Cheryl Hines
Cheryl Hines is an accomplished American actress and comedian, best known for her role as Cheryl David on the critically acclaimed HBO series *Curb Your Enthusiasm*. Born on September 21, 1965, in Miami Beach, Florida, she grew up in Winter Haven and Tallahassee, where she developed an early interest in entertainment. Hines pursued her education in theater and television production at West Virginia University and Florida State University, ultimately earning a communications degree from the University of Central Florida.
After relocating to Los Angeles, she faced initial challenges in her career but gained traction after joining the Groundlings, an esteemed improv comedy troupe. This led to her breakout role on *Curb Your Enthusiasm*, where her improvisational skills and comedic timing earned her multiple Emmy nominations. Hines has also appeared in various television shows and films, including *Suburgatory*, *Along Came Polly*, and *Waitress*. Beyond acting, she has directed a feature film and continues to showcase her talent in both television and film. In her personal life, Hines has been married twice and has a daughter.
Subject Terms
Cheryl Hines
Actor
- Born: September 21, 1965
- Birthplace: Miami Beach, Florida
Contribution: Cheryl Hines is an Emmy-nominated American actor and comedian best known for her role on the HBO comedy seriesCurb Your Enthusiasm
Background
Cheryl Ruth Hines was born on September 21, 1965, in Miami Beach, Florida. She moved with her parents to the rural town of Winter Haven before settling in Tallahassee. Hines knew that she wanted to work in entertainment from an early age.
At West Virginia University and Florida State University, Hines studied theater and television production. She later graduated with a degree in communications from the University of Central Florida. Hines then moved to Los Angeles with the hopes of becoming a comedian and an actor.
Hines had great difficulty succeeding in Hollywood at first, and she had to tend bar at a hotel to support herself. While bartending, she met the sister of comedian and actor Phil Hartman. Hartman's sister told Hines that she should join her in auditioning for the Groundlings, a notable Los Angeles improv comedy troupe where Hartman had gotten the start that led him to Saturday Night Live in 1986.
Career
Hines's audition earned her a spot with the Groundlings, and she was trained in improvisational comedy by experienced comedian Lisa Kudrow of Friends fame. After sufficient training, Hines started performing around Los Angeles with the Groundlings and acquired a degree of success and local fame.
As her comedic career began to pick up in the late 1980s and into the early 1990s, Hines set her sights on television performing. She received a small role in a 1993 episode of the USA Network's sci-fi series Swamp Thing, but the job did nothing to boost her career. Therefore, she continued her work with the Groundlings into the latter years of the decade.
In 1997, Hines secured another television guest spot, this time in an episode of NBC's Unsolved Mysteries. She then appeared in an episode of the WB sitcom The Wayans Bros. (1998) and two episodes of the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan (1998–9).
Despite several years of trying, Hines still could not break through in television and returned to steady work at the Groundlings Theatre. However, in 1999, comedian and television writer Larry David, who had created the hugely successful sitcom Seinfeld with comedian Jerry Seinfeld in 1989, took notice of Hines while she was performing at a Los Angeles comedy club. David was in the process of creating a one-hour comedy special for HBO about a fictional version of himself returning to stand-up comedy after many years. The special was also to focus on David's life, friends, and family—including a wife, a role that David was having difficulty casting. When he saw Hines on stage, however, he immediately felt that she shared his style of humor and might fit the part of his wife.
David invited Hines to audition for the role. Because the special was improvised, Hines was able to use her years of improv experience to deliver a stellar performance and ultimately land the part of Cheryl David. The special, Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm, premiered on HBO in 1999 to rave reviews.
After guest starring in a 2000 episode of the sitcom Friends, Hines learned that David had turned the idea for the special into Curb Your Enthusiasm, an improvised sitcom that revolves around his fictional self and the awkward social situations he gets into in Los Angeles. Hines reprised her role as Cheryl, the no-nonsense wife of the obnoxious and rude David. The first season of the show, broadcast in 2000, received glowing reviews and was soon renewed for a second season to begin airing the following year. Suddenly Hines had found steady, successful work, regularly delivering comedic performances hailed by critics and garnering her Emmy Award nominations for outstanding actress in a comedy series in 2003 and 2006.
