- Source of Wealth: Film, Television
- Age: 56
- Birth Place: Culver City, California, United States
- Height: 5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
- Marital Status: In a relationship (Matthew Carnahan)
- Full Name: Helen Elizabeth Hunt
- Nationality: American
- Date of Birth: June 15, 1963
- Ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jewish, English
- Occupation: Actress, Director, Screenwriter
- Education: University of California, Los Angeles
- Children: 1 (Makena Lei Gordon)
She started working at an early age with regular television series roles. She rose to fame for her performance in “Mad about You”, which was aired from 1996 to 1999 and fetched her the Emmy award. In 1998, she won an Oscar award for her enchanting performance in the movie “As Good As It Gets”. Helen played the role of a waitress and a single mother who was falling for an obsessive-compulsive novelist portrayed by Jack Nicholson.
Soon, she took time off to appear as Viola in Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”, at the Lincoln Center in New York. In the following years, Hunt has worked with many famous actors such as – Richard Gere (Dr. T & the Women), Kevin Spacey and Haley Joel Osment (Pay It Forward), Mel Gibson (What Women Want), and Tom Hanks (Castaway), among others. In 2003, she returned to Broadway with ‘Yasmina Reza’s Life x 3’.
Hunt, being born to a director father (Gordon E. Hunt) also took directing. Over the years, particularly in the later part of her career, Helen has tried her hand at direction. Helen has also directed many episodes of “Mad about You” including the finale.
She hit the big screen with her directorial debut film called, “Then She Found Me”, which also starred Colin Firth, Mathew Broderick and Hunt herself. The film released in 2007. Hunt presently owns her production house under Sony Pictures Entertainment. Helen has won four Emmys, four Golden Globes, two SAGs, and an Oscar.