Jennifer Aniston's Early Life
Born on February 11, 1969, Jennifer grew up in the Los Angeles town of Sherman Oaks to father John Aniston and mother Nancy Dow, both actors. The family settled in New York when she was a child, where her father won a part on the soap opera, Days Of Our Lives, the part that made him a daytime legend.
Her parents divorced in 1980 and she grew up discouraged from watching television while her father was on. She began her career with small off-Broadway productions throughout the late '80s. She made appearances in critically panned movies like 1988's Mac and Me and 1993's Leprechaun, which she has called her "worst role."
Jennifer Aniston's Career
Jennifer achieved worldwide fame in 1994 when she was cast as Rachel Green in the NBC sitcom Friends, opposite Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer. The show proved to be a phenomenon, as did her signature hairdo "The Rachel," running for 10 seasons. By the time the finale rolled around in 2004, each of the main cast members was being paid $1 million per episode.
Friends made Jennifer the ideal "quirky yet beautiful girl next door," a part she emulated in several of the film projects she took on since the show, including Bruce Almighty (2003), The Break-Up (2006), Just Go With It (2011), We're the Millers (2013), and Murder Mystery (2019).
She was able to play against type and earn critical acclaim for movies like The Good Girl (2002), Horrible Bosses (2011), and Cake (2014). After a 15 year hiatus from television, she returned in 2019 to executive produce and star in the Apple TV+ series The Morning Show, which nabbed her a SAG Award. She has since also launched her own haircare line, Lolavie.
Jennifer Aniston's Personal Life
The actress' personal life has always been highly publicized. In 1998, she met Brad Pitt, and their relationship was the talk of Hollywood. They married in 2000 and were seen as the ultimate "power couple" till their separation and divorce nearly five years later in 2005.
While she was rumored to be dating other co-stars after her divorce, she found love once again with Justin Theroux in 2011. They announced their engagement in 2012 and got married three years later. However, in 2017, they announced their separation as well, although have remained close friends since.
Jennifer remains one of the most beloved Hollywood celebrities, to the point that when she joined Instagram after years of aversion in 2019, she broke the record for the fastest time to hit one million followers (doing so in a little over five hours), and even broke the app.
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