Courteney Bass Cox was born on June 15, 1964 in Birmingham, Alabama. When she was 10, her parents divorced and Cox stayed with her mom. She was a cheerleader, tennis player and a swimmer at the Mountain Brook High School. She eventually enrolled at Mount Vernon College for Women and studied architecture and interior design. She dropped out shortly after her freshman year to pursue a career in modeling. She signed contracts with New York City's Ford modeling agency and took acting classes during her free time.
Courteney Cox was noticed by the public when she appeared in Bruce Springsteen's music video for “Dancing in the Dark.” She was also the first person to mention the word “period” on U.S television when she did a commercial for Tampax brand tampons. Among her numerous advertisements were for products Noxzema, Maybelline, The New York Telephone Company, Coca-Cola and Head & Shoulders. In 2005, she was spokesperson for Kinerase skin care products. Her other music video appearances were on the Rembrandts “I'll Be There For You” and Counting Crows' “A Long December.”
Cox is best remembered for her portrayal of Monica Geller on the sitcom
Friends . She was also part of several shows like The Love Boat,
As the World Turns , Family Ties,
Seinfeld and Murder, She Wrote. In 1995, she received the Female Discovery of the Year Award at the Golden Apple Awards. On the big screen, Cox played Sara on the sci-fi film Cocoon: The Return, Melissa Robinson on Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Cynthia on The Tripper and Gale Weathers on all three installments of the thriller Scream. In 2000, she and partner David Arquette won Film-Choice Chemistry at the Teens Choice Awards for their performance on Scream.
In 1995, Cox was listed as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in People magazine and was dubbed as hottest babe by Playboy magazine. She was also featured as one of the sexiest women in the world in both FHM and Stuff magazine.