Courteney Bass Cox (born June 15, 1964) is an American actress, who first achieved fame for her role as Monica Geller on the NBC sitcom, Friends. Cox has also starred in Dirt and the Scream series, and has guest-starred in Scrubs and Seinfeld. She currently stars in Cougar Town, for which she earned her first Golden Globe nomination. Cox was born and raised in the Birmingham, Alabama suburb of Mountain Brook, the daughter of businessman Richard Lewis Cox (January 28, 1931 - September 3, 2001) and his wife Courteney (née Bass, later Copeland). She has two older sisters, Virginia and Dottie, and an older brother, Richard, Jr. Her parents divorced in 1974 and her mother was remarried to businessman Hunter Copeland (uncle to Ian Copeland). After graduating from Mountain Brook High School in Mountain Brook, Alabama, Cox left for Mount Vernon College in Washington, D.C. but did not complete her architecture course, opting instead to pursue a career in modeling and acting. Cox's significant previous boyfriends include her step-cousin, the rock promoter Ian Copeland and a long-term relationship with actor Michael Keaton from 1989 to 1995. Cox also dated singer Adam Duritz of Counting Crows and appeared in their music video for the song "A Long December" in 1997. Cox married David Arquette on June 12, 1999. On June 13, 2004, she gave birth to their first child, daughter Coco Riley Arquette. Jennifer Aniston is the baby's godmother. On October 11, 2010, it was announced that the actress and her husband had separated, though they still maintain a close friendship and business relationship. Later in 1994, Cox was asked to audition for the part of Rachel Green on a new sitcom called Friends. She was cast as the character Monica Geller instead. At first the most famous cast member of the new show, Cox joined fellow castmates Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay), Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani), Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing) and David Schwimmer (Ross Geller) for what would become her most famous role, lasting for 10 seasons until 2004. According to the Guinness Book of World Records (2005), Cox (along with her female costars) became the highest paid TV actress of all time with her $1 million-per-episode paycheck for the final two seasons of Friends. Between seasons five and six, Cox married David Arquette and changed her name to Courteney Cox Arquette. An in-joke reference to this is made in the opening credits of the episode "The One After Vegas", where the rest of the cast and executive producers have "Arquette" added to their names. The dedication "For Courteney and David, who did get married"—a reference to Monica and Chandler's decision not to marry in the episode—appears during the fade out to the tag scene. An in-joke reference to her second name of "Cox" was used in the Scrubs episode "My Saving Grace", in which her character Dr. Taylor Maddox described Perry Cox's name as "ridiculous". Cox is a brown belt in karate and can play the piano and drums. Cox appeared in the high-profile Hollywood films Scream (1996), Scream 2 (1997) and Scream 3 (2000) as the determined and driven reporter Gale Weathers. She met her husband, David Arquette who played her on-screen love interest Dwight "Dewey" Riley, while filming the first Scream film. Both Cox and her husband David will reprise their respective roles from the Scream trilogy in 2011's Scream 4. Her other films include The Runner, 3000 Miles to Graceland and The Shrink Is In.In late 2003, Cox and Arquette produced one season of the reality television series Mix It Up. The lifestyle show, which aired on the We cable channel, struggled with low ratings and was not renewed for a second season. She also appeared as Wendy Bronson, alongside Adam Sandler in Bedtime Stories.
