Helen Hunt

Helen Hunt was married to actor Hank Azaria from 1999 to 2000. She began a relationship with writer-producer Matthew Carnahan in 2001, and they had a daughter, Makena Lei Carnahan. Hunt and Carnahan separated in 2017.

In October 2019, Hunt was hospitalized after being involved in a car accident in Los Angeles. She avoided major injuries and returned to work the following week. She also participated in the 2017 Women's March in Los Angeles.

Hunt was introduced to acting by her father, Gordon Hunt, a director, acting coach, and theater director. Her mother, Jane Hunt, worked as a photographer. After her family moved to New York City when she was three, Hunt attended plays several times a week and decided early that she wanted to act.

She made her first screen appearance in the 1973 television movie Pioneer Woman when she was nine. Her early television work included Amy Prentiss, The Swiss Family Robinson, The Fitzpatricks, and It Takes Two. She also received attention for playing a high school football player in the television film Quarterback Princess and later had a recurring role on St. Elsewhere.

Hunt made her feature-film debut in Rollercoaster in 1977. During the 1980s, she appeared in Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Peggy Sue Got Married, and Project X, while continuing to work in television movies and series.

Hunt became widely known in 1992 when she was cast as Jamie Buchman in the sitcom Mad About You, opposite Paul Reiser. The series followed the experiences of a married couple in New York City. Hunt won four consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series from 1996 through 1999, as well as four Golden Globe Awards for her work on the show. She also directed several episodes, including the series finale, and reprised the role in the 2019 revival.

Her film breakthrough came with Twister in 1996, in which she played tornado researcher Jo Harding opposite Bill Paxton. The film became one of the year's top-grossing releases. The following year, Hunt starred opposite Jack Nicholson in As Good as It Gets as Carol Connelly, a single mother and waitress. Her performance earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress, along with a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Hunt followed her Oscar win with an acclaimed performance as Viola and Cesario in a 1998 production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center. In 2000, she appeared in Pay It Forward, What Women Want, Dr. T & the Women, and Cast Away, the latter directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks.

Hunt made her feature-film directing debut with Then She Found Me in 2007. She also cowrote, produced, and starred in the comedy-drama, playing a Brooklyn elementary school teacher whose life changes after a woman played by Bette Midler claims to be her biological mother. Matthew Broderick and Colin Firth also appeared in the film.

She returned to directing with Ride in 2014, writing the screenplay and playing a mother who travels to California after her son drops out of college to pursue surfing. Hunt also produced the film. Her television directing credits include episodes of Californication, Revenge, House of Lies, This Is Us, Feud, Life in Pieces, American Housewife, and The Politician.

Hunt's work behind the camera has included both feature films and television projects. She also served as a producer on Mad About You, including its 2019 revival.

In The Sessions (2012), Hunt played Cheryl Cohen-Greene, a sex therapist who works with a disabled man. Her performance earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and additional critics' and industry recognition.

Her later acting credits included Soul Surfer, Bobby, Decoding Annie Parker, The Miracle Season, World on Fire, I See You, and The Night Clerk. In Soul Surfer, she played Cheri Hamilton, the mother of surfer Bethany Hamilton. In The Miracle Season, she portrayed volleyball coach Kathy Bresnahan.

Hunt also appeared as Rainey in the Starz series Blindspotting from 2021 to 2023 and played network executive Winnie Landell in Hacks in 2024 and 2025. Her stage work has included Yasmina Reza's Life x 3 on Broadway and Eureka Day at London's Old Vic.