WHERE THEY'RE GOING, WHERE THEY'VE BEEN.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

They had professional lives before ``Friends,'' they took on side projects during the show, and some of them figure to be very busy now that the series has concluded. A rundown of the actors' lives, before, during and after Central Perk.

Jennifer Aniston: The Sherman Oaks native jokes about living down the horror film ``Leprechaun,'' but she probably isn't losing any sleep over it now. A regular in failed sitcoms before ``Friends,'' (``Ferris Bueller,'' ``Molloy''), Aniston quickly graduated to movies once the show took hold. She's played her share of girlfriends (``Rock Star,'' ``Bruce Almighty,'' ``She's the One'') and has occasionally been asked to carry a romantic comedy (``Picture Perfect'' ``The Object of My Affection.'') She got some of her best critical notices playing an un-Rachel-like retail clerk in Miguel Arteta's ``The Good Girl,'' and she's scheduled to do a remake of the 1966 heist ``Gambit.'' Meanwhile, the public seems more than a little anxious for Aniston and hubby Brad Pitt to start a family. Wonder whose hair the kid will get?

Courteney Cox Arquette: She is having a baby, with husband David Arquette, her co-star in the lucrative ``Scream'' films. TV watchers will remember Cox's two-season stint as Alex P. Keaton's girlfriend on ``Family Ties,'' and, going back further, as the fan Bruce Springsteen pulled out of the audience at the close of his ``Dancing in the Dark'' video. Something of a house-buying fanatic, she has revamped and sold several properties. With her husband, she created and produces the WE design-themed show, ``Mix It Up.''

Lisa Kudrow: The Taft High School graduate and former member of L.A.'s Groundlings has always done good ditz. Pre-``Friends,'' Phoebe's twin sister, Ursula (played by Kudrow), the world's worst waitress, pulled in some laughs in ``Mad About You,'' and the character also appeared on ``Friends.'' Kudrow camped it up in ``Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion,'' played a scheming lottery girl in ``Lucky Numbers,'' and was Billy Crystal's put-upon fiancee in ``Analyze This'' and ``Analyze That.'' Kudrow took on a pair of roles against type in Don Roos' ``The Opposite of Sex'' and as John Holmes' ex-wife in ``Wonderland.'' A producer of the TV film ``Picking Up and Dropping Off,'' Kudrow also has two pilots in development for the upcoming season. Kudrow and husband Michael Stern, an advertising executive, have a 5-year-old son, Julian.

Matt LeBlanc: He's got a new series after ``Friends.'' Maybe you've heard of it? On film, LeBlanc has donned wartime drag (``All the Queen's Men''), acted opposite a baseball-playing monkey (``Ed'') and did token boyfriend duty in the two ``Charlie's Angels'' movies. Also lots and lots of videos and commercials for everything from Levi's to Cherry 7UP. He and wife Melissa became parents of a daughter, Marina, in February.

Matthew Perry: By the time you read this, ``The Whole Ten Yards,'' his sequel with Bruce Willis to ``The Whole Nine Yards,'' will likely be winging its ugly way to DVD, where it will take its place alongside classics like ``Serving Sara,'' ``Three to Tango'' and ``Almost Heroes.'' Perry took one of his ``Friends'' hiatuses to appear in a West End production of David Mamet's ``Sexual Perversity in Chicago.'' He will star in the movie ``The Beginning of Wisdom'' with his father, John Bennett Perry.

David Schwimmer: Before Ross, Schwimmer had a recurring role on `'The Wonder Years'' and played 4B, a luckless tenant during the first season of ``NYPD Blue.'' He romanced Gwyneth Paltrow in ``The Pallbearer'' and was a pioneering doctor in the HBO film ``Breast Men.'' A co-founder of Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre Company, where he frequently acts and directs, Schwimmer played the amoral screenwriter Jeff Peltzer in a trio of plays by Roger Kumble. He's slated to star in the independent film ``Duane Hopwood'' and will direct episodes of the ``Friends'' spin-off ``Joey.''

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Sharing their own special goodbye during ``The Oprah Winfrey Show,'' airing Friday - the day after tonight's finale - are Lisa Kudrow, left, Matthew Perry, Courteney Cox Arquette, Winfrey, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer.