Monica Geller (Courteney Cox)

Courteney Cox, who as we all know plays Monica Geller on "Friends", is originally from Birmingham, Alabama. She moved to New York City after graduating from high school and did some time with the Ford modeling agency, where she appeared in such glamorous roles as TV commercials for Noxema, Maybelline, and even the New York phone company.

Courteney made her acting debut in 1984 on the daytime soap "As the World Turns", and later that same year, she was in Bruce Springsteen's video for "Dancing in the Dark" (she was the girl pulled from the audience to dance with 'The Boss'). Her most familiar TV series role was as Michael J. Fox's (or rather Alex P. Keaton's) girlfriend Lauren on "Family Ties". Her other TV appearances include being a regular on "Misfits of Science" & "The Trouble with Larry", guest-starring appearances on "Murder, She Wrote", "Seinfeld" (where she played Jerry's pretend wife), and HBO's "Dream On", several TV movies including "Prize Pulitzer", "Battling for Baby", and "Curiosity Kills", and even a mini-series, Judith Krantz's "Till We Meet Again".

Courteney has appeared in several movies, including the wildly successful "Ace Ventura: Pet Dectective" with Jim Carrey, and some not as successful films including "Down Twisted", "Masters of the Universe", "Cocoon: The Return", "Shaking the Tree", "Mr. Destiny", "The Opposite Sex and How to Live with Them", and "Blue Desert". Her stage work includes "King of Hearts" at the Tiffany Theatre in L.A., where she starred with Michael Spound.

When Courteney is not working (and it doesn't seem like there's much of that), she enjoys decorating and remodeling homes. Her birthday is June 15, 1964, and she lives in Los Angeles.

Courteney has been dating Michael Keaton (of "Batman" fame; not to be confused with the character Alex P. Keaton played by Michael J. Fox) for a couple of years.

her role:

Monica is Ross' sister. She was a cook at a trendy restaurant, Iridium, on 65th and Broadway until she was fired for accepting a kickback, which was against restaurant policy. She rents the apartment where much of the show's action takes place. Considering her former job, it is quite an amazing apartment. JG suggested that it might be an illegal sublet, and this was confirmed in "TOW the Ballroom Dancing". She cannot seem to get her mother to approve of her at all. The others consider her to be very bossy and anal-retentive and controlling.

Monica has dated a number of men in the show, usually with bad luck. If she likes them, they turn out to be schleps. If she doesn't, for once her friends love him. And, just once, he turned out to be way too young. And sometimes too old. She dated her father's friend Richard Burke (played by Tom Seleck) who is much older thanshe is but they broke up. Then she dated Pete Becker, a millionaire in the computer software industry. Eventually, things were going very well for them (he even bought her a restaurant). However, she broke it off when she discovered he's an obsessively stubborn person who doesn't know when to quit. After she left Pete she had a brief catering business with Phoebe, but then got the position of head chef at another restaurant (which she had given a bad review, so all the staff hate her). She briefly dated Richard Burke's son, but it was too weird. Recently, she and Chandler ended up in bed together, after spending most of Ross' rehearsal dinner consoling each other. That these two would get together has been desired by fans and hinted by various sub-plots.Monica and Chandler continued their romance and tried to keep it a secret. But eventually everyone found out. While in Las Vegas, they decide to get married. While waiting their turn at the chapel, they discovered Ross and Rachel (who were very drunk) have just been married.

Monica (approximately 30 at the end of season 5) stated that she was 28 early in the third season and that she was "25 and 13 months" in "TOW The Ick Factor". Given the air date of 05/04/95 (late first season), this would suggest a birthdate in 04/69. However, in "TOW the Blackout", which aired on 11/03/94, Joey convinces Monica that Ross is planning a surprise birthday party for her. Given her reaction, it would appear that her birthdate is in late '68. It is difficult to reconcile these unles Ross is habitual in planning birthday parties five months in advance.However, once you remember that TV isn't real life, you realize that not every episode "takes place" on the date it airs. Consider the fact that "TOA The Beach" and "TOW The Jellyfish" have air-dates separated by several months, but the second actually picks up at the very moment that the first left off. Nevertheless, it is clear that Monica was born in late '68 or early '69.