Joey Tribbiani

Lore & Background

Joey is portrayed as promiscuous and dim-witted but good-natured, as well as very loyal, caring, and protective of his friends. The writers of Friends did not intend his character to be stupid, but Matt LeBlanc played "dim-witted" so well that it became a part of the character. He is a food-loving womanizer who has had more luck with dates than any of the other group members. In contrast to his persona as the "ladies' man", he has also a marked childish side. He enjoys playing video games and foosball, loves sandwiches and pizza, and is a big fan of Baywatch and Beavis and Butt-Head. As a struggling actor, he is constantly looking for work. He was ordained as a minister in "The One with the Truth About London" and officiated at Monica and Chandler's wedding, and also Phoebe and Mike's wedding in Season 10. He does not like sharing food, especially when it is pizza, and has difficulty with even simple mathematics. In sports, Joey likes the New York Yankees in baseball, New York Knicks in basketball, New York Giants in football, and the New York Rangers in hockey.

In Their Own Story

Joey Tribbiani is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, having refused to follow in his father's footsteps and become a pipefitter. He started his acting profession doing stage work, introduced in the show's pilot episode by Monica and Chandler having seen Joey in a production of Pinocchio. Sometime before the start of the series, Joey also had appeared in a porn film, as a fully clothed extra. Joey also mentioned appearing in a play with trolls before getting the leading role of Sigmund Freud in the musical play Freud!, where he was first spotted by his talent agent Estelle Leonard. She immediately got him a film role in the same episode as Al Pacino's "butt double" – a speechless role he later lost due to taking the part too seriously. By then, he said, he had been doing "nothing but crappy plays for six years". Monica and Chandler also once discussed having seen Joey in a version of Macbeth, in which he was unable to pronounce most of the words. In Season Two, Joey gets his big break when he lands his first major role as Dr. Drake Ramoray on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. Several episodes later, Joey costs himself the gig when during an interview with Soap Opera Digest, he radically overstates and claims he writes most of his own lines. This angers the show's writers, who out of spite, "kill off" his character by having Dr. Ramoray fall down an elevator shaft. In Season 7, Joey gets back his role as Dr. Drake Ramoray and is even nominated for an award for Best Returning Character, first as a character in a coma, then revived through a brain transplant with another character, Jessica Lockhart. He later replaces Lockhart as Dr. Drake "Jessica" Ramoray. Later, in the spin-off Joey, it turns out that he loses his role as Dr. Drake Ramoray and has to again hunt for a new job.

Reader's Guide

Joey Tribbiani is the quintessential lovable simpleton whose journey from struggling actor to successful star forms a central pillar of the series. His role is primarily comedic relief, yet his arc reveals significant depth as he navigates self-worth and ambition. His defining skill is natural charisma; he can captivate an audience without needing complex dialogue or deep intellectual understanding. This talent eventually leads him to land the role of Dr. Drake Ramoray on a popular soap opera, marking a major turning point in his career. Defining moments include his realization that friendship outweighs romantic obsession, his famous 'piano' scene where he plays with pure joy, and his eventual departure from New York to pursue a life-changing acting opportunity in California.

Did You Know?

• Joey once mentioned being 13 in 1981.
• He was ordained as a minister in 'The One with the Truth About London' and officiated at Monica and Chandler's wedding, and also Phoebe and Mike's wedding in Season 10.
• Joey's first major role was as Dr. Drake Ramoray on the soap opera Days of Our Lives, a role he lost after claiming he wrote his own lines in an interview with Soap Opera Digest.
• Joey appeared as a fully clothed extra in a porn film sometime before the start of the series.
• In 'The One with Ross' New Girlfriend', it was implied that Joey was sexually abused by his tailor but did not realize it until Chandler went to the same tailor.