Cheryl Hines

Cheryl Hines (born September 21, 1965, Miami Beach, Florida, U.S.) is an American actress best known for playing the role of Cheryl David, the wife of comedian and writer Larry David, in the acclaimed sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000–24). She is married to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the son of the late U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of the late U.S. president John F. Kennedy.

Early life

Hines was raised in Tallahassee, Florida, by her father, James Hines, who worked as a contractor in the construction industry, and her mother, Rosemary (née Graham) Hines, who worked at the Florida Department of Revenue. She attended Leon High School in Tallahassee, where she was a member of the Young Actors Theatre. After graduating from high school, she initially attended cosmetology school and later went on to earn a degree in communications from the University of Central Florida in 1990. She landed her first acting job at Universal Studios Florida Theme Park in Orlando, recreating actress Janet Leigh’s iconic shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller Psycho (1960) before a live audience. She wore a flesh-toned bodysuit for the role, and during each performance an audience member would be invited onstage to act out the famous scene by menacing her with a rubber knife.

Career

Hines moved to Los Angeles in 1994 and worked as director Rob Reiner’s personal assistant, mostly running errands and organizing events. She also worked as a bartender at the InterContinental hotel, where her coworkers raised money to help fund her first improvisational comedy class at the Groundlings Theatre, which had helped launch the careers of comic actors Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, and Melissa McCarthy, among others. One of Hines’s first teachers there was actress Lisa Kudrow, who soon rose to stardom playing Phoebe Buffay on the widely popular sitcom Friends (1994–2004). Hines learned to improvise and write comedy sketches—skills that would serve her well when she landed her breakout role on Curb Your Enthusiasm, which features dialogue that is mostly improvised and follows a general plot outline.

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Producer and director Robert Weide saw Hines perform at a comedy showcase and invited her to audition for the 1999 HBO special Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm, which spawned the long-running comedy series. Recalling the audition in a 2003 interview with Variety magazine, Hines said, “I had no idea what I was doing until I got into the room. Larry said, ‘We’re married. Let’s just try something.’ ” She said it was an adjustment to perform without the immediate feedback of a live audience.

Hines noted that she had performed in mostly minor roles before auditioning for Curb Your Enthusiasm, but that helped her land the part, because the show’s creators were seeking a relatively unknown actress. David was impressed with her audition and lauded her unflappable comedic instincts in a 2007 Washington Post interview: “I can’t say enough good things about her. She’s unoffendable. And she has less ego than anybody I’ve ever worked with. She knows exactly where to take a scene to make it funny, and she’ll sacrifice herself completely for the scene.”

In addition to her work in Curb Your Enthusiasm, Hines appeared in the sitcoms In the Motherhood (2009) and Suburgatory (2011–14) and the animated–live action comedy series Son of Zorn (2016–17). She acted opposite Robin Williams in the road comedy film RV in 2006 and played a supporting role in the comedy-drama Waitress in 2007. Hines made her feature-film directorial debut with the dark comedy Serious Moonlight in 2009, and she also directed the “Artificial Fruit” episode from the 10th season of Curb Your Enthusiasm in 2020. She appeared in the zombie comedy film Life After Beth and the romantic comedy Think Like a Man Too in 2014. Additionally, she is a panelist on the musical game show I Can See Your Voice (2020– ).

Hines received Emmy Award nominations for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series in 2003 and 2006 for her work on Curb Your Enthusiasm. She was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2014.

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Personal life

In 2002 she married television and film producer Paul Young, who was chairman of the Groundlings Theatre at the time. The couple had a daughter, Catherine Rose, in 2004, and divorced in 2010.

In 2014 Hines married Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, at the home of Kennedy’s mother, Ethel Kennedy. In 2023 Kennedy launched a long-shot campaign for U.S. president in the Democratic primary, during which he espoused controversial views regarding vaccines and other topics. Hines told The New York Times in a 2023 profile that while she supports her husband, “I don’t feel the need to go to every political event, because I do have my own career.”