Helen Hunt

Helen Elizabeth Hunt is an American actress and director born on June 15, 1963, in Culver City, California. She is widely known for starring as Jamie Buchman in the television sitcom Mad About You and for her leading roles in major films such as Twister, As Good as It Gets, Cast Away, What Women Want, and Pay It Forward. Over her career, she has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards.

Hunt grew up in a creative family. Her mother, Jane Elizabeth Novis, worked as a photographer, and her father, Gordon Hunt, was a stage, film, and voice director as well as an acting coach. Her uncle Peter H. Hunt was also a director, and her maternal grandmother was a voice coach. When Hunt was three years old, her family relocated to New York City, where her father directed theatre, allowing her to attend plays frequently as a child. She later graduated from Providence High School in Burbank, California, studied ballet, and briefly attended the University of California, Los Angeles.

Hunt began her career as a child actress in the 1970s. Her early television appearances included roles on series such as Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bionic Woman, Ark II, The Swiss Family Robinson, and The Facts of Life. She also appeared in made-for-television movies including Desperate Lives, Bill: On His Own, and Quarterback Princess, alongside recurring television roles on St. Elsewhere and It Takes Two. In the mid-to-late 1980s, Hunt transitioned to feature films, appearing in titles such as Trancers, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Peggy Sue Got Married, Project X, Stealing Home, and Next of Kin.

In 1992, Hunt rose to widespread prominence starring opposite Paul Reiser in the sitcom Mad About You. Her portrayal of public relations specialist Jamie Buchman earned her four Primetime Emmy Awards for Lead Actress and three Golden Globe Awards. During the 1990s, she also achieved major film success. She starred alongside Bill Paxton in the disaster action film Twister (1996) and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance opposite Jack Nicholson in the romantic comedy As Good as It Gets (1997).

Hunt continued her feature film career in 2000 with roles in Dr. T & the Women, Pay It Forward, What Women Want, and Cast Away. She subsequently appeared in films such as The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, A Good Woman, and Bobby, winning a Hollywood Film Festival Award as part of the ensemble cast for Bobby. In 2007, Hunt made her feature film directorial debut with Then She Found Me, a film she also co-wrote and starred in.

In 2012, Hunt starred as Cheryl Cohen-Greene in The Sessions, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Her later acting credits include Soul Surfer, Decoding Annie Parker, The Miracle Season, The Night Clerk, the television series World on Fire, the Mad About You revival, Blindspotting, and Hacks. She also wrote, directed, and starred in the 2014 film Ride, and has directed television episodes for series such as House of Lies, This Is Us, Feud: Bette and Joan, and American Housewife.