The Twins Who Played Emma On Friends Are All Grown Up And You'll Barely Recognize Them
Former "Friends" actors Cali and Noelle Sheldon were just under one year old when they started playing Emma Geller-Green — Ross and Rachel's daughter, of course — in the later seasons of the hit sitcom. It's been two whole decades since then and the twins who shared the role of Emma have continued their acting careers.
Like "Full House" stars Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, "Friends" decided to cast twins to play baby Emma for filming purposes. (You may also remember the show cast one-half of the Sprouse twins, Cole Sprouse, to play Ben, Ross's son with ex-wife Carol.) In 2003, Noelle and Cali made their first appearance on "Friends" when they were only six months old as the toddler version of Emma in Season 9. They acted in a total of 11 episodes and played the role until the end of the series, which concluded after 10 seasons in 2004.
Well, it's been a whole 20 years since the Sheldon twins debuted on our TV screens, so what are they up to nowadays?
Cali and Noelle Sheldon are about to graduate from UCLA
It could be pretty hard to top being on one of the most popular sitcoms in the world when you were only a baby, but Cali and Noelle Sheldon have continued acting in projects, while earning their high school diplomas and are getting ready to graduate from a prestigious university. Post-"Friends," the sisters both appeared in the 2006 film "Novel Romance" and a 2007 episode of the TV series "Life." As they grew up, they each acted in several short films between 2012 to 2016. Noelle also went on to write and direct two of her own short films in 2022, "Goose Chase" and "The Cure to Loneliness."
You may have also spotted them as the alter-ego killer twin sisters in Jordan Peele's critically acclaimed second feature film, 2019's "Us." "We are so excited," Cali gushed as Noelle nodded in agreement when they were interviewed by FabTV on the "Us" premiere's red carpet. "This is like an amazing movie, obviously, it has an amazing message, so to be able to be a part of that is really special."
The twins graduated from high school in 2020 and announced that they would each be attending UCLA. According to their Instagram bios, they are set to earn their degrees in 2024.
The former child actors look back at their time on Friends fondly
Imagine being part of a worldwide phenomenon and not really remembering it. Well, Cali and Noelle Sheldon may have just been babies when they were on the "Friends" set, but they have pictures and their parents' memories to fill in the blanks. The actors did an interview with Access Hollywood in 2020, where they revealed that they weren't allowed to watch "Friends" until middle school and didn't know "how big of a thing" the show was. "But once all our friends started watching it, people started being like, 'Oh my gosh, you're Emma!'" Cali recalled.
Their parents recounted to Cali and Noelle how the toddlers certainly weren't afraid of the eyes on them from the studio audience and they "really liked the attention." "We were really friendly babies I guess," Cali noted from the stories her parents told them. "So we would always watch and smile to the people sitting there."
They both have posted throwback photos that were taken of them on the "Friends" set with Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, and their on-screen mother, Jennifer Aniston.