Thursday 16 June 2016

Jennifer Aniston

Jennifer Joanna Aniston (born February 11, 1969) is an American actress,
producer, and businesswoman. The daughter of Greek actor John Aniston and American actress Nancy Dow, Aniston gained worldwide recognition for portraying Rachel Green on the popular television sitcom Friends (1994–2004), a role which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. The character was widely popular during the airing of the series and became recognized as one of the 100 greatest female characters in United States television.

Aniston has played the female protagonist in a number of comedies and romantic comedies. Her box office hits include Bruce Almighty (2003), The Break-Up (2006), Marley & Me (2008), Just Go with It (2011), Horrible Bosses (2011), and We're the Millers (2013), each of which have grossed over US$200 million in worldwide receipts. Her most critically acclaimed roles were in The Good Girl (2002), for which she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead, and the drama Cake (2014), for which she received nominations for the Golden Globe Award and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. Her other films include Along Came Polly (2004) and He's Just Not That Into You (2009). In 2008, she co-founded the production company Echo Films.

In 2012, Aniston received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood, and as of 2014, her net worth is estimated to be US$150 million. She has also been included in magazines' lists of the world's most beautiful women.People magazine named Aniston "The Most Beautiful Woman" in 2004 and 2016, and Men's Health magazine voted her the "Sexiest Woman of All Time" in 2011. Divorced from actor Brad Pitt, to whom she was married for five years, she has been married to actor Justin Theroux since 2015.

Aniston was born in Sherman Oaks, California, the daughter of actor John Aniston and actress Nancy Dow (1936-2016).Her father is Greek, while her mother was born in New York City. One of her maternal great-grandfathers was an Italian immigrant, and her mother's other ancestry includes English, Irish, Scottish, and a small amount of Greek. Aniston has two half-brothers, John Melick, her older maternal half-brother, and Alex Aniston, her younger paternal half-brother. Aniston's godfather was actor Telly Savalas, one of her father's best friends.

As a child, Aniston lived in Greece for a year with her family. They then moved to Eddystone, Pennsylvania, where they lived with her grandmother Stella Anastassakis in a three-bedroom home. While living in Eddystone, Aniston was enrolled at a local elementary school. She and her family later moved to New York City. Despite her father's television career, Aniston was discouraged from watching TV, though she found ways around the prohibition. When she was six, she began attending a Waldorf school. Her mother and father split up when she was nine years old. Her father is best known for his role as Victor Kiriakis on the NBC daytime drama Days of Our Lives, which he originated in 1985. Her mother appeared in two 1960s TV series, The Wild Wild West and The Beverly Hillbillies.

Having discovered acting at age 11 at the Waldorf school, Aniston enrolled in and graduated from Manhattan's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where she joined the school's drama society. In 2015, she spoke about a childhood incident that led to her lifelong fear of water. She stated during a special event for her film Cake, "I basically have a real fear of going underwater. I was a kid and I was riding this tricycle around a swimming pool and I drove my tricycle into the swimming pool and I didn't let go and my brother tried to (help). So, I can't go underwater and no one will believe me. I honestly can't." The incident led to filming a swimming pool scene 30 times on the set of the film with director Daniel Barnz before getting it right.

Aniston starred with Jason Sudeikis in EUE/Screen Gems Productions' We're the Millers (2013), filmed in the summer of 2012 in Wilmington, North Carolina and in the state of New Mexico. The film, a comedy about a drug dealer with a fake family, received mixed reviews from critics. We're the Millers was a financial success grossing US$269 million against a budget of US$37 million. Aniston played the role of Mickey Dawson in Life of Crime (2014), a film adaptation of Elmore Leonard's 1978 novel The Switch. Catherine Shoard of The Guardian described her performance as "endearingly comic" and Eric Kohn of Indie Wire wrote that her role in the film outshone every recent film performance by her stating, "Aniston tops any of her recent performances with a spirited turn that harkens back to her neurotic days on Friends." The movie was released in the US to positive reviews. The cast include Tim Robins, John Hawkes, Mos Def, Isla Fisher, Will Forte and Mark Boone Junior.

Aniston starred in the film Cake (2014), directed by Daniel Barnz, portraying an astringent woman named Claire Simmons who struggles with chronic pain. The film received mixed reviews, however Aniston's performance was highly praised, dubbed by some critics as "Oscar-worthy." The Toronto International Film Festival called her performance "heartbreakingly good", 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." He further stated, "Aniston makes you believe in Claire's pain. She makes you believe this character is at her lowest point and only she can pull herself out of it.  It's a complete performance from beginning to end and she deserves the appropriate accolades for it." For her portrayal, Aniston was nominated for the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress, Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. The movie also starred Adriana Barraza, Anna Kendrick, Sam Worthington, Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy.

