7 Best Actors to Guest Star on ‘Friends’

Over the course of its 10-season run, Friends saw an impressive lineup of guest stars.

The beloved ’90s sitcom brought on a lot of guest stars, some even before they made it big.

Friends saw a handful of beloved actors walk through the doors, such as Tom Selleck and Paul Rudd, who recurred at some point. However, there were others who had singular appearances or multi-episode arcs. And a lot of them were pretty memorable and are still hilarious to watch to this day. These are seven of the best actors to guest-star on Friends.

Anna Faris

Anna Faris appeared in four episodes of the final season as Erica, a pregnant woman who chooses Chandler and Monica to adopt her baby. She makes her first appearance in “The One with the Birth Mother,” in which Chandler and Monica are chosen to adopt, but only because their file got mixed with another couple’s. After explaining to Erica how much it would mean to them and how much they would care for the baby, she chooses them. Erica gives birth in the series finale, and she has twins, a boy and a girl.

Ben Stiller

Ben Stiller guest-starred in Season 3’s “The One with the Screamer” as Tommy, a man who briefly dates Rachel. He had a short temper and intimidated anyone who irritated him, but he’s nice around Rachel. Tommy has quite a few anger tantrums, and his role is arguably one of the funniest in the series.

Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt has one of the more memorable guest-starring roles on Friends, appearing as old high school friend Will in Season 8’s Thanksgiving episode, “The One with the Rumor.” Will visits for Thanksgiving, and his feelings about Rachel surface, revealing he still doesn’t like her after all these years because she made his life miserable. Will admits that he and Ross founded the I Hate Rachel Greene Club in high school and started a rumor that she had both female and male parts.

Christina Applegate

Christina Applegate appeared as Rachel’s sister, Amy, in Season 9’s Thanksgiving episode, appropriately titled “The One with Rachel’s Other Sister.” Amy shows up unexpectedly to ask for a hair straightener and keeps calling her niece Emily, at first calling her Emmett, thinking she was a boy. She also assumes that she’ll get Emma if Ross and Rachel ever die, and later gets her ears pierced without their permission.

George Clooney (and Noah Wyle)

This one technically counts as two, but they were in the same episode and appeared at the same time, so it’s basically one. ER stars George Clooney and Noah Wyle guest starred as, of course, doctors in Season 1’s “The One with Two Parts, Part 2.” Rachel injures herself and Monica takes her to the hospital, but since Rachel doesn’t have insurance, she puts Monica down, and they swap names. The four go on a double date, but it goes wrong when Rachel and Monica can’t stop arguing about potential insurance fraud.

Julia Roberts

Julia Roberts appeared as Susie Moss in the coveted post-Super Bowl episode, “The One After The Superbowl, Part 2” in 1996. Chandler meets Susie on the set of Marcel’s film, since Susie is the make-up artist, and it’s revealed that they went to elementary school together. Chandler had lifted Susie’s skirt in front of an entire auditorium in fourth grade, but they seem to get past it as they wind up going out. Susie is sexually aggressive, and asking him to do it in different places in public. She even asks him to wear her panties. They end up making out in a restroom stall, and Susie asks to see him wearing her panties with his eyes closed, but she takes all of his clothes while he’s undressing and is left in the stall wearing only her panties until Joey comes to the rescue.

Reese Witherspoon

Reese Witherspoon made her debut as Rachel’s youngest sister, Jill, in Season 6’s “The One with Rachel’s Sister.” She paid Rachel a visit after their father cut her off, and she needed her help to try to make it on her own. It’s not easy, though, since Jill was very spoiled. Additionally, Ross and Jill end up getting together, but in the following episode, “The One Where Chandler Can’t Cry,” Ross breaks up with her after Rachel said she was uncomfortable. But Jill doesn’t take it very well.