Star of the big and small screens Jennifer Aniston celebrates her birthday today – but how much do you know about the iconic Friends star?
Jennifer Aniston is an icon to generations of fans thanks to her role as Rachel Green in Friends. While the show ran from 1994-2004, it has gained millions of new fans since then as new generations have discovered the evergreen show on repeats on network TV or on streaming.
But Jennifer has had a hugely successful career post-Friends, starring in a range of hit movies and TV shows, from Horrible Bosses to The Morning Show over the past couple of decades.
But how much do you know about Jennifer Aniston? Here are some facts about her that you might not know.
Jennifer is from an acting family
That Jennifer became an actress is perhaps unsurprising, given that her parents, John Aniston and Nancy Dow, were both in showbusiness. John is best known for playing Victor Kiriakis on NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives – a role he had for 37 years, on and off, from 1985.
Meanwhile Nancy was not as successful, having several roles in the 1960s, then her last role was in 2004.
Jennifer is dyslexic
In common with about 10% of the population, Jennifer has dyslexia. However, when she was a child, the condition wasn’t well known or understood, so it wasn’t until she reached her twenties that the condition was diagnosed. Once diagnosed, she could understand her struggles with reading and traditional education.
Jennifer struggled early in her career
Jennifer was catapulted to worldwide fame in 1994 when Friends became a megahit. However, prior to that, Jennifer spent several years struggling and appeared in several shows and movies that bombed.
For instance, her first regular TV role was on Molloy, a sitcom that also starred a very young Mayim Bialik – but the show was cancelled after just four episodes. Another early role in Ferris Bueller – a TV series based on the 1986 movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – was also cancelled during its first season.
Jennifer also appeared in another two TV sitcom shows in 1993 and 1994 that were cancelled after just one season – The Edge and Muddling Through respectively.
In 1993, she starred in horror movie Leprechaun, which Entertainment Weekly called her worst role, and one Jennifer herself has expressed embarrassment over in interviews.
Understandably, her confidence was knocked after this, but Jennifer was encouraged to keep going. The she heard about a new sitcom being developed called Friends…
Could Jennifer have been Monica?
When the production team were auditioning for cast members of Friends, Jennifer was originally encouraged by a producer to try out for the role of Monica Geller, rather than Rachel. However, Courtney Cox was thought more suitable for the role, and Jennifer was instead cast as Rachel. You can’t help but feel that the casting people got that decision right.
Interestingly, Jennifer is good friends with Courtney Cox, who played Monica, and is godmother to her children.
Jennifer and Luke Perry helped launch Windows 95
Jennifer has appeared in commercials for many products over the years, but one of the most famous and enduring was when she, alongside Friends co-star Matthew Perry, presented a 60-minute instructional video that came with Microsoft’s Windows 95 operating system.
Jennifer once almost broke Instagram
Being a global star, it was inevitable that when Jennifer created her own Instagram account in October 2019, it would attract huge amounts of attention, but surely no one anticipated what happened next. When Jennifer posted a picture of herself and her Friends co-stars, traffic to her page rocketed, and for a time, the follow button for her account became inoperable for many people. Nevertheless, within 24 hours of setting it up, Jennifer had more than seven million followers.
