On September 22, 1994, Rachel, Monica, Ross, Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe were introduced to America on the sitcom Friends, and it wasn’t long before the show became a TV hit and a hairstyle-inspiring cultural phenomenon. Viewers could relate to their 20-something angst, dating ups and downs, and the idea that when all else fails friends “will be there for you.”
That’s why many fans were devastated when actor Matthew Perry, who played Chandler across all 10 seasons of the popular sitcom, died unexpectedly on Saturday, at his home in Los Angeles. Despite his well-documented struggles with addiction to drugs and alcohol, Perry maintained a close bond with the rest of the cast, mirroring their onscreen connection.
Remembering Matthew Perry
The chemistry of its tight-knit cast that stuck together was one of the main reasons why the Emmy-winning show stayed on the air for so long and lives on through its eternal syndication. The stars even reunited for a 2021 HBO Max special Friends: The Reunion.
Here’s a look at where the Friends cast is now and what they’ve done since the series finale in 2004.
Watch Friends now on Prime Video or Max.
Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green)
Getty ImagesJennifer Aniston attends the premiere of Murder Mystery 2 in Los Angeles in March 2023.
Before Friends, Jennifer Aniston was offered a job on Saturday Night Live but wound up turning the SNL gig down to play Rachel Green, the spoiled yet likable waiter with the great hair.
Out of all of the Friends cast members, Aniston was the biggest tabloid target during the show’s run because of her five-year marriage to Brad Pitt, then a rising star in Hollywood. Aniston also made waves, actually layers, with “the Rachel,” her on-screen hairstyle that swept across America. Aniston would later call the ’do “a disaster” because “it wouldn’t die.”
Life after Friends: The TV star became a rom-com queen in films like Rumor Has It... (2005), The Break-Up (2006), Marley & Me (2008), He’s Just Not That Into You (2009), Horrible Bosses (2011), We’re the Millers (2013), and Murder Mystery (2019) and its 2023 sequel.
Aniston married actor Justin Theroux in August 2012—the same year she received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—but the pair divorced in 2018. In November 2019, Aniston returned to television for the first time since the end of Friends in the Apple TV+ series The Morning Show, which is now in its Season 3. Starring alongside Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carrell, Aniston was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Lead Actress in a Drama Series for the show’s first season.
Courteney Cox (Monica Gellar)
Getty ImagesCourteney Cox, right, attends the premiere of Scream VI with her daughter, Coco Arquette, in March 2023.
Courteney Cox started out as teen model (hello, Tiger Beat) but got some rock star face time in 1984 when Bruce Springsteen pulled her from the crowd in his music video “Dancing in the Dark.” She played some notable TV girlfriends—first Alex P. Keaton’s (Michael J. Fox) love interest on Family Ties for two seasons and later Jerry Seinfield’s gal pal in one episode of Seinfeld—before she was cast as Friends’ resident chef and control freak Monica Gellar.
Off-screen, Cox had a five-plus-year relationship with actor Michael Keaton, which ended in 1995, the same year she met her future husband and co-star David Arquette on the set of their slasher hit Scream (1996). The couple welcomed a daughter Coco, whose godmother is none other than Cox’s BFF Aniston.
Life after Friends: Cox returned to TV in 2009 as the executive producer and star of Cougar Town, a sitcom about a divorcée and her 40-something friends. She became a real-life divorcée in 2011 when she and Arquette amicably split. But she found love again, announcing her engagement, in 2014, to Irish alt-rocker Johnny McDaid of the band Snow Patrol, whom she met through her friend Ed Sheeran. The pair called off their engagement in late 2015 but reconciled in early 2016 and remain a couple.
Most recently, Cox returned to the big screen in 2022 to reprise her role as Gale Weathers in the fifth film of the Scream series and also appeared in the next sequel a year later.
Catch Up With More TV Show Casts
Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay)
Getty ImagesLisa Kudrow in March 2023
After training with the comedy troupe The Groundlings, Lisa Kudrow landed a recurring role playing Ursula Buffay, an oddball waiter in Mad About You. This opened the door to playing Phoebe, Ursula’s equally oddball but much nicer twin sister/masseuse/really bad singer-songwriter on Friends. Cue Phoebe’s horribly good song “Smelly Cat.”
While starring on Friends, Kudrow leaned into comedy in one of her most well-known movies Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (1997) with Mira Sorvino.
Life after Friends: Kudrow appeared in several supporting movie roles, including in P.S. I Love You (2007), The Other Woman (2009), and Easy A (2010). But it was Web Therapy, the hilarious improv-web-series-turned-Showtime-show produced, written by, and starring Kudrow, that really launched her back into the spotlight.
