Courteney Cox

Fresh-faced and sparkly eyed when she was plucked from the audience to dance with Bruce Springsteen in his classic "Dancing in the Dark" music video, this former fashion model has spent most of her career playing variations on that same pretty, all-American girl. Courteney Cox studied architecture and interior design in college before bolting to New York and signing with the Ford Modeling Agency. Commercials and magazine spreads followed, as did a brief appearance on the soap As the World Turns. Minor roles in other TV shows eventually led to being cast as Michael J. Fox's love interest on the last few seasons of Family Ties. Even so, stardom eluded her and it seemed she would forever be cast in supporting roles in minor films and TV series. But all that changed in 1994. Cox became a small-screen icon as sweet, if uptight, neat freak Monica Geller on the beloved, decade-long sitcom Friends. While she was the only member of the ensemble never to earn an Emmy nod, Cox landed on plenty of magazine hot lists and launched a moderately successful film career with the blockbuster Scream trilogy, which also significantly impacted her personal life. Although her previous high-profile relationship with Michael Keaton ended in heartbreak, Cox married her Scream costar David Arquette, and the couple remained in the spotlight as they publicly battled fertility issues. In 2004, Friends came to a close and Cox opened up a new chapter in her life as a mother. But after a few years of keeping a relatively low profile, she returned to series television as a tabloid editor in Dirt, which she and her husband produced. Her next significant role came in 2009 in the ABC sitcom Cougar Town, as a sexy single mom who wades into the more shallow end of the dating pool. It earned Cox her first nomination as an actress at the 2010 Golden Globes. Cox and Arquette reprised their Scream roles for the franchise's fourth installment in 2011. ~ Rovi