Jennifer Aniston

Aniston was born in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California, and grew up in New York City. She is the daughter of the actor John Aniston and actress Nancy Dow. Aniston has two half-brothers, John Melick (older) and Alex Aniston (younger). Aniston's father is a Greek American born on the island of Crete, Greece, while her mother was born in New York City. Aniston's godfather was the late actor Telly Savalas, her father's best friend. Aniston lived in Greece for one year as a child with her family, and they later relocated to New York City. Her father has appeared in the soap operas Days of Our Lives, Love of Life and Search for Tomorrow. Aniston attended the New York Rudolf Steiner School and graduated from Manhattan's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. Among her high school friends was future gay 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. In 1989, she moved to Los Angeles, California.

Aniston moved to Hollywood and 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 hit movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The series, however, was quickly canceled. Aniston then appeared in two more failed television comedy shows, The Edge and Muddling Through, and guest-starred on Quantum Leap, Herman's Head, Burke's Law, and on South Park (in episode Rainforest Schmainforest). After the string of cancelled shows, along with her appearance in the critically derided 1992 horror film, Leprechaun, Aniston 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 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 hugely successful and Aniston, along with her co-stars, gained wide renown among television viewers. Her hairstyle at the time, which became known as the "Rachel", was widely copied. Aniston received a salary of one million dollars per episode for the last two seasons of Friends, as well as five Emmy nominations, 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 1994, Microsoft invited Aniston, along with comedian Matthew Perry, to shoot a 30-minute promotional advertisement for their new operating system, Windows 95.

In addition to her career as a TV actress, Aniston has enjoyed a successful film career. Her biggest box office success to date 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 after opening at the #1 spot.

She gained considerable critical acclaim for her performances in The Object of My Affection (1998), a comedy drama about a girl who falls for a gay man, and in the low-budget 2002 film, The Good Girl, directed by Miguel Arteta, playing an unglamorous cashier in a small town. The latter film opened in relatively few theaters - under 700 in total - taking $14M in the U.S. 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 $36 million each despite little support from critics.

In 2006, Aniston appeared in the low-budget drama, Friends with Money, which was first shown at the Cannes Film Festival, received a limited release, and grossed over $13 million. Aniston's next film, The Break-Up, which was released on June 2, grossed approximately $39.17 million during its opening weekend, despite lukewarm reviews. It has currently grossed over $118 million at the U.S. box office and over $203 million worldwide.

In 2007, Aniston guest starred in an episode of Courteney Cox Arquette's series Dirt. Aniston played Arquette's snobby rival Tina Harrod.

In addition to acting, Aniston has also directed a hospital emergency room-set short film named Room 10, starring Robin Wright Penn and Kris Kristofferson; Aniston has noted that she was inspired to direct by actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who directed a short film in 2006.

Forbes listed Aniston as the 10th richest woman in the entertainment industry for the year 2007. She is behind such powerhouses as Oprah Winfrey, J. K. Rowling, Madonna, Celine Dion and Jennifer Lopez and is ahead of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and the Olsen twins. Aniston's net worth is approximately $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.

Aniston has previously dated musician Adam Duritz, and dated/lived with 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 years their marriage was considered the rare Hollywood success, however rumors began circulating their relationship was on the rocks when Pitt showed up to his Ocean's 12 premiere without his wife. In early January 2005, the couple was seen vacationing in the Caribbean with her "Friends" co-star Courteney Cox and her husband, actor David Arquette, and photos on the beach showed them kissing and affectionate. They shocked their fans several days later when they announced their separation on January 7, 2005. Rumors that Pitt had fallen for actress Angelina Jolie began when they were filming the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Jolie and Pitt both denied any claims of adultery, with Jolie declaring in an interview in 2005, "To be intimate with a married man, when my own father cheated on my mother, is not something I could forgive. I could not look at myself in the morning if I did that. I wouldn't be attracted to a man who would cheat on his wife." Pitt and Aniston were seen together publicly after announcing their separation, even at a dinner party for her 36th birthday in February, and friends of the couple had declared they were reconciling. However, Aniston officially filed for divorce on March 25, 2005 which was finalized on October 2, 2005.

Media reports have speculated that the split was due to Aniston's refusal to have children; t-shirts were being sold right after their separation with the phrase "I'll Have Your Baby, Brad!" splashed across the front. Even actress Eva Longoria was seen out shopping wearing an "I'll Have Your Baby, Brad!" t-shirt and later, upon learning that Aniston was hurt by this, sent a public apology. Aniston vehemently denied this was the cause of their split later on 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." Aniston also revealed that her divorce prompted her to reach out to her mother, from whom she was estranged for nearly a decade. They initially became estranged when Nancy talked about her daughter on a TV show and later wrote a book titled From Mother and Daughter to Friends: A Memoir (1999).

She has also stated that she was devastated by the death of her longtime therapist, whose work helped to make the separation from Pitt easier. Summing up her relationship with Pitt, Aniston has said that their relationship, which she does not regret, was "seven very intense years together" and that "it was a beautiful, complicated relationship."

Since the couple's divorce, Aniston has been romantically linked with actor Vince Vaughn. In August 2006, Aniston denied rumors that the two were engaged or that Vaughn had proposed. In October 2006, gossip magazine Us Weekly quoted sources from Vaughn that the couple had broken up. In December 2006, representatives for both Aniston and Vaughn confirmed that they had indeed split up a few weeks before when Aniston visited Vaughn in London.

She has had two septoplasties which she maintains were to thin her deviated septum � one incorrectly done in 1994 and one in early 2007. This is a simple medical procedure that helps cure a common condition that can lead to breathing difficulty and trouble sleeping. However, the press has speculated that these procedures were actually cosmetic.