Friends was an absolute colossus. Running from 1994-2004 for ten seasons, the sitcom propelled its entire cast main cast — and their respective careers — to unimaginable heights.
For the level of immense success they captured, all of the actors were very young. When Friends first began, Lisa Kudrow was the oldest at 32. Courteney Cox was 30, and David Schwimmer 27. Matt LeBlanc was 26. Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry were the youngest out of the six friends.
How old was Jennifer Aniston when Friends first began, and how much did the cast make during its iconic run?
When Jennifer Aniston first joined Friends, she was one of the youngest cast members; she was 25 years old when the pilot episode was filmed on May 4, 1994, and premiered later that year on September 22. The only actor younger than her was Matthew Perry, who was 24 when the show first aired.
According to Parade and Business Insider, by Season 3, the actors teamed up to negotiate raises as a group, despite the studio’s alleged preference for individual contracts; this reportedly earned them $75,000 per episode. Season 6 saw Aniston and her costars make $125,000 per episode. The next two seasons saw the cast get quite the major pay bump, earning $750,000 an episode. After that, for the last two seasons of the show, the actors were banking $1,000,000 per episode.
Aniston’s career never once slowed down after Friends. The actress continues to achieve monumental success via the streaming world, where she is currently making $2,000,000 per episode for her work on The Morning Show, one of the very first programs created by Apple TV Plus.