Cheryl Hines

Cheryl Ruth Hines (born September 21, 1965) is an American actress and comedian. She portrayed Cheryl David on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000–2024), earning two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. She also starred as Dallas Royce on the ABC sitcom Suburgatory (2011–2014) and made her directorial debut with the 2009 film Serious Moonlight.

She is married to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the 26th and current U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Early life and education

Hines was born on September 21, 1965, in Miami Beach, Florida, to James and Rosemary Hines. She spent much of her childhood in Tallahassee, where she was actively involved in the Young Actors Theatre. Despite financial hardships—she reportedly did not have her own bed until after high school—she pursued her education at Lively Technical Center and Tallahassee State College before earning a degree in radio and television production from the University of Central Florida in 1990.

Career

Hines began her acting career by performing improvisational comedy at The Groundlings Theater. Her fellow students included Lisa Kudrow. 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 received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on Curb Your Enthusiasm in 2003 and 2006. 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."

Hines appeared in RV with Robin Williams, 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.

Hines served as executive producer for the 2010 reality series School Pride, which follows the renovation of a different school each week. Hines starred as Dallas Royce on the ABC sitcom Suburgatory. The series ended in 2014 after three seasons. 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.

Hines is a panelist on a singing game show, I Can See Your Voice.

Personal life

Hines married Paul Young, founder of the management firm Principato-Young, on December 30, 2002. They had a daughter, Catherine Rose Young, on March 8, 2004. After nearly eight years of marriage, Hines and Young filed for divorce on July 20, 2010.

Hines has been actively involved in advocacy work, particularly with United Cerebral Palsy (UCP). Her involvement began after a nephew was born with cerebral palsy, prompting her to seek resources and support from the organization. Over time, she became a vocal advocate and now serves on UCP's board of trustees. In 2015, Hines and her family won $25,000 for UCP while competing on Celebrity Family Feud.

Hines was raised Roman Catholic.

Marriage to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Hines began dating Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in December 2011 after being introduced by her Curb Your Enthusiasm co-star, Larry David. The couple announced their engagement in April 2014 and married on August 2, 2014, at the Kennedy Compound on Cape Cod. In June 2019, Hines accompanied her husband Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on a trip to Samoa where they were special guests at the country's 57th Independence Celebration in Mulinu'u. While there is no public record of Hines attending Kennedy's meetings with local anti-vaccine influencers, her presence added a degree of Hollywood visibility to the trip.

Hines publicly supported Kennedy during his 2024 presidential campaign and subsequent confirmation as Secretary of Health and Human Services. She appeared at his Senate confirmation hearing alongside other supporters of his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) platform.

In a profile on her in The New York Times in 2023, she is quoted as saying “I see both sides of the vaccine situation,” she said. “There’s one side that feels scared if they don’t get the vaccine, and there’s the side that feels scared if they do get the vaccine, because they’re not sure if the vaccine is safe. And I understand that.” In an October 2025 interview, she said "So my question is, can we do better?, Yes to vaccines, they are important, and they are an important part of our healthcare. Can we do better? Can we make them safer? Can we listen to parents who say, ‘My child got the vaccine and changed and stopped hitting markers, stopped developing the way they were developing.'"

Both Hines and Kennedy attended the memorial service for conservative activist Charlie Kirk in September 2025, saying that the dangerous political climate frightens her "more than anything."

Filmography

Film

Television

Producer

Director

Audio broadcasts

Podcasts

Hosted

• 2020–2024: Tig and Cheryl: True Story – cohosted with Tig Notaro

Guest

• 2020: The Modern Moron Episode 64 and 65
• 2020: Don't Ask Tig
• 2021: Literally! with Rob Lowe
• 2023, 2025: The Tim Dillon Show (with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.)
• 2026: The Joe Rogan Experience

References

External links

• Cheryl Hines at IMDb
• Cheryl Hines - Meet the Grand Marshal of the Springtime Tallahassee Grande Parade