Rachel Karen Green (Jennifer Aniston)

Jennifer Aniston, who plays Rachel on Friends, was born in CA (the Valley, so yes she's a Val!), and raised mostly in New York. Her father, John Aniston, is an actor on "Days of Our Lives", so young Jennifer was around acting from an early age. Her godfather was Telly Savalas.

Jennifer has Greek ancestors, and actually spent some time in Greece as a child, before settling in New York because of her father's acting career (specifically he landed a role on "Love of Life"). She first acted at around age 11, as part of the Rudolf Steiner School's drama club. Jennifer says that she was always interested in acting, but it Rudolf Steiner's free-spirited atmosphere that encouraged her to make it her career. Jennifer started her professional training at New York's High School for the Performing Arts as a drama student. She graduated in 1987 (she is 26). She appeared in Off-Broadway productions of "For Dear Life" and "Dancing on Checker's Grave", before her first TV role on "Molloy". Other TV shows graced with her presence include "The Edge", "Ferris Bueller" (the TV version), a recurring role on "Herman's Head", and even some guest appearances on "Quantum Leap" and "Burke's Law".

Jennifer is also an artist. At age 11 (busy year), one of her paintings was selected for display in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. She still spends much time on art projects, including charcoal drawings, clay sculptures, and paintings. Jennifer was born on February 11, 1969. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, camping, and getting closer to nature. She currently lives in Los Angeles.

her role:

Rachel was very much a suburbs woman, who, until the start of the series, had never held a job and had always lived off daddy's money. At the start of the show she had just left Barry, her husband-to-be, at the altar and ran to (and moved in with) the only friend she could think of (at least the only friends who wasn't invited to the wedding), Monica. It took her a while to get into the groove of living and working in the big city. She worked as a waitress until mid-third season, when she quit, then got a job at Bloomingdale's. She now works at Ralph Lauren.

Rachel has dated many guys (much to Ross' chagrin), most notably Paolo, an Italian man who could barelyspeak English, and much later, Joshua, a well-to-do young customer at Bloomingdales. For all of the first season, she was oblivious to Ross' crush on her. At the end of the season Chandler let it slip and she decided to go for it. However, by that time Ross had found a new girlfriend (Julie). When she got drunk and told Ross that she was over him, he decided to leave Julie. However, a list of pros and cons about Rachel that Ross was using as part of his decision between her and Julie upset her and she turned away (but, of course, later forgave him and they got together). However, they broke up because their relationship was stressed by Rachel's busy schedule and Ross's jealousy. The next morning Rachel changed her mind and a reconciliation looked likely, until she found out that Ross had slept with Chloe, the navel-ringed copy store girl. Rachel couldn't forgive Ross, but he claims innocence since they were on a break. Because of their strong feelings, they briefly got back together at the beach but it wasn't long before they broke up (Rachel still can't forgive Ross for Chloe, and he still insists they were on a break).

In season 4, Ross met Emily Waltham, a woman visiting from London, and after a very hasty courtship, they decided to get married. However, at the wedding in London, Ross accidently speaks Rachel's name instead of Emily's. While they still went through with the wedding, this event planted the seed which eventually led to their divorce.

Ross and Rachel's friendship began improving again, but nothing new came up until the final episode of the fifth season, when they got drunk in Las Vegas and ended up getting married.

Rachel's mother envied her free life, and for that and several other better reasons has divorced her husband.

Rachel is 30 (or nearly so) by the end of the 5th season. We know she celebrates her birthday near the end of each season. Rachel states that she is 28 in episode and therefore would have turned 29 later that same season.