Jennifer Aniston: A Biography
Posted by Administrator on January 31st, 2006
Jennifer Aniston is one of America’s most talked about actresses. Born on February 11, 1969 in Sherman Oaks, California, her parents are the actors Nancy Dow and John Aniston (originally Yannis Anastasakis, he is probably best know for his role on the soap opera Days of Our Lives as Victor Kiriakis).
When she was nine, Jennifer’s parents split up and she was raised by her mother. Jennifer spent a bit of her childhood living in her father’s native country of Greece, but she was raised mostly in New York, and then in Los Angeles. Jennifer is of Italian, Greek, Scottish and English descent.
Jennifer first began acting when she was just 11 years old, joining the Rudolf Steiner School’s drama club. She started training professionally at the prestigious High School of the Performing Arts in New York. After she graduated the school in 1987, Jennifer appeared in some off-broadway productions, such as “Dancing on Checker’s Grave” and “For Dear Life”. She landed her first role on TV in 1989 as a regular on the series Molloy. She also had roles in “Leprechaun”, “The Edge”, “Herman’s Head”, “Sunday Funnies”, “Camp Cucamonga” and the “Ferris Bueller” television series.
While she could get some roles, it wasn’t enough to live on, so in between roles she worked as a telemarketer and a waitress (which is ironic, considering that many of her characters are waitresses). It was hard, but she got by. In 1994 she auditioned for a pilot called “Friends like These” and the rest is history. Simplified to Friends, the show was an instant success that launched her career and left her in the public’s psyche forever as the beautiful waitress Rachel Green.