Bio
Teri Hatcher is an Emmy-nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning American actress and author who first gained attention for her role as Lois Lane in the television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and later shot to super-stardom with her portrayal of accident-prone divorcee Susan Myers on Desperate Housewives.
Hatcher's successful portrayal of Susan Mayer earned her a 2005 Golden Globe Award (Best Actress in a Leading Role, Musical or Comedy, Television), a 2005 Screen Actors Guild Award (Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series), a 2006 Golden Globe Award nomination, a 2005 Television Critics Award nomination and a 2005 Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy.
The role of the single mom searching for love in the sometimes sordid, always intriguing world of Wisteria Lane has vaulted Hatcher to the pinnacle of today's hottest comic actresses.
Hatcher has become a household name not just in the U.S.; Desperate Housewives' European success resulted in Hatcher's recent honour by the U.K. edition of Glamour magazine as one of its 2005 Women of the Year. The award was presented to her by Sir Elton John.
Among the many highlights of her career is hosting Saturday Night Live, which had USA Today commenting, "She gives one of the best and most energetic performances by a good-sport host in a long time."
What's more, the sketches she did with Molly Shannon, David Spade and Chris Kattan have become part of SNL's Best Of.
Other favourite roles include that of Sally Bowles in the national tour of the Tony Award-winning musical, Cabaret, and in Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues.
Of all her film credits, Hatcher still considers the first movie she ever made - The Big Picture, directed by Christopher Guest - to be her favourite.
Other movies that followed were Soapdish, with Kevin Kline, Two Days in the Valley, Spy Kids, directed by Roberto Rodriguez, and as "Bond" girl Paris Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies, opposite Pierce Brosnan.
Hatcher became a New York Times best-selling author with her first book, Burnt Toast and Other Philosophies of Life, which was released in May 2006.
In the critically acclaimed bestseller she offers a personal, heartfelt and often very funny manifesto on life, love and the lessons we all need to learn - and unlearn - on the road to happiness.
Hatcher is also well known for her involvement in worthy causes, including the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance, the Starlight Starbright Foundation and the Make A Wish Foundation.
She was honoured in 1996 with the Aviva Centers Spirit of Compassion Award. She is a generous, long-time supporter of the organisation, which provides services to adolescent victims of abuse.
She has also been a strong advocate of both AIDS Walk Los Angeles and AIDS Walk New York, and an active participant in the battle against breast cancer.
The gown Hatcher wore to the 2005 Golden Globe Awards was sold at auction to benefit Clothes Off Our Backs, as was a Versace couture dress from an In Style Magazine cover shoot.
E! Entertainment Television named her the network's Best Dressed Woman.
Among her pop culture honours, Hatcher has had the distinction of being the most downloaded image on the internet the year she posed wrapped in Superman's cape - and nothing else.
She has also been honoured by the Hollywood Women's Press Club as "Discovery of the Year."
In March 2006, Hatcher revealed to Vanity Fair that she was sexually abused from the age of 5 by her then uncle, Richard Hayes Stone (who was later divorced by Hatcher's aunt).
Her parents, she said, were unaware of the abuse at the time.
In 2002, she assisted Santa Clara County prosecutors in indicting Stone for a more recent molestation that led his female victim to commit suicide at the age of 14.
Stone pleaded guilty to four counts of molestation and was sentenced to 14 years in prison.