Jen Aniston, that girl from Los Angeles born on February 11, 1969, is a true star. We all know her as Rachel from “Friends” – a role that gave her not only an Emmy and a Golden Globe but also the hearts of fans around the world. But Jennifer is not just Rachel. In Hollywood, she mainly stars in comedies, showing that she has not only the talent to capture hearts but also to provoke bursts of laughter.
BIOGRAPHY
Early Years
She was born in LA, in the Sherman Oaks district. Her father, John Aniston, was also an actor, even having roles in some popular soap operas. Jen’s mother, Nancy Dow, was from New York and had Italian-Scottish-Irish roots. Her parents divorced when Jen was 9 years old. Her childhood was somewhat average.
As a child, Jen spent a year in Greece with her parents. They later moved to New York. There, Jen first attended a Rudolf Steiner School, and then the well-known LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. After graduating from LaGuardia, she played in various off-Broadway shows. To make ends meet, she also worked part-time in a call center, as a bike messenger, and as a waitress. In 1989, she returned to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.
Career
When Jenny arrived in Hollywood, she first got some pitiful, small roles in some series and films that no one remembers today. She appeared in “Molloy,” “Camp Cucamonga,” and in other small productions that had rather poor ratings and not very good viewership.
In ’92 she played one of the main characters in a low-budget fantasy horror film called “Leprechaun.” But it wasn’t a breakthrough, as the film received crushing reviews from critics and turned out to be a total flop. At that time, Jenny seriously thought about changing professions and throwing acting to the wind.
During that period, Jenny also began to appear in big-screen movies, not just series. She even gathered quite good reviews for roles in productions like “The Object of My Affection” from 1998 and the low-budget film “The Good Girl” from 2002.
Her first big box-office hit was “Bruce Almighty” in 2003, where she starred alongside Jim Carrey. Later, in 2004, the film “Along Came Polly” with Ben Stiller turned out to be a significant success.
In 2005, Jenny tried her hand at a more serious role in the thriller “Derailed,” but it was a flop, a failure across the board. So she quickly returned to comedic roles and later starred in such hits as “Rumor Has It” and “The Break-Up,” which made big money.
Later in 2008 came another Christmas comedy with Jenny, “Marley & Me,” where she starred with Owen Wilson. And a year later, another romantic comedy “He’s Just Not That Into You,” which had mixed reviews but still topped the box office.
And that’s a brief overview of her film career.
Nonetheless, she decided to try that famous “one last time” and went to an audition for a new comedy series that NBC was planning to make. It was to be called “Friends.” Initially, she got the role of Monica, but the producers decided that Courteney Cox would be better for it. And so, Jenny ultimately got the role of Rachel. And it was a bullseye.
PRIVATE LIFE
She dated musician Adam Duritz and actor Tate Donovan, and was even engaged to him. But in May ’98, she bumped into Brad Pitt on a blind date. Sparks flew immediately, and they became a power couple in showbiz. They took a lavish wedding in July 2000, in a super villa in Malibu, said to belong to the producer of “Friends.” They spent a million dollars on the whole ceremony.
Everyone thought that was it, you know, the perfect Hollywood marriage. But it didn’t last long because, in January 2005, they announced they were separating. And although they were later seen together, in March of the same year, Aniston gave him a free hand, filed for divorce, and by October it was all over.
She says she doesn’t regret that relationship, but interestingly, rumors say it all fell apart due to Pitt’s affair with Angelina Jolie on the set of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.” Pitt denies that anything happened while they were married, and Jolie initially denied it too, but later admitted it.
In 2006 she started dating Vince Vaughn from the comedy “The Break-Up.” But that didn’t last long either, as they said “goodbye” after less than a year, but on the terms of ‘let’s stay friends,’ all casual.
Then rumors circulated that she had a fleeting romance with the British model, Paul Sculfor. And in 2008, she became involved in a somewhat more controversial romance with musician John Mayer. The press went crazy over them. Even when they briefly cooled things off in 2008, they still claimed in interviews that they were together.
At the Oscars in 2009, they officially appeared together. It was the first time she went public with a new man since her divorce from Pitt. But as it happens, what was tied to her soon untied because two weeks later, they announced their split again.
She is the godmother to Coco Riley, daughter of Courteney Cox from “Friends.”
In 2015, she married Justin Theroux, also an actor. It seemed serious, as they stayed together until 2018, when they announced their separation, and in the same year, they went through a divorce.