In 2015, she played Jane Claremont in She's Funny That Way directed by Peter Bogdanovich. The movie was produced by Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach, and starred Owen Wilson, Imogen Poots, Kathryn Hahn, Rhys Ifans and Will Forte. Aniston starred in the romantic comedy Mother's Day (2016), directed by Garry Marshall and co-starring Julia Roberts, Kate Hudson, Timothy Olyphant and Jason Sudeikis. The film was released in April 2016. In December 2015, she started shooting the war drama film The Yellow Birds, directed by Alexandre Moors, starring alongside Alden Ehrenreich, Tye Sheridan, Jack Huston and Toni Collette.

In 2007, Forbes rated Aniston as one of the top 20 richest women in entertainment and estimated her net worth to be about US$110 million. Aniston was also included in the annual Star Salary Top 10 of trade magazine The Hollywood Reporter for 2006. According to Forbes, in October 2007, Aniston was the top-selling celebrity face of the entertainment industry. She was also Hollywood's most profitable actress. Aniston has been on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list, based on "earnings and fame", every year since 2001, topping the list in 2003. For the year of 2008, Forbes listed Aniston's earnings as US$27 million. In 2014, Aniston ranked 3rd on Forbes Top Earning Actresses, earning US$31 million in that year. Her net worth is estimated to be US$150 million as of 2014.

In 1995, Aniston dated musician Adam Duritz. She also dated actor Tate Donovan from late 1995 until 1998.

Aniston's high-profile relationship with actor Brad Pitt was frequently publicized in the press. She married Pitt, after two years of dating, on July 29, 2000 in a lavish Malibu wedding. For a few years, their marriage was considered the rare Hollywood success, but on January 7, 2005 they announced their separation and finalized their divorce on October 2, 2005. During their divorce proceedings there was intense speculation in the media that Pitt had been unfaithful to Aniston with his Mr. & Mrs. Smith co-star Angelina Jolie, whom he started dating soon after the split. In the following months, the public's reaction toward the divorce was reported in the press, and "Team Aniston" and "Team Jolie" T-shirts appeared throughout the country. The divorce made the front-pages of tabloid magazines for years, and it still continues to be discussed in the media. Aniston commented on the divorce in a January 2015 interview with The Hollywood Reporter , stating that "Nobody did anything wrong.... It was just like, sometimes things happen."

In 2005, media reports speculated that the split was due to Aniston's refusal to have children with Pitt. Aniston denied that this was the cause of their split in an August 2005 Vanity Fair magazine interview, stating, "I've never in my life said I didn't want to have children. I did and I do and I will... I would never give up that experience for a career." Aniston also revealed that her divorce prompted her to reach out to her mother, Nancy, from whom she was estranged for nearly a decade. They initially became estranged when Nancy talked about her daughter on a television show and later wrote a book entitled, From Mother and Daughter to Friends: A Memoir (1999). Aniston has also stated she was devastated by the death of her longtime therapist, whose work helped make her separation from Pitt easier. Aniston said her relationship with Pitt, which she does not regret, was "seven very intense years together" and that "it was a beautiful, complicated relationship".

Aniston dated actor Vince Vaughn from 2005 to December 2006. She subsequently dated musician John Mayer from 2008 to 2009.

Aniston started a relationship with actor, director and screenwriter Justin Theroux in May 2011. In January 2012, Aniston and Theroux purchased a home in Los Angeles's Bel-Air neighborhood for roughly US$22 million. They became engaged on August 10, 2012 and were married on August 5, 2015 at their Bel Air estate.

Aniston practices yoga and a Budokan karate. In 2014, Aniston spoke of her Transcendental Meditation practice. When asked what the number one thing which has kept her looking so amazing is, she replied, "I'd say a little over a year ago I started doing TM and that's really changed everything. Starting your day off with that and ending with that is pretty powerful."

In January 2015, Aniston revealed that she was diagnosed with dyslexia in her 20s which affected her education and self-esteem. As a result, she does not read a lot. However, being diagnosed with the disorder changed her life. She stated, "I thought I wasn't smart. I just couldn't retain anything. Now I had this great discovery. I felt like all of my childhood trauma-dies, tragedies, dramas were explained."

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