Jennifer Aniston

Born: 11th February 1969
Where: Sherman Oaks, California

Jen is now concentrating on a film career as both an actress and producer after the phenomenal success of the American comedy Friends.

Voted by Forbes magazine as America's ultimate celebrity, she has starred in a range of movies ranging from the low budget The Good Girl to the blockbuster Bruce Almighty.

Together with husband Brad Pitt she also runs the production company Plan B, which is backing projects such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

She spent a year of her childhood living in Athens and Crete (her father is Greek) and then New York where her parents divorced when she was nine and she was raised by her mother.

At eleven she joined the Rudolf Steiner School's drama club and began her professional training as a drama student at New York's High School for the Performing Arts.

Early work included a TV adverts and a handful of Off-Broadway productions before he first TV role as a series regular on Molloy.

She made her big screen debut in the horror-comedy Leprachaun before she landed the role of Rachel in Friends (after losing 30 pounds for the part).

The series - also starring Courtney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer - ended its 10-year run as one of the most successful TV shows ever.

However, the fame also had its downside - a rift opened between Aniston and her mother after Nancy Aniston after comments she made in an interview.

The star also spend periods of estrangement from her father John, a soap opera star best known for the shady Victor Kriakis in Days of our Lives.

With the success of Friends came big screen roles including the romance Dream of an Insomniac and Edward Burns' romantic comedy She's The One.

Her first lead came in Picture Perfect, another romantic comedy this time co-starring Kevin Bacon but it proved to be a critical and box-office disappointment.

Subsequent appearances included the low-key 'Til There Was You, the light romance The Object of My Affection and the comedy Office Space.

Aniston provided vocal work for the above average children's cartoon The Iron Giant and entertained as the long-suffering groupie/wife in Rock Star with Mark Wahlberg.

Outside film, she married Brad Pitt in July 2000, unfortunately the marriage broke down in 2005 much to the dismay of many as theirs seemed like a one of the more permanent of Hollywood unions.

In 2002, she won critical plaudits as the dowdy shopgirl in the black comedy The Good Girl and starred in the Jim Carrey vehicle Bruce Almighty.

Aniston recently starred in John Hamburg's romantic comedy Along Came Polly, opposite Ben Stiller.

Work in the pipeline includes Gambit with Ben Kingsley, and a Ted Griffin movie based on a true story behind the film The Graduate.