Jennifer Aniston, most popularly known for her portrayal of ‘Rachel Greene’ on the wildly popular TV sitcom Friends, is a successful Hollywood actress with many movies and awards to her name.

Quick Facts

Nickname: Jen, Jenny

Date of Birth: 11^th February, 1969

Place of Birth:  Sherman Oaks, California

Origin: Greek, Italian and Scottish-Canadian

Profession: Actress

Known for: Her role in the sitcom “Friends”

Website: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000098/

Childhood and Growing Years

Jennifer Joanna Aniston was born to John Aniston and Nancy Dow, both of whom were actors. She lived in Greece for a year during childhood, and spent most of her later years in New York. She grew up in an actor’s household, so it was only natural for her to become interested in the profession as well. Her godfather, Telly Savalas, was an actor too. Her parents got divorced when she was only 9 years old, and she was raised by her mother. She enrolled in the Rudolf Steiner School and actively involved in the activities of the drama club there. It was here that she developed her interest in art as well. She then went on to graduate from the New York’s School of Performing Arts. She started appearing in Off Broadway shows, like Dancing on Checker’s Grave and For Dear Life after graduation in 1987. She worked as a waitress, worked a telemarketing gig and even as a bike messenger in order to support her acting career. She relocated to Los Angeles in 1989.

Claim to Fame

In 1989, she landed her first recurring role on a television series Molloy (1989). She also had appearances in Ferris Bueller (1990), Herman’s Head (1991) and The Edge (1992). Her acting career truly took off in 1994, when she auditioned and bagged the role of ‘Rachel Greene’ in the sitcom Friends. She was initially invited to audition for the role of Monica, but she felt she would be better suited to play the role of Rachel, and auditioned for this instead.

With the success of Friends, Aniston gained recognition worldwide, and was nominated for, and also won a range of awards for her performance on the show. She made her foray into films as well, making her debut with Leprechaun in 1992, which was not very well received. She then took a 4-year hiatus from films until 1996, where she played supporting roles in a few movies. Her first movie Picture Perfect (1997) featuring her in a lead role, did not do well at the Box Office, but her performance in the movie was noticed and appreciated. She started doing movies on a regular basis after that, some of her best known performances being in Office Space (1999) and The Object of my Affection (1998), both of which were light comedy movies which did well at the box office. One of her biggest box office hits was in the movie Bruce Almighty (2003) starring opposite Jim Carrey. During all this time, she continued filming for the sitcom Friends, which was doing quite well commercially, and went on for ten seasons from 1994-2004. She was one of the highest paid TV actresses of all time, earning $1 million for every episode filmed in the last 2 seasons of Friends.

After this she had a spat of hits, starring in movies like Along came Polly (2005), Derailed (2005), Rumour Has It (2005). She also starred opposite Owen Wilson in the movie Marley and Me in 2008, which set a record for ticket sales during a Christmas Weekend Release.

Presently

She is currently in a relationship with actor-director Justin Theroux, and is currently living in a 2 bedroom rented apartment in Hollywood Hills. She has recently sold her Beverly Hills home for around $38 million. She has a movie, Wanderlust, slated for release in 2012.

Awards and Nominations

She has won numerous awards during her career, and most of these are for her role in the TV sitcom Friends. She won a Screen Actors Guild Award, an Emmy, as well as a Golden Globe for her role as Rachel in Friends. She has also won a slew of People’s Choice awards and Editor’s Choice awards and Teen Choice Awards for the same.

She also won a Teen Choice award for her role in the movie The Good Girl. (2002)

Personal Quotes

“I always say don’t make plans, make options.”

“I don’t have a religion. I believe in a God. I don’t know what it looks like but it’s MY god. My own interpretation of the supernatural.”

“I guess we’d be living in a boring, perfect world if everybody wished everybody else well.”

“Once you figure out who you are and what you love about yourself, I think it all kinda falls into place.”

“Really try to follow what it is that you want to do and what your heart is telling you to do.”