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Courteney Cox

Courteney Cox has built a screen career around characters who like things done their way. Whether playing a tightly wound perfectionist, an aggressively determined reporter or a tabloid editor with few illusions about her business, she brings a crisp, direct energy that works equally well in comedy and horror. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, on June 15, 1964, Cox studied architecture at Mount Vernon College in Washington, D.C., before leaving to pursue modeling and acting. One of her earliest widely seen appearances came in Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 music video for “Dancing in the Dark,” directed by Brian De Palma. Television roles followed, including Gloria Dinallo in Misfits of Science and a recurring part as Lauren Miller on Family Ties. Her early films included Masters of the Universe, Cocoon: The Return and Mr. Destiny. By 1994, Cox had appeared opposite Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and played one of Jerry Seinfeld’s girlfriends in an episode of Seinfeld. That same year, she began the role most closely associated with her career: Monica Geller in Friends. Cox played Monica across all ten seasons, finding comedy in the character’s competitiveness, exacting standards and fierce investment in her friends. She soon added a very different long-running role with Gale Weathers in Scream. Introduced in the 1996 film as a reporter armed with ambition and snappy remarks, Gale became a central figure in the series. Cox returned for Scream 2, Scream 3, Scream 4 and the fifth and sixth films, also serving as an executive producer on the sixth installment. Her television work after Friends included the cynical tabloid editor Lucy Spiller in Dirt and Jules Cobb in Cougar Town, which ran for six seasons. Cox also moved behind the camera, directing episodes of Cougar Town, the television film TalhotBlond and the black comedy Just Before I Go. More recently, she reunited with her former castmates for Friends: The Reunion and starred as Patricia “Pat” Phelps in the horror comedy series Shining Vale. Across acting, directing and producing, Cox has repeatedly found room where sharp comedy and darker material meet.