page_title: Jennifer Aniston
section_title: Friends and breakout (1994–2004)
hierarchical_section_title: Jennifer Aniston / Career / Friends and breakout (1994–2004)
caption_attribution_description: Jennifer Aniston at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival
context_page_description: 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 major film role came in the 1993 horror comedy Leprechaun. Since her career grew in the early 1990s, Aniston has been one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood. Aniston is of Greek descent.
  Aniston rose to international fame portraying Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends, for which she earned Primetime Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild awards. The character became widely popular and was described as one of the greatest female characters in American television history. Aniston has since played starring roles in numerous dramas, comedies and romantic comedies. Her biggest box office successes include the films Bruce Almighty, The Break-Up, Marley & Me, Just Go with It, Horrible Bosses, and We're the Millers, each of which grossed over $200 million in worldwide box office receipts. Some of her most critically acclaimed film roles include Office Space, The Good Girl, Friends with Money, Cake, and Dumplin'.
context_section_description: Depressed over her four unsuccessful television shows, Aniston approached Warren Littlefield at a Los Angeles gas station asking for reassurance. The head of NBC entertainment encouraged her to continue acting, and a few months later helped cast her for Friends, a sitcom that was set to debut on NBC's 1994–1995 fall lineup. The producer originally wanted Aniston to audition for the role of Monica Geller, but Courteney Cox was considered more suitable. Thus, Aniston was cast as Rachel Green. She was also offered a spot as a featured player on Saturday Night Live, but turned it down to do Friends. She played Rachel until the show ended in 2004.
  The program was successful and Aniston, along with her co-stars, gained worldwide recognition among television viewers. Her character was widely popular and was later recognized as one of the greatest female characters in American television. The actress received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations (two for Supporting Actress, three for Lead Actress), including a win for Lead Actress. She was also nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and won in 2003 as Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Aniston (along with her female co-stars) became the highest-paid television actress of all time with her $1 million-per-episode paycheck for the final season of Friends. Her character's relationship with Ross Geller, portrayed by David Schwimmer in the show, was widely popular among audiences, and the couple was frequently voted as television's favorite couple in polls and magazines.
  Following a four-year hiatus, Aniston returned to film work in 1996, when she performed in the ensemble cast of romantic comedy She's the One. Aniston's first starring vehicle was Picture Perfect (1997), in which she played a struggling young advertising executive opposite Kevin Bacon and Jay Mohr. While the film received mixed reviews, it was a moderate commercial success, and Aniston's performance was more warmly received, with many critics suggesting that she had screen presence. In 1998, she appeared as a woman who falls for a gay man (played by Paul Rudd) in the romantic comedy The Object of My Affection, and the next year she starred as a restaurant waitress in the cult film Office Space.
  
  She starred in the independent dramedy The Good Girl (2002) as an unglamorous cashier who cheats on her husband. The film was a commercial success in limited release, taking in over $14 million in North America. Film critic Roger Ebert declared it her breakthrough: 
  After languishing in a series of overlooked movies that ranged from the entertaining Office Space to the disposable Picture Perfect, Jennifer Aniston has at last decisively broken with her Friends image in an independent film of satiric fire and emotional turmoil. It will no longer be possible to consider her in the same way.
  Aniston's biggest commercial success in film has been the comedy Bruce Almighty (2003), in which she played the girlfriend of a television field reporter (Jim Carrey) offered the chance to be God for one week. With a worldwide box office gross of $484 million, the film was the fifth-highest-grossing big screen production of the year. Aniston next starred as the old classmate of a tightly-wound newly-wed in the romantic comedy Along Came Polly (2004), opposite Ben Stiller, which placed number one at the North American box office, earning $27.7 million in its opening weekend; it eventually made $172 million globally.
caption: Aniston at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival
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