Cheryl Hines (born September 21, 1965)^[1] is an American actress and comedian who portrayed Larry David's wife Cheryl on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, for which she has been nominated for two Emmy Awards. She also starred as Dallas Royce on the ABC sitcom Suburgatory and made her directorial debut in 2009 with the film Serious Moonlight. Hines is married to lawyer and 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Hines was born in Miami Beach, Florida, to James and Rosemary Hines.^[2]

Part of her family came from Frostproof, Florida,^[3] but she grew up in Tallahassee,^[3] where she was a member of the Young Actors Theatre throughout high school. Hines also attended Lively Technical Center and Tallahassee Community College in Tallahassee. She graduated from the University of Central Florida in 1990 with a degree in Radio and Television production. She was raised Catholic.^[4]

Hines made guest appearances on television shows such as Swamp Thing and Unsolved Mysteries. She also appeared on an episode of The Dating Game in 1996. She was not picked on the episode.

Hines began her acting career by performing improvisational comedy at The Groundlings Theater. Her fellow students included Lisa Kudrow.^[3] She also learned to write comedy sketches, which served her well when working on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, since the show is written using the retroscripting technique, in which the plot outlines are generally and loosely drawn. Then the individual actors improvise to create the dialogue ad lib.

"When the show first came out, people from Tallahassee thought, 'Well, maybe Cheryl got married,'" she recalls of the show's initial reception. "Sometimes, I do feel like I live two lives."^[4] Hines received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on Curb Your Enthusiasm in 2003 and 2006.^[5] She has said that "Until Curb, I'd done small roles, really small roles. They wanted to cast an unknown actress. It worked in my favor that I hadn't done anything. It changed my life."^[6]

Hines appeared in RV opposite Robin Williams,^[7] Waitress with Keri Russell, and the 2008 mockumentary The Grand, a spoof of the World Series of Poker. Her 2009 directorial debut Serious Moonlight stars Meg Ryan with a script by the late Adrienne Shelly, Hines' director and co-star in Waitress.

Hines played Jane in the 2009 ABC sitcom In the Motherhood. It is a loose adaptation of the web series. The series was dropped due to low ratings after five of its planned seven episodes were aired.

During the 2009–2010 season of Brothers & Sisters, Hines guest-starred as Kitty Walker McCallister's campaign manager, Buffy. In July 2010, Hines was announced to be joining the cast of the Nickelodeon film based on The Fairly OddParents, A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner! as a human disguise of Wanda, Timmy's fairy godmother.^[8]

Hines served as executive producer for the 2010 reality series School Pride, which follows the renovation of a different school each week.^[9] Hines starred as Dallas Royce on the ABC sitcom Suburgatory.^[10] The series ended in 2014 after three seasons.^[11] She appeared in We Need Help, a web series airing on Yahoo! Screen.

On January 29, 2014, Hines received the 2,516th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.^[12]

As of 2020, she has been a permanent panelist on a singing game show, I Can See Your Voice.

Hines married Paul Young, founder of the management firm Principato-Young, on December 30, 2002. Their daughter Catherine Rose Young was born on March 8, 2004. On July 20, 2010, Hines and Young filed for divorce after nearly eight years of marriage.^[13]

When a nephew was born with cerebral palsy, Hines contacted United Cerebral Palsy for answers and resources. Over time, she became involved with UCP and has used her celebrity status to help elevate its visibility.^[14] Hines serves on the board of trustees of United Cerebral Palsy.^[15] Hines and her family won $25,000 for UCP on the July 12, 2015, episode of Celebrity Family Feud.

In December 2011, Hines began dating Robert F. Kennedy Jr..^[16] They were introduced by Hines's co-star Larry David, from the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm.^[17] They announced their engagement in April 2014,^[18] and were married on August 2, 2014 at the Kennedy Compound on Cape Cod.^[19] Robert Kennedy Jr. announced in April 2023 that he was running as an Independent for president of the United States in 2024. Hines said in an interview: "I support Bobby and I want to be there for him, and I want him to feel loved and supported by me."^[20]