Jennifer Joanna Aniston is an American actress, film producer, and businesswoman. The daughter of actors John Aniston and Nancy Dow, she began working as an actress at an early age with an uncredited role in the 1987 film Mac and Me; her first significant film role came in the 1993 horror-comedy Leprechaun.
Since her career progressed in the 1990s, she has become one of the world’s highest-paid actresses. Films with her in the leading role have grossed over $1.6 billion worldwide, with 12 of them earning at least $100 million.
Aniston rose to international fame for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends (1994–2004), for which she earned Primetime Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild awards. She has since played starring roles in numerous dramas, comedies and romantic comedies. Her biggest box office successes 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), each of which grossed over $200 million in worldwide box office receipts. Some of her most critically acclaimed film roles include Office Space (1999), The Good Girl (2002), Friends with Money (2006), Cake (2014), and Dumplin’ (2018). She returned to television in 2019, producing and starring in the Apple TV+ drama series The Morning Show, for which she won another Screen Actors Guild Award.
Aniston has been included in numerous magazines’ lists of the world’s most beautiful women. Her net worth is estimated as $300 million. She is the recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is the co-founder of the production company Echo Films, established in 2008. She has been married twice: first to actor Brad Pitt, with whom she was married for five years, and later to actor Justin Theroux, whom she married in 2015 and separated from in 2017.
Early Life
Aniston was born on February 11, 1969, in the Sherman Oaks neighbourhood of Los Angeles to Greek-born actor John Aniston and actress Nancy Dow. One of her maternal great-grandfathers, Louis Grieco, was from Italy. Her mother’s other ancestry includes English, Irish, Scottish, and a small amount of Greek. Her father’s ancestry is from the Greek island of Crete. Aniston has two half-brothers: John Melick, her older maternal half-brother, and Alex Aniston, her younger paternal half-brother. Her godfather was actor Telly Savalas, one of her father’s best friends.
As a child, she moved to New York City. Despite her father’s television career, she was discouraged from watching television, though she found ways around the prohibition. When she was six, she began attending a Waldorf school. Her parents divorced when she was nine.
Having discovered acting at age 11 at the Waldorf school, Aniston enrolled in Manhattan’s Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where she joined the school’s drama society and where Anthony Abeson was her drama teacher. She performed in The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window by Lorraine Hansberry and Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov.
Quick Facts
- Full Name: Jennifer Joanna Aniston
- Nicknames: Jen, Jenny
- Born: February 11, 1969
- Birth Place: Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California, US
- Height: 5′ 4½” (1.64 m)
- Spouse: Justin Theroux (m. 2015–2017), Brad Pitt (m. 2000–2005)
- Siblings: Alex Aniston, John T. Melick
- Parents: Nancy Dow, John Aniston
Personal Life
She was married to Brad Pitt from 2000 until they divorced in 2005. They acted together in the episode “The One with the Rumor” on Friends. She began a relationship with Justin Theroux in 2011. The couple married in 2015 in Bel Air, Los Angeles.
On February 15, 2018, Aniston and Theroux announced separating after two years of marriage and seven years as a couple.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Mac and Me | Dancer in McDonald’s | Uncredited |
| 1993 | Leprechaun | Tory Reding | |
| 1996 | She’s the One | Renee Fitzpatrick | |
| 1996 | Dream for an Insomniac | Allison | |
| 1997 | ‘Til There Was You | Debbie | |
| 1997 | Picture Perfect | Kate Mosley | |
| 1998 | The Thin Pink Line | Clove | |
| 1998 | Waiting for Woody | Herself | Short film |
| 1998 | The Object of My Affection | Nina Borowski | |
| 1999 | Office Space | Joanna | |
| 1999 | The Iron Giant | Annie Hughes (voice) | |
| 2001 | Rock Star | Emily Poule | |
| 2002 | The Good Girl | Justine Last | |
| 2003 | Bruce Almighty | Grace Connelly | |
| 2004 | Along Came Polly | Polly Prince | |
| 2005 | Derailed | Lucinda Harris / Jane | |
| 2005 | Rumor Has It | Sarah Huttinger | |
| 2006 | Friends with Money | Olivia | |
| 2006 | Room 10 | Co-Director | Short film |
| 2006 | The Break-Up | Brooke Meyers | |
| 2008 | Marley & Me | Jenny Grogan | |
| 2008 | Burma: It Can’t Wait | Producer | Short film |
| 2008 | Management | Sue Claussen | Also executive producer |
| 2009 | He’s Just Not That into You | Beth Murphy | |
| 2009 | Love Happens | Eloise Chandler | |
| 2010 | The Bounty Hunter | Nicole Hurley | |
| 2010 | The Switch | Kassie Larson | Also executive producer |
| 2011 | Just Go with It | Katherine Murphy / Devlin Maccabee | |
| 2011 | Horrible Bosses | Dr. Julia Harris | |
| 2012 | Wanderlust | Linda Gergenblatt | |
| 2012 | $ellebrity | Herself | Documentary film |
| 2013 | We’re the Millers | Sarah “Rose” O’Reilly | |
| 2013 | Life of Crime | Margaret “Mickey” Dawson | Also executive producer |
| 2014 | Horrible Bosses 2 | Dr. Julia Harris | |
| 2014 | She’s Funny That Way | Jane Claremont | |
| 2014 | Cake | Claire Simmons | Also executive producer |
| 2014 | Journey to Sundance | Herself | Documentary film |
| 2015 | Unity | Narrator | |
| 2016 | Mother’s Day | Sandy Newhouse | |
| 2016 | Storks | Sarah Gardner (voice) | |
| 2016 | Office Christmas Party | Carol Vanstone | |
| 2017 | The Yellow Birds | Maureen Murphy | Also executive producer |
| 2018 | Dumplin’ | Rosie Dickson | Also executive producer |
| 2019 | Murder Mystery | Audrey Spitz | Also executive producer |
External Links
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