Jennifer Aniston is one of the biggest celebrities in Hollywood. The actress has made a name for herself starring on television and in movies, and it seems that the entertainment business is in her blood.
Aniston's parents were both actors. In fact, her father, John Aniston, was long known for his role as Victor Kiriakis on the beloved soap opera "Days of Our Lives." Jennifer was born in Sherman Oaks, California.
In 1980, her parents separated and the actress spent most of her time living with her mother, Nancy Dow. It seems the "Friends" star always knew she wanted to be an actress, and she even attended Fiorello H. Laguardia High School of Music and Art in New York City, according to Empire Online.
It was there that she began acting and learning about theater. According to their Biography, Jennifer began appearing in stage productions and really honed her acting chops in the late 1980s.
However, just because the 53-year-old comes from a rich and famous family doesn't mean she hasn't had to work hard to establish her career. Jennifer not only got the acting roles from her, but she also worked some surprisingly normal jobs before she got the big break from her and became a huge star.
Aniston was a bicycle messenger and waitress before she made it big
Over the years, Jennifer Aniston has spoken about the early days of her life before she was famous. In the "Horrible Bosses," the actress admitted that things weren't always easy and she constantly had to work her way to the top. According to Yahoo!, Aniston previously worked at an ad agency, and was even hired to be "a bike messenger for a day in New York City."
"She did odd jobs. And one day her bike messenger just didn't show up. And they said, 'Can you ride a bike?' And I said, 'Yeah, I can ride a bike,'" he previously told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show in 2021. "In my brain, I don't know how I made it through the day. Being on 5th Avenue with traffic and everything that I had.
I think I could have jumped in a cab just to end the day." She added: "I don't know what happened to the bike. Everything is blurry," she added. Aniston also said that she waited tables in New York City while she was trying to make it as an actress. "I had moved away from home. He had been on six failed TV shows. I waitressed for years in New York before I got anything," she told in 2019.
Jennifer Aniston once worked as a telemarketer
According to Self, Jennifer Aniston has been candid about being a struggling actress in the early years of her career. She even admitted that she was forced to work as a telemarketer to pay the bills. "I moved to Los Angeles and was doing telemarketing next to a Taco Bell," she explained. "I got lucky three months after I got an audition for a sitcom," she previously revealed.
As for what Aniston was selling during her phone calls, well, she was looking for people interested in timeshares, of all things. "I was a telemarketer selling timeshares in the Poconos. I didn't make a single sale. I was terrible at it. I thought, 'Why do we have to call people at dinner time?'" she told InStyle.
Of course, Aniston eventually landed the role of Rachel Green on "Friends." The NBC sitcom was a huge hit and catapulted the actor to stardom. Since then, she has starred in movies like "The Break-Up," "Just Go With It," "Marley & Me," "Picture Perfect," "Cake" and many more, alongside notable co-stars Jason Bateman (via IMDb). Aniston may have grown up privileged to attend acting school and have parents in the entertainment business. However, she seems to have worked hard to create her own legacy and career away from the legacies of her famous parents.
