Helen Hunt made her splash in the mid-1990s with the NBC series Mad About You, a kind of homage to late-baby-boom couplehood. After appearing in several TV roles in the '80s, she moved into feature films, including Francis Ford Coppola's Peggy Sue Got Married (1986, with Nicolas Cage) and Bob Roberts (1992). Her success on TV in the '90s led to higher profile movies, including a starring role in As Good As It Gets (1997, with Jack Nicholson), for which she won an Oscar. Her other films include Dr. T and the Women (2000, with Richard Gere), Cast Away (2000, with Tom Hanks), What Women Want (2000, with Mel Gibson), Woody Allen's The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion (2001) and The Sessions (2012, starring John Hawkes).

Hunt once appeared as Gavin MacLeod's daughter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.