Courteney Cox-Arquette (born Courteney Bass Cox on June 15, 1964 in Birmingham, Alabama) is an American actress, best known for her role in the long-running television series Friends. (While she has occasionally used her full married name professionally, she continues to be generally known simply as Courteney Cox.)

Cox was born to Richard Cox and Courteney Copeland, members of an affluent Southern family. She was raised in Mountain Brook, Alabama. She attended Mountain Brook High School, where she was a cheerleader, tennis player and swimmer. Upon graduation, Cox went to study architecture and interior design at Mount Vernon College. She dropped out after one year to pursue a modelling career after being signed by the Ford modeling agency in New York City. While modelling, she also took acting classes, and lost her Southern accent.

Cox was the first person to use the word “period” on US TV in its physiological sense, in a 1980s advertising campaign. After coming to prominence in the 1984 music video for Bruce Springsteen's “Dancing in the Dark” (in which she danced onstage with Springsteen), she appeared in several movies including Masters of the Universe (1987), Cocoon: The Return (1988) and Blue Desert (1991).

Cox had a starring role in the short-lived TV series, Misfits of Science (1985) and later had a recurring role on the television series Family Ties.

Cox is best known for playing Monica Geller Bing on the hit TV series Friends (1994 - 2004). She became the only principal member of the show's cast not to be nominated for an Emmy Award. She most recently acted and produced the short-lived television series, Dirt.

Masters of the Universe (1987), Cocoon: The Return (1988), Blue Desert (1991), Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), Friends (TV-1994) Scream (1996), Scream 2 (1997), Scream 3 (2000) and 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001), The Tripper (2006), Dirt (TV-2007), The Monday Before Thanksgiving (2008)