Helen Elizabeth Hunt (born June 15, 1963) is an American actress,
film director, and
screenwriter. She starred in the
sitcom Mad About You for seven years, before being cast in the
romantic comedy As Good As It Gets, for which she won the
Academy Award for Best Actress. Some of her other
Hollywood credits include
Twister,
Cast Away,
What Women Want and
Pay It Forward. She made her directorial debut in 2008 with
Then She Found Me.
Early life
Hunt was born in
Culver City, California, the daughter of Jane Elizabeth (
née Novis), a
photographer, and
Gordon Hunt, a film director and acting coach.
[Helen Hunt genealogy. Rootsweb.com.] Her uncle,
Peter H. Hunt, is also a director, and her maternal grandmother, Dorothy Fries (
née Anderson) was a voice coach.
[Helen Hunt biography. Film Reference.com.] Hunt is of
Jewish (from her paternal grandmother)
and
Methodist background.
She spent part of her childhood in
New York City and later attended the
University of California at Los Angeles.
[Helen Hunt Biography - Yahoo! Movies]