In November 2014, Kudrow also brought back Valerie Cherish, her washed-up sitcom character turned reality TV star, on The Comeback. The show, co-created with Sex and the City’s Michael Patrick King, first aired in 2005. Its hilarious critique of reality TV became even more relevant in its second season, almost 10 years after its premiere. Kudrow also appeared in the 2014 blockbuster Neighbors and the 2019 comedy Booksmart.
Kudrow currently has a lead voice role as a therapy dog named Honey on the Fox animated series HouseBroken. Behind the camera, she’s one of the executive producers of the genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are where celebs like her explore their family trees.
Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani)
Getty ImagesMatt LeBlanc in October 2022
Before Friends, Matt LeBlanc’s big claim to fame was starring in a spin-off of Married... With Children called Top of the Heap, which was on the air for only seven episodes. He landed the role of struggling actor Joey Tribbiani by playing it dumb for laughs in his audition. Like Aniston’s “Rachel” haircut, LeBlanc stirred up a bit of a pop culture trend with Joey’s favorite pickup line and much-repeated TV catchphrase “How you doin’?”
Like his Friends cast members, he appeared in movies during the show’s run. That included Ed (1996), Lost in Space (1998), and Charlie’s Angels (2000).
Life after Friends: LeBlanc earned bragging rights as the only Friends cast member to get his own spin-off, Joey, which followed his character out to L.A. to pursue his acting career. Joey aired for two seasons from 2004 to 2006, after which LeBlanc took a four-year hiatus from acting.
In 2012, the now-silver fox made a triumphant return to TV, playing himself in Episodes, the BBC Two/Showtime series co-created by Friends creator David Crane, which earned LeBlanc a Golden Globe for Best Actor. He then starred in the sitcom Man with a Plan starting in 2016. The show ran for four seasons until its cancellation in 2020.
Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing)
Getty ImagesMatthew Perry in November 2022
Matthew Perry got his acting start as a teenager playing opposite River Phoenix in a little-known film called A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (1988). He followed that with guest spots on shows like Empty Nest, Growing Pains, and Beverly Hills, 90210, before landing the role of sarcastic Chandler Bing.
During the show’s run, Perry moonlighted in movies including Fools Rush In (1997) with Salma Hayek, Almost Heroes (1998) with Chris Farley, and The Whole Nine Yards (2000) with Bruce Willis. But off-screen, Perry struggled with addiction to both alcohol and opioids, leading to stays in and out of rehab.
Life after Friends: In the 2000s, Perry got sober and, in 2013, turned his Malibu beach home into Perry House, a sober living facility for men. He made guest appearances as associate White House counsel Joe Quincy on The West Wing, which earned him two Emmy nominations. He also guest starred on The Good Wife and played an older version of Zac Efron in the 2009 movie 17 Again. From 2015 to 2017, Perry produced, wrote, and starred in a TV remake of The Odd Couple, in which he played slobby sportswriter Oscar Madison.
In November 2022, Perry released his best-selling memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. The actor documented his time on the show as well as past romantic relationships and detailed the severity of his addiction struggles. Less than a year later, on October 28, 2023, Perry died at his home in Los Angeles at age 54.
Celebrities Who Died in 2023
David Schwimmer (Ross Gellar)
Getty ImagesDavid Schwimmer in June 2022
Like his Friends castmates, David Schwimmer appeared in bit roles in TV shows like L.A. Law, The Wonder Years, and NYPD Blue before landing the role of sweet and geeky paleontologist Ross Gellar. The producers actually wrote the role for him, and he supposedly based Ross on Nicolas Cage’s character in the 1986 movie Peggy Sue Got Married. Ross and Rachel’s on-again-off-again romance fueled big-time ratings, and Schwimmer was also busy behind the camera directing a bunch of episodes for the show.
While filming Friends, Schwimmer turned down Will Smith’s role in Men In Black for a starring role in The Pallbearer (1996), followed by movies like Kissing a Fool (1998), Six Days Seven Nights (1998), and Picking Up the Pieces (2000), as well as lots of theater work.
Life after Friends: One of Schwimmer’s most popular post-Friends roles has been voicing Melman the giraffe in the animated Madagascar movie series, also starring Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, and Jada Pinkett Smith.
In 2016, Schwimmer played O.J. Simpson’s lawyer Robert Kardashian in American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, which earned him an Emmy nomination. He is a dad to Cleo, his daughter with estranged wife, Zoe Buckman.
Tyler Piccotti first joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor in February 2023, and before that worked almost eight years as a newspaper reporter and copy editor. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. When he's not writing and researching his next story, you can find him at the nearest amusement park, catching the latest movie, or cheering on his favorite sports teams.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7o7XOoKmaqJiue6S7zGikqK6ZmsBuwNVonauhlaOxtHnCmqqtZaedsrOxjJqpnmWknbK6ec2org%3D%3D