Jennifer Aniston

Jennifer Joanna Aniston (born February 11, 1969) is an American actress, filmmaker, and businesswoman. She gained worldwide recognition for portraying Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends (1994–2004), a role which earned her an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2012, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Additionally, Men's Health magazine voted Aniston the "Sexiest Woman of All Time". Aniston has also enjoyed a successful film career. She has played the female protagonist in dozens of romantic comedy films. Her greatest box office hits include Bruce Almighty (2003), The Break-Up (2006), Marley & Me (2008), Just Go with It (2011), Horrible Bosses (2011) and We're the Millers (2013), all of which have grossed over $200 million in the United States. One of her most critically acclaimed roles was in The Good Girl (2002), for which she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead. She is the co-founder of the production company Echo Films. Early life Jennifer Aniston was born on February 11, 1969, in Los Angeles, California to actors John Aniston and Nancy Dow. Her father is Greek and a native of Crete, while her mother was born in New York City. One of her maternal great-grandfathers was an Italian immigrant, and her mother's other ancestry is Scottish, Irish, and a small amount of Greek. Aniston has two half-brothers, John Melick, her maternal older half-brother, and Alex Aniston, her younger paternal half-brother. Aniston's godfather was actor Telly Savalas, one of her father's best friends. As a child, Aniston lived in Greece for a year with her family. They moved to Eddystone, Pennsylvania, then to New York City. Despite her father's television career, Aniston was discouraged 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. During that time, Aniston's father and mother split when she was nine years old. Meanwhile, after discovering acting at eleven while attending Rudolf Steiner, Aniston enrolled and graduated at Manhattan's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where she joined the school's drama society. Career Aniston worked in Off Broadway productions such as For Dear Life and Dancing on Checker's Grave, and supported herself with several part-time jobs, which included working as a telemarketer, waitress, and bike messenger. In 1989, Aniston moved back to Los Angeles. Aniston was cast in her first television role 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 movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The series, however, was quickly canceled. Aniston started segueing into film roles. She made her film debut in 1993's Leprechaun, which was negatively reviewed by critics, but was commercially successful and gained a cult following. After the string of canceled shows, along with her appearance in the critically derided 1993 horror film Leprechaun, Aniston reportedly considered giving up acting. Aniston's plans changed, however, after auditioning for Friends, a sitcom that was set to debut on NBC's 1994–1995 fall lineup. The producers of the show originally wanted Aniston to audition for the role of Monica Geller, but Courteney Cox was considered to be better suited to the role. Thus, Aniston was cast as Rachel Green. She played the character of Rachel from 1994 until the show ended in 2004. The program was successful and Aniston, along with her co-stars, gained world-wide reputation among television viewers. Aniston received a salary of $1 million per episode for the last two seasons of Friends, as well as five Emmy nominations (two for Supporting Actress, three for Lead Actress), including a win for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. According to the Guinness World Book of Records (2005), Aniston (along with her female costars) became the highest paid TV actress of all time with her $1 million-per-episode paycheck for the tenth season of Friends. In the media Wealth In 2007, Forbes rated Aniston as one of the top 10 richest women in entertainment and estimated her net worth to be about $110 million. Aniston was also included in the annual Star Salary Top 10 of trade magazine The Hollywood Reporter for 2006. According to Forbes, in October 2007, Aniston was the top-selling celebrity face of the entertainment industry. She was also Hollywood's most profitable actress. Aniston has been on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list, based on "earnings and fame", every year since 2001, topping the list in 2003. For the year of 2008, Forbes listed Aniston's earnings as $27 million. Public image ​In 2005, Aniston became the first-ever GQ Woman of the Year. She has frequently appeared on People's annual list of The Most Beautiful, and came in at number one in 2004. She also topped the magazine's Best Dressed List in 2006. She has been a regular on FHMs 100 Sexiest Women list since 1996, ranking at number 79 in 2012, number 81 in 2010, number 24 in 2009 and number 27 in 2008. In 2011 The Telegraph reported the most sought after body parts of the rich and famous revealed by two Hollywood plastic surgeons who carried out a survey among their patients to build up the picture of what the perfect woman would look like. Under the category of the most sought after body shape Aniston was voted in the top three alongside Gisele Bündchen and Penélope Cruz. In the same year, readers of Men's Health magazine voted Aniston the "Sexiest Woman of All Time" Personal life Aniston has previously dated musician Adam Duritz, and was engaged to actor Tate Donovan. Her high-profile relationship with actor Brad Pitt was frequently publicized in the press. She married Pitt on July 29, 2000, in a lavish Malibu wedding. For a few years, their marriage was considered the rare Hollywood success. But on January 7, 2005 they announced their separation. A divorce was finalized on October 2, 2005. During this period there was intense speculation in the media that Pitt had been unfaithful to Aniston with his Mr. & Mrs. Smith co-star, Angelina Jolie. In the following months, the public's reaction towards the divorce was reported in the press. The story became the headline news of media shows such as Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood, and made the front-pages of tabloid magazines for years. "Team Aniston" and "Team Jolie" T-shirts appeared, with "Team Aniston" shirts out-selling the "Team Jolie" shirts four to one. Media reports speculated that the split was due to Aniston's refusal to have children with him. Aniston denied that this was the cause of their split in an August 2005 Vanity Fair interview, stating, "... I've always wanted to have children, and I would never again give up that experience for a career." Aniston also revealed that her divorce prompted her to reach out to her mother, Nancy, from whom she was estranged for nearly a decade. They initially became estranged when Nancy talked about her daughter on a television show and later wrote a book entitled, From Mother and Daughter to Friends: A Memoir (1999). Aniston has also stated she was devastated by the death of her longtime therapist, whose work helped make her separation from Pitt easier. Aniston said her relationship with Pitt, which she does not regret, was "seven very intense years together" and that "it was a beautiful, complicated relationship". Aniston has been having a relationship with actor Justin Theroux since May 2011. In January 2012, Aniston and Theroux purchased a home in Los Angeles's Bel-Air neighborhood for roughly $22 million. On August 12, 2012, Aniston and Theroux announced their engagement.