Early life

Hunt was born in Culver City, California. Her mother, Jane Elizabeth (née Novis), worked as a photographer, and her father, Gordon Hunt, is a film, voice and stage director and acting coach. Her uncle, Peter H. Hunt, is also a director. Her maternal grandmother, Dorothy (Anderson) Fries, was a voice coach. 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. 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. Hunt studied ballet, and briefly attended UCLA.

Career

Hunt began working as a child actress in the 1970s. Her early roles included an appearance as Murray Slaughter's daughter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, alongside Lindsay Wagner in an episode of The Bionic Woman, an appearance in an episode of Ark II called Omega, and a regular role in the television series The Swiss Family Robinson. She appeared as a marijuana-smoking classmate on an episode of The Facts of Life. Hunt also played a young woman who, while on PCP, jumps out of a second-story window, in a 1982 TV movie called Desperate Lives (a scene which she mocked during a Saturday Night Live monologue in 1994). That same year, Hunt was cast on the ABC sitcom It Takes Two, which lasted a single season. In the mid-1980s, she had a recurring role on St. Elsewhere as Clancy Williams, the girlfriend of Dr. Jack "Boomer" Morrison. She played Jennie in the television movie Bill: On His Own, co-starring Mickey Rooney. She also starred in the 1985 film Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, with Sarah Jessica Parker and Shannen Doherty.

In the 1990s, after playing the lead female role in the short-lived My Life and Times, Hunt starred in the series Mad About You, winning Emmy Awards for her performances in 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999. For the last year of the show she and Paul Reiser became the first actors ever to be paid $1,000,000 per episode. Hunt directed several episodes of Mad About You, including the series finale. Her big-screen directorial debut came with the film Then She Found Me, in which she also starred, with Colin Firth and Matthew Broderick. In 1998, Hunt won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the movie As Good as It Gets of a waitress and single mother who finds herself falling in love with an obsessive-compulsive romance novelist played by Jack Nicholson. After winning the Academy Award, she took time off from movie work to play Viola in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, at Lincoln Center in New York. In 2000, Hunt starred in four films: Dr. T & the Women, with Richard Gere; Pay It Forward, with Kevin Spacey and Haley Joel Osment; What Women Want, with Mel Gibson; and Cast Away, with Tom Hanks. In 2003, she returned to Broadway in Yasmina Reza's Life x 3. In 2006, Hunt appeared in the ensemble cast film Bobby alongside Demi Moore, Anthony Hopkins, Sharon Stone and William H. Macy. In 2011, in the movie Soul Surfer, she played the mother of the Hawaiian-born champion surfer Bethany Hamilton, on whose life the movie was based.

In 2012, she starred alongside John Hawkes and William H. Macy in The Sessions as sex surrogate Cheryl Cohen-Greene. The movie and her performance were very well reviewed and earned her several award nominations, including an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

She owns a production company with Connie Tavel, Hunt/Tavel Productions under Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Personal life

Hunt started dating actor Hank Azaria in 1994 and they married in 1999, only to divorce 17 months later. She has been partnered with producer/writer/director Matthew Carnahan since 2001. They have a daughter, Makena Lei Gordon Carnahan, born on May 13, 2004.

Filmography

Main article: Helen Hunt filmography

Awards and nominations

Hunt has been recognized extensively in her career. In 1998 she won a Golden Globe Award, an Academy Award and an Emmy Award in the same year. Hunt was nominated for an Emmy Award for lead actress in a comedy seven years in a row, from 1993 through 1999, winning in the last four years.

Year	Work	Association	Category	Result
1993-95	Mad About You	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series	Nominated
1993/96/98		Golden Globe Awards	Best Actress - Television Series Musical or Comedy	Nominated
1994-96		American Comedy Award	Funniest Female Performer in a TV Series	Won
1994/95/97		Golden Globe Awards	Best Actress - Television Series Musical or Comedy	Won
1995		Screen Actors Guild	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series	Won
1995-98			Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series	Nominated
1996-98			Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series	Nominated
1996-99		Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series	Won
1997-99		Satellite Awards	Best Actress - Television Series Musical or Comedy	Nominated
1996	Twister	Blockbuster Entertainment Award	Favorite Actress - Action/Adventure	Won
		Saturn Awards	Best Actress	Nominated
		MTV Movie Awards	Best Performance	Nominated
1997	As Good as It Gets	Academy Awards	Best Actress	Won
		American Comedy Awards	Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture (Leading Role)	Won
		Blockbuster Entertainment Awards	Favorite Actress - Video	Won
		Florida Film Critics Circle	Best Actress	Won
		Golden Globe Awards	Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy	Won
		Satellite Awards	Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy	Won
		Screen Actors Guild	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role	Won
		Chicago Film Critics Association	Best Actress	Nominated
		Empire Awards	Best Actress	Nominated
		MTV Movie Awards	Best Performance	Nominated
		Los Angeles Film Critics Association	Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress	Nominated
1999	Mad About You	American Comedy Awards	Funniest Female Performer in a TV Series	Nominated
		People's Choice Awards	Favorite Female Television Performer	Won
2000	What Women Want	Blockbuster Entertainment Awards	Favorite Actress - Comedy/Romance	Won
	Cast Away		Favorite Supporting Actress - Drama	Won
		MTV Movie Awards	Best Kiss	Nominated
2005	Empire Falls	Gracie Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actress - Drama Special	Won
2006	Bobby	Hollywood Film Festival	Ensemble of the Year	Won
		Screen Actors Guild	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture	Nominated
2007	Then She Found Me	Alliance of Women Film Journalists	Best Leap from Actress to Director	Won
		Ashland Independent Film Festival	Rogue Award	Won
		Palm Springs International Film Festival	Best Narrative Feature	Won
2012	The Sessions	Alliance of Women Film Journalists	Best Depiction Of Nudity, Sexuality, or Seduction	Won
		Independent Spirit Awards	Best Supporting Female	Won
		San Francisco Film Critics Circle	Best Supporting Actress	Won
		St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association	Best Supporting Actress	Won
		Sundance Film Festival	U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Acting	Won
		Academy Award	Best Supporting Actress	Nominated
		BAFTA Award	BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role	Nominated
		Broadcast Film Critics Association	Best Actress in a Supporting Role	Nominated
		Chicago Film Critics Association	Best Actress	Nominated
		Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association	Best Supporting Actress	Nominated
		Detroit Film Critics Society	Best Supporting Actress	Nominated
		Golden Globe Awards	Supporting Actress - Motion Picture	Nominated
		Houston Film Critics Society	Best Supporting Actress	Nominated
		Online Film Critics Society	Best Supporting Actress	Nominated
		San Diego Film Critics Society	Best Actress	Nominated
		Satellite Awards	Best Supporting Actress	Nominated
		Screen Actors Guild	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role	Nominated
		Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association	Best Supporting Actress	Nominated

Charities

Helen Hunt supports the following charitable cause: Cancer.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]