She rose to international fame for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends from 1994 to 2004, which earned her Primetime Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild awards.

[2][3] 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 1988 film Mac and Me.

She has since starred in a string of successful comedy films such as Office Space (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), The Break-Up (2006), Marley & Me (2008), Just Go with It (2011), Horrible Bosses (2011), We're the Millers (2013), Dumplin' (2018), and Murder Mystery (2019).

[18] Aniston also appeared in the two failed television comedy series The Edge and Muddling Through,[19] and guest-starred in Quantum Leap, Herman's Head and Burke's Law.

[20][21] Depressed over her four unsuccessful television shows, Aniston approached TV executive Warren Littlefield at a Los Angeles gas station asking for reassurance.

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 during the final season of Friends.

[28] Her character's relationship with Ross Geller, portrayed by David Schwimmer, was widely popular among audiences; they were frequently voted television's favorite couple in polls and magazines.

[30] Her first starring film vehicle was Picture Perfect (1997), where she played a struggling young advertising executive opposite Kevin Bacon and Jay Mohr.

[32] 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,[33] and the next year she starred as a restaurant waitress in the cult film Office Space.

[36]Aniston's biggest commercial success in film has been the comedy Bruce Almighty (2003), where she played the girlfriend of a television field reporter (Jim Carrey) offered the chance to be God for one week.

[43] In 2005, Aniston appeared as an alluring woman having an affair with an advertising executive in the thriller Derailed, and as an obituary and wedding announcement writer in the romantic comedy Rumor Has It.

[48] Her next film was the romantic comedy The Break-Up (2006), alongside Vince Vaughn, in which she starred as one half of a couple having a complicated split when both refuse to move out of the pair's recently purchased home.

"[50] CinemaBlend gave the film a positive review stating, "In an era of formulaic romantic movies that bear no resemblance to reality, The Break-Up offers a refreshing flipside.

[56] The 2008 comedy drama Marley & Me, starring Aniston and Owen Wilson as the owners of the titular dog, set a record for the largest Christmas Day box office sales ever with $14.75 million.

[58] Her next film in wide release, the romantic comedy He's Just Not That Into You (2009), in which she starred opposite Ben Affleck, grossed $178.8 million globally[59] and ranked number one at the United States box office for its opening weekend.

[64] A lukewarm box office reception greeted her next film, the romantic comedy The Switch (2010), in which she starred with Jason Bateman as a 30-something single woman who decides to have a child using a sperm bank.

"[68][69][70] In 2011, she starred opposite Adam Sandler as an office manager posing as the wife of a plastic surgeon in the romantic comedy Just Go with It,[71][72][73] and played a sexually aggressive dentist in Horrible Bosses.

[75][76] Aniston appeared in the comedy Wanderlust (2012) with Paul Rudd,[77] with whom she acted in The Object of My Affection and also Friends, as a married couple who join a commune after losing their money and deciding modern life is not for them.

[84] Aniston played the role of a stoic socialite who becomes the target of an ill-planned kidnapping plot in Life of Crime (2014), a film adaptation of Elmore Leonard's 1978 novel The Switch.

[91][92][93][94] The Toronto International Film Festival called her performance "heartbreakingly good",[95] Gregory Ellwood of HitFix stated, "It's really on most people's radar for being a rare dramatic turn for Jennifer Aniston, and she doesn't disappoint."

In 2015, Aniston starred as a reluctant therapist in the screwball comedy She's Funny That Way,[99] which received mixed reviews and found a limited release in theaters, but her performance was once again noticed.

[104][105] Her last 2016 film role was that of a frigidly cold head honcho of a company in the comedy Office Christmas Party, directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon and opposite Jason Bateman and Kate McKinnon.

[107] In The Yellow Birds, a war drama directed by Alexandre Moors, Aniston portrays the mother of a deceased soldier, alongside Alden Ehrenreich, Tye Sheridan, Jack Huston, and Toni Collette.

[110] The Los Angeles Times wrote in its review: "Toni Collette and Jennifer Aniston as the soldiers' quite different but equally concerned mothers, deliver uniformly naturalistic performances".

After starting on Friends, Aniston and her co-star Matthew Perry shot a 60-minute instructional video for the release of Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system.

[151] She is a supporter of Friends of El Faro, a nonprofit organization that helps raise money for Casa Hogar Sion, an orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico.

[155] Other charities that Aniston has publicly supported include Clothes Off Our Back, Feeding America, EB Medical Research Foundation, Project A.L.S., OmniPeace, and the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network.

[167] A survey of their patients by two Hollywood plastic surgeons, reported in 2011 by The Daily Telegraph, identified her (alongside Gisele Bündchen and Penélope Cruz) as having one of the most sought-after body shapes.

[182] In July 2016, amidst media speculation over whether she was pregnant, Aniston penned an essay for The Huffington Post condemning the "objectification and scrutiny we put women through".

[202] During their divorce proceedings, news media speculated that Pitt had been unfaithful to Aniston with his Mr. & Mrs. Smith co-star Angelina Jolie, with whom he began a relationship soon after the split.