Jennifer Aniston Biography

news-details Known for her magnetic charm and whip-smart comic timing which easily work their way to capture every audience's attention, Jennifer Joanna Aniston has no doubt emerged to be one of the most prominent Hollywood actresses of her generation. Coming from a showbiz family, Jen was born on February 11, 1969 in Sherman Oaks, California as the only daughter of model/actress Nancy Dow and actor John Aniston whose name originally was Ioannis Anastassakis. Though inherits the Greek blood from her father, she never carries his initial surname since her grandfather had anglicized it to Aniston when he immigrated to the States around 1930s. As a young child, the girl spent most of her early life in New York after previously lived in Greece for one year to then attend Rudolf Steiner School's drama club where she began flourishing an interest in acting. This growing passion for the field subsequently led her to enroll in Manhattan's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts at the age of 15.

By the time Jen encountered her graduation from the institution in 1987, her desire to perform professionally became really hard to resist that she finally concluded not to continue her education to university. Started her journey with performances in off-Broadway productions of "For Dear Life" also "Dancing on Checkers Grave", the teen soon realized that she needed better roles to strive and so headed for L.A by 1989 hoping to encounter some of those. At first, good jobs came quickly as she managed to land a regular part in TV series of "Molloy" and "Ferris Bueller" followed by a TV movie debut in "Camp Cucamonga" which all aired in 1990. The next few years, nevertheless, was quite a tough period for the struggling actress when "The Edge" (1992-1993), the comedy show she joined in, was cancelled after one season while her first big screen project, "Leprechaun" (1993), received poor result both critically and commercially.

In her effort to find a way out from the gloom situation, Jen boldly entered the audition for a pilot show of a new NBC sitcom called "Friends" set to debut in fall 1994. Initially plotted to do the test for the role of Monica Geller, she instead persuaded the series' producers to give her a try for that of Rachel Green and satisfyingly left such a deep impression on them that they eventually agreed to let her have the part. With her fine comedic skills supported by those of Courteney Cox's, David Schwimmer's, Lisa Kudrow's, Matt LeBlanc's, plus Matthew Perry's, the program amazingly turned out to be a huge success around the country, even the world, garnering millions viewers on its episode broadcast each. This superb result consequently catapulted the charming blonde to vast recognition for sure while at the same time brought her larger access to the film industry as well, beginning with Edward Burns' "She's the One" (1996).

Took every spare time she had to be involved in silver screen production during her stints in "Friends", Jen passed the rest of 1990s quite smoothly as two of her movies namely "Picture Perfect" (1997) and "The Object of My Affection" (1998) pleasantly scored well in the box-office. However, it was in the first half of 2000s that the striking star truly encountered her golden age, notably due to the numerous prestigious accolades she garnered through her performance in "Friends." Worth to be noted was her attainment in securing Emmys nomination for the category of Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 5 consecutive years from 2000 to 2004, taking home one in 2002. Adding to it, there were nods in that of Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series at the 2002 and 2003 SAG Awards and particularly, a Golden Globe Award of Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy in 2003.

Honors aside, Jen's film career also went increasingly high in that time being for she fabulously made her way to earn critical praise through her great portrayal in "The Good Girl" (2002) while enjoying tremendous commercial outcome of her subsequent comedy pictures, "Bruce Almighty" (2003) and "Along Came Polly" (2004). This achievement certainly cemented her status as a potential A-list movie star and by the time "Friends" came to its end by May 2004, the actress really found no difficulty to make full transition into the wide-screen feature. While the year 2005 saw her appearing in "Derailed" plus "Rumor Has It", 2006 turned out to be a prolific year for her indeed with the releases of "Friends with Money", "The Break-Up", "The Senator's Wife", and "Diary." Afterwards slated to act alongside Meryl Streep in "Wanted" (2007), it seems the road to maintain her status in the industry is still velvety enough to undergo then.

Shifting the subject into her love life, Jen's involvement in romantic relationship has also received much exposure just like her interesting journey in show business, especially when she hooked up with Hollywood hunk Brad Pitt in late 1990s. Previously dated Adam Duritz of Counting Crows and actor Tate Donovan, this attractive star finally married Pitt on July 29, 2000 in a lavish Malibu wedding, thereby becoming one of Hollywood's golden couples people ever talked throughout the year for sure. Sadly, the knot only lasted for about 5 years as the twosome shockingly announced their separation on January 7, 2005. Amidst heavy media speculations about the reasons behind the split which revolved around Pitt's affair with Angelina Jolie and her refusal to have children that she strongly denied, the divorce paper ultimately was finalized by October 2, 2005. Following this, reports on her romancing her "Break-Up" co-star Vince Vaughn were circulating around, but both Jen and the actor have not yet confirmed the tidings though they were often spotted together in many occasions. There it was, after months of chatter and speculation, representatives for both parties officially confirmed in December 2006 that Jen and Vince had split up, but remained friends.

In 2007, Jenn was reported to be dating British model Paul Sculfor.