Jennifer Joanna Aniston (born February 11, 1969, in Sherman Oaks, California, United States) is an American actress who rose to stardom on the television sitcom Friends (1994–2004) and went on to have a successful film career. When Aniston’s parents split when she was nine years old, she was raised by her mother while her father worked as an actor on the serial opera Days of Our Lives. Aniston studied acting in New York City’s High School of the Performing Arts and spent several years performing in Off-Broadway plays. She began acting on television in 1989 and was immediately hired in two unsuccessful shows, Molloy (1990) and Ferris Bueller (1990–91), in which she played Ferris’ older sister, Jeannie, in the latter, which was based on the blockbuster 1986 film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Aniston’s big break came when she was cast as Rachel Green, the spoiled waitress on Friends. The series, which followed six friends in New York City, debuted in 1994 and quickly became one of the most popular sitcoms on television. Rachel’s on-again, off-again relationship with Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) became one of the most popular plotlines on the programme. Aniston won an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for her portrayal of Rachel in the film Rachel Getting Married in 2002. (2003). She, along with the rest of the ensemble, became one of the highest-paid television actors, obtaining $1 million each episode by the show’s ending in 2004. Friends’ vogue grew in the following years, making many requests for a revival or movie. Despite the fact that neither film was made, Aniston and other cast members appeared in the Friends: The Reunion TV special in 2021, where they discussed the show. Aniston continued to perform in feature films while on Friends and was frequently cast as the girl-next-door type. She worked in a number of romantic comedies, including The Object of My Affection (1998), before starring as a waitress in the cult smash Office Space (1999), a film about unhappy office workers. She received critical recognition in 2002 for her role as a bored sales clerk who has an affair with a stock boy in the dramedy The Good Girl. She appears in the blockbuster comedy Bruce Almighty (2003) with Jim Carrey and then in the thriller Derailed (2005).
The Break-Up (2006), a dramedy about the end of a two-year relationship; Marley & Me (2008), about a couple and their Labrador puppy; and the dark comedy Horrible Bosses (2011) and Horrible Bosses 2 (2014), in which she played a sex-crazed dentist, were among her later features. He’s Just Not That Into You (2009), The Bounty Hunter (2010), The Switch (2010), Just Go with It (2011), and Wanderlust (2011) were all romantic comedies in which Aniston appeared (2012). She plays an exotic dancer who appears as a mother in a conspiracy to import marijuana from Mexico into the United States in We’re the Millers (2013). She played a kidnapped victim in the comedy Life of Crime (2013), which was based on Elmore Leonard’s novel The Switch. Her performance in the gloomy comedy Cake (2014) as a woman devastated by chronic pain was largely regarded as one of her greatest.
With director Peter Bogdanovich’s ensemble farce She’s Funny That Way (2014), in which she portrays a therapist with little professional boundaries, and Garry Marshall’s paean to motherhood, Mother’s Day (2015), Aniston returned to lighter comedic fare (2016). She gave the voice of a busy mother in the animated film Storks (2016). In the Netflix film Dumplin, Aniston played a former beauty queen whose teenage daughter competes in a contest (2018). She later starred alongside Adam Sandler in the comedy Murder Mystery (2019), in which they played a married couple who are accused of murdering a wealthy person. Aniston made guest appearances on TV shows throughout this time, but in 2019, she starred in The Morning Show, which aired on Apple TV+ and also starred Reese Witherspoon.
Aniston also directed one of the five segments of the cable TV movie Five (2011), which focused on women suffering from breast cancer and was one of 100 artists and other public personalities who narrated the documentary film Unity (2015), which explores human existence and interconnectivity.
Aniston’s personal life was frequently in the spotlight, particularly her romances with actors Brad Pitt (whom she married from 2000 to 2005) and Justin Theroux (whom she married in 2015; the couple announced their divorce in 2018).
