although she was more prominent in 2006’s “The Break-Up”, which was also very successful.
Being on of America’s most beloved actresses, her relationship and marriage with Brad Pitt in July 2000 was the focus of intense media scrutiny, but they were considered a rare Hollywood marital success, until the limelight-hogging 2005 breakup and divorce. They announced their separation on January of 2005, and stories about possible reasons for the split, as well as reconciliation news, filled the tabloids and showbiz talk shows until Aniston officially filed for divorce on March 25, 2005.
Aniston then dated Vince Vaughn next, and they were a couple for a while, until reality started mirroring fiction and they ended 2006 with a break-up, like their movie together that opened earlier that year.