Jennifer Aniston Biography

Jennifer Aniston (born on February 11, 1969) is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning American actress. She grew up in Greece, California, and New York City, and began appearing in stage productions in the late 1980s. After several lesser known film and television roles during the early 1990s, Aniston came to fame playing Rachel Green on the highly popular television sitcom Friends. She has since established a film career, having starred in several Hollywood films, including Bruce Almighty and Rumor Has It. Aniston has also become known for her marriage to, and eventual divorce from, actor Brad Pitt, and for her much-rumored subsequent relationship with actor Vince Vaughn.

Biography

Jennifer Aniston was born in Sherman Oaks, California to actor John Aniston (originally Ioannis Anastassakis) and his then-wife Nancy Dow, who was also an actress; she has two half-brothers, John Melick (older) and Alex Aniston, who is younger. Aniston's father is Greek and her mother has Scottish and Italian ancestry. Aniston's godfather was the late Greek American actor Telly Savalas, who was her father's best friend, and Aniston spent some of her childhood in Greece, but most of it in New York City, where her father appeared in the soap operas Love of Life and Search for Tomorrow. In 1985, the family moved to Los Angeles, where Aniston's father starred on the soap opera Days of our Lives.

Aniston attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, and was a member of the drama club; among her high school friends was future human rights activist Chastity Bono. Aniston's desire to become an actress grew as she worked in Off-Broadway productions such as For Dear Life and Dancing on Checker's Grave. During this time, she supported herself with several part time jobs, including working as a telemarketer and bike messenger.

Jennifer Aniston appeared as a "Nutri-System" girl on The Howard Stern Radio Show in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She moved to Hollywood and was cast in her first television roles in 1990, starring as a regular on the short-lived series Molloy and in the TV movie Camp Cucamonga. She also co-starred in Ferris Bueller, a television adaptation of the 1986 teen movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off, the same year; the series was quickly cancelled. Aniston then appeared in two more failed sitcoms, The Edge and Muddling Through, and guest-starred on Quantum Leap, Herman's Head and Burke's Law. After this string of canceled shows, along with her appearance in the critically-derided 1993 horror film, Leprechaun, Aniston seriously considered giving up acting.

Jennifer's plans changed, however, after auditioning for Friends, a sitcom which was set to debut on NBC's 1994-1995 fall line-up. The producers of the show originally wanted Aniston to audition for the role of Monica Geller, but she persuaded them that she was better suited for the role of Rachel Green. She was cast in the role and played the character from 1994 until the show ended in 2004. The program was very successful and Aniston, along with her co-stars, gained wide renown among television watchers. Her hairstyle at the time, which became known as a "Rachel", was widely copied (see also Dido flip). Aniston received a salary of one million dollars per episode for the last three seasons of Friends, as well as five Emmy nominations, including a win for "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series".

Jennifer Aniston has starred in several theatrical films, including the cult hit Office Space. She gained the most critical acclaim for her role in the low-budget 2002 film, The Good Girl, directed by Miguel Arteta, playing an unglamorous cashier in a small town. The filmed opened in just 4 theatres in opening weekend at under 700 in total - taking $14m in the US Box Office. Jennifer's biggest box office success was her appearance in 2003's Bruce Almighty, in which she played the girlfriend of title character (Jim Carrey); the film grossed $243m at the United States box office and almost twice that worldwide. Aniston's 2004 film, Along Came Polly (opposite Ben Stiller), also did well at the box office.

In late 2005, Aniston headlined two major studio films, Derailed and Rumor Has It, both of which performed fairly at the box office, grossing over $30 million each. Derailed earned her much praise for taking a different role and doing it well. In the same year, she appeared in a European Heineken television commercial frequently aired before UEFA Champions League.

Also in 2006, Jennifer Aniston appeared in the low-budget drama, Friends with Money, which received a limited release. This was another low budget film for the star following The Good Girl and Dreams of an Insomniac. Aniston starred in the comedy The Break-Up, which was released on June 2 and grossed approximately $39.17 million during its opening weekend, despite negative reviews. It has currently grossed over $116m at the US box office.

Jennifer is currently slated to star in The Senator's Wife, Wanted and Diary, but none have yet begun filming.

Jennifer Aniston is also rumoured to have agreed to star in Grace and Grit, the film adaptation of the book of the same name by Ken Wilber, regarded by many to be one of the world's most important living philosophers. The book (on which the film will be closely based) tells the true story of Treya Wilber, the wife of Ken Wilber, including her long struggle with cancer, and her eventual death from the disease. It is said that Aniston and her ex-husband Brad Pitt used to find the book, which advocates an Eastern mystical approach to spirituality, set in the context of a cognitive developmental view of consciousness, to be inspirational.

Due to the success of Friends and her obvious good looks and s-- appeal, Aniston quickly became a household name and the primary image that developed of her was through her on screen character Rachel, which was that of a s--y "girl next door" type. Her good girl image on and off the screen led to her being frequently labeled as "America's Sweetheart". This is an image which Aniston has seemed to want to keep, as many of the roles she has taken in movies since Friends portray a similar "good girl" image rather than anything darker or risque, which has led to Aniston also being perceived as quite prudish.

Aniston's status as a style icon and s-- symbol has been constant, with her haircuts and fashion quickly becoming popular and emulated, and her name being constantly featured in many "S--iest Women" lists. She has also appeared in countless photoshoots for many of the top magazines in the world, amassing a large number of male and female admirers. Furthermore, Aniston was declared as having "The most perfect legs in Hollywood" in mid 2006 after an official scientific investigation by electronics giant Braun was completed, beating out fellow Hollywood celebrities such as Jessica Simpson and Christina Aguilera.

In April 2004, she and Brad Pitt went to a fundraiser for Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry. Many other Hollywood stars were present.

Jennifer Aniston has previously dated musician Adam Duritz and was engaged to actor Tate Donovan. Her high-profile relationship with movie star Brad Pitt was frequently publicized in the media. She married Pitt on July 29, 2000, in a lavish Malibu wedding. The two separated on January 7, 2005, and Aniston officially filed for divorce on March 25, 2005. The divorce was finalized on October 2, 2005. Media reports have speculated that the split was due to an extramarital affair on Pitt's part (with actress Angelina Jolie) or due to Aniston's refusal to have children. Aniston vehemently denied this in an August 2005 Vanity Fair interview, stating, "I've never in my life said I didn't want to have children... I've always wanted to have children, and I would never give up that experience for a career. I want to have it all". She has also stated that the loss of her longtime therapist, whose work helped to make the separation from Pitt bearable, more than a year ago was "devastating". Summing up her relationship with Pitt, Aniston has said that their marriage, which she does not regret, was "seven very intense years together" and that "it was a beautiful, complicated relationship". She owns a house in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, in the same town as Brad Pitt.

Since the couple's divorce, Aniston has been romantically linked with well-known actor Vince Vaughn.

On August 2006, Aniston told People Magazine that she and Vince Vaughn were not engaged, despite rumours. She says, ""I'm not engaged and I don't have a ring and I haven't been proposed to."