Courteney Cox Arquette (born June 15, 1964 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA) is an American actress. (While she has occasionally used her full married name professionally, she continues to be generally known simply as "Courteney Cox".) She was born into an affluent Southern family and 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 a pursue a modelling career after being signed by the Ford Modelling Agency in New York. While modelling, she also took acting classes.