Helen Hunt
Helen Elizabeth Hunt (born June 15, 1963) is an American actress and director. Her accolades include an Academy Award, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards.
This article is about the American actress. For other uses, see Helen Hunt (disambiguation).
Helen Hunt
University of California, Los Angeles (no degree)
- Actress
- director
- screenwriter
1976–present
Matthew Carnahan
(2001–2017)
1
- Gordon Hunt (father)
Peter H. Hunt (uncle), B. J. Ward (stepmother)
Hunt rose to fame portraying newlywed Jamie Buchman in the sitcom Mad About You (1992–1999), which earned her three Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress and four Primetime Emmy Awards for Lead Actress. Hunt won the Academy Award for Best Actress for starring as a single mother in the romantic comedy film As Good as It Gets (1997), and established a film career by starring in Twister (1996), Cast Away (2000), What Women Want (2000), and Pay It Forward (2000).
Hunt made her directorial film debut with Then She Found Me (2007). For her portrayal of Cheryl Cohen-Greene in The Sessions (2012), she gained a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her other notable films include Bobby (2006), Soul Surfer (2011), and The Miracle Season (2018), and she has directed the film Ride (2014), and episodes of television series, including House of Lies in 2016, This Is Us in 2016, Feud: Bette and Joan in 2017, American Housewife in 2018, and the premiere episode of the Mad About You revival in 2019.
Early life[edit]
Helen Hunt was born in Culver City, California. Her mother, Jane Elizabeth (née Novis), worked as a photographer, and her father, Gordon Hunt, was a film, voice and stage director and acting coach.[1] Her uncle, Peter H. Hunt, was also a director. Her maternal grandmother, Dorothy (née Anderson) Fries, was a voice coach.[2] Hunt's paternal grandmother was from a German-Jewish family, while Hunt's other grandparents were of English descent (her maternal grandfather was born in England), with a Methodist religious background.[3][4][5][6]
When she was three, Hunt's family moved to New York City, where her father directed theatre and Hunt attended plays as a child several times a week.[7] Hunt graduated from Providence High School in Burbank, California.[8] She also studied ballet, and briefly attended the University of California, Los Angeles.[7][9][10]
Personal life[edit]
In 1994, Hunt started dating actor Hank Azaria. They married in 1999, and divorced 17 months later.[1] In 2001, Hunt began a relationship with producer Matthew Carnahan. In 2004, they had a daughter.[1][42] The couple split in August 2017.[43][44]
Hunt was one of the demonstrators at the 2017 Women's March held on January 21 in Los Angeles, California.[45]