Hines's colossal success on Curb Your Enthusiasm soon led to offers of supporting roles in other popular television shows, as well as in feature films. In 2002, she guest starred on an episode of the CBS hit sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond before appearing in the comedy films Along Came Polly (2004) and Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005). She also voiced the character of Kate on the animated television series Father of the Pride (2004–5), costarring with John Goodman and Orlando Jones. The next year, Hines starred with Robin Williams in the poorly reviewed comedy RV and then played a supporting role as a waitress in the 2007 dark comedy Waitress. In 2009, she appeared in the leading role of Jane on ABC's short-lived In the Motherhood.
In the meantime, Hines continued to star on Curb Your Enthusiasm and to receive positive reviews. David, however, mimicking his real-life divorce from his wife in 2007, began writing a plotline in which his television character also gets divorced. The process was finalized in the first episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm's eighth season, broadcast in 2011, and Hines appeared in no more episodes that year, signaling her official departure from the show's main cast.
In 2009, Hines directed her first feature, the poorly received romantic comedy Serious Moonlight. Over the following several years, she appeared in various supporting roles and guest spots on television shows such as Cartoon Network's The Super Hero Squad Show (2010), ABC's Brothers and Sisters (2010), and NBC's Love Bites (2011). In 2011, Hines joined the cast of ABC's Stepford Wives-esque sitcom Suburgatory, a show that deals with mature family issues such as divorce in a humorously surrealist yet engaging manner. In the series, which lasted until 2014, Hines played the role of Dallas Royce, the mother of Carly Chaikin's Dalia Royce.
Hines continued to have a wide variety of minor television roles, generally in comedies. She also appeared in more feature films, although most of these projects received negative reviews and failed to make an impression at the box office. Among her credits were the zombie comedy Life After Beth (2014), the Richard Gere drama The Benefactor (2015), the Kevin Spacey–led cat comedy Nine Lives (2016), and the sequel A Bad Moms Christmas (2017). However, Hines's career picked up once again in 2017 when Curb Your Enthusiasm returned for a ninth season, with her character once again part of the main cast despite remaining divorced from David. She remained with the show for its tenth season as well.
Impact
Hines earned a reputation as a powerful comedic force with her award-nominated performances for many years on Curb Your Enthusiasm. When it comes to improvisational comedy, her relentlessly fast wit stands with the best of any successful comedians of the past or present.
Personal Life
Hines and her husband, Paul Young, who were married in 2002, divorced amicably in 2010, planning to raise their daughter together. Hines began dating Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an attorney and radio host, in 2012. The couple married in 2014.
Principal Works
Television
Curb Your Enthusiasm, 2000–
Suburgatory, 2011–14
This Close, 2018–19
Film
Along Came Polly, 2004
Herbie: Fully Loaded, 2005
RV, 2006
Waitress, 2007
The Ugly Truth, 2009
Life After Beth, 2014
Nine Lives, 2016
A Bad Moms Christmas, 2017
Bibliography
"Cheryl Hines." IMDb, 2019, www.imdb.com/name/nm0385644/. Accessed 12 Dec. 2019.
Hines, Cheryl. "Cheryl Hines Finds a Way Through Impossible in Pasadena." Interview by Jay Handelman. Herald-Tribune [Sarasota, FL].Herald-Tribune, 10 Apr. 2013. Web. 15 Aug. 2013.
Hines, Cheryl. "Cheryl Hines on Mocking, Embracing the Suburbs in ABC's New Comedy Suburgatory." Interview by Denise Martin. TV Guide. CBS Interactive, 27 Sept. 2011. Web. 15 Aug. 2013.
Hines, Cheryl. "Curb Your Enthusiasm's Cheryl Hines on the New Season, the Seinfeld Reunion, and Directing Serious Moonlight." Interview by Eric Kohn. Wall Street Journal Speakeasy. Dow Jones, 17 Sept. 2009. Web. 15 Aug. 2013.
Hines, Cheryl. "Q&A: Cheryl Hines on Suburgatory and Being 'Cheryl.'" Interview by Anna Peele. Esquire. Hearst Communications, 17 Oct. 2012. Web. 15 Aug. 2013.
Hines, Cheryl. "Suburgatory Valentine's Day Episode: Cheryl Hines Talks George and Dallas' Relationship." Interview by Laura Prudom. HuffPost TV. HuffingtonPost.com, 13 Feb. 2013. Web. 15 Aug. 2013.