Monica Geller

Monica Geller is a fictional character on the popular television sit-com Friends (1994-2004), played by Courteney Cox. Maggie Wheeler also auditioned for the part but ended up playing recurring character Janice instead.

Monica is comically obsessive about the state of her apartment, and appears to relish the idea of cleaning (she described the dry cleaner as her Disneyland). This personality trait became more and more exaggerated as the series progressed.

Monica's middle name is the only one never revealed throughout the series (if we consider the fact that even Phoebe herself didn't know her own, for not having a birth certificate). There are just two mentions about Monica's middle name: when she bought stocks named as MEG only because the company had the same initials as her (in "The One With The Bullies" 2.21) and when Phoebe invents a middle name when signing a delivery on behalf of Monica ("The One With the Race Car Bed" - the script spells the name as "Velula", which was just a joke and can't be counted). Therefore, her whole name is only known to us as Monica E. Geller(-Bing, when she marries Chandler).

Monica quickly emerged as the "Mother Hen" of the group; she tended to look after her friends and took on the mammoth task of cooking Thanksgiving dinner for them every year, tailoring the menu to each member's peculiar tastes.

Monica is a chef, and, as with most areas of her life, she is obsessive and competitive about it. Originally, she merely worked as a poorly paid chef at a restaurant called Iridium. When she was fired for accepting a gift from a food distributor, Monica went on to stint at a 50s theme restaurant called the Moondance Diner, where she wore rollerskates and massive fake breasts, and a short-lived catering business with Phoebe. She was eventually hired as head chef at a local restaurant. At first, her employees disliked Monica due to the fact that many of them were the children of the previous head chef, coupled with a fairly damning review she had published in a local newspaper about the restaurant. However, Monica hired her friend Joey as a waiter, solely to fire him, thereby appearing to be a tough boss. It apparently worked as her problems with her employees were never mentioned again.

Monica is the younger sister of Ross Geller, and there is a great deal of competition between the two. Ross was often mean to her as a child, although she has since forgiven him. Monica feels her parents favor Ross - her mother tends to be especially critical of her.

While Monica has a firm and toned body, it is revealed early in the series that she had been severely overweight as a child. It started when she first joined the Brown Birds (a Girl Scouts-type of organization); she ate all the cookies she was supposed to sell. She kept the weight until she was 18, then lost it after she overheard Chandler call her "fat".

The writers of the series often used flashbacks to show the overweight Monica. In one episode, when the group watched an old prom video and were surprised to see her weight, Joey yelled "That girl ate Monica!" Monica tried to stick up for herself, claiming the camera adds ten pounds. Chandler was quick to retort, "So how many cameras are actually ON you?"

Monica's apartment was one of the main focal points of the series. Many critics of the show began to question how Monica could ever afford the apartment on a chef's salary, so the writers of Friends came up with the explanation that she illegally sub-let the apartment from her grandmother, who had moved to Florida.

Monica shared her apartment with Phoebe Buffay, who moved out before the series actually began, fearing their relationship would be strained when Monica's neatness became a burden. Monica was later joined by her best friend from Lincoln High School, Rachel Green, in the series pilot episode, when Rachel fled her wedding and moved to the city. In season 4 Monica began an affair with her close friend Chandler. The two fell in love and eventually moved in together, forcing Rachel to move out. The two married and, in the final episode, watched as their adopted twins -- Erica and Jack -- were born.