by Bill Ernst

Photo by Doug Hyun/HBO

est-known for her role as Cheryl David, Larry David's wife on HBO's hit comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm, Cheryl Hines discusses her early days at UCF and Universal Studios, odd jobs, and starring roles. In addition to co-starring with Robin Williams in RV, she produces Oxygen network's Campus Ladies comedy series and has three movies slated for release this year. Here's how this "Florida girl," Hollywood success, and new mother has positioned herself to become a household name as an actress and a top television producer.

Born in Miami in 1965, Hines has strong roots in Central Florida and still feels at home here, having spent six years in Orlando early in her career. Her family lives in Mt. Plymouth, where she came home to visit this past December for the holidays. She was here in November, too, as the Grand Marshall of the homecoming parade for the University of Central Florida, her alma mater and where her sister, Dr. Rebecca Hines, is an instructor in special needs education.

Backstory
After high school, Hines earned a cosmetology license from Lively Vocational Institute in Tallahassee, and cut hair for about a year to save money to put herself through school at Florida State. But as an FSU student, she found that the demands of a theater degree and working nights was too big a conflict. "The theater department at Florida State is a great department," says Hines. "When you major in theater or acting, many times you have to audition for and work on productions at night. I couldn't do that because I was working as a bartender or waitress to pay my way through school. So I had to change my major." And her school.

Her brother Chris, now a tax appraiser near Tallahassee, encouraged Hines to move to Central Florida. (Her younger brother, Michael, has a flooring company in Mt. Plymouth.) "At that time . . . Chris had moved down to Orlando, and he kept sending me articles about Universal Studios opening in Orlando," she says. "It convinced me to transfer to UCF with the hopes of perhaps getting a job at Universal Studios. So that's when I transferred, and that's when I had to change my major to radio and television. There was just no time for me to work."

The move paid off. After auditioning with about 1,000 others at Universal Studios, she landed a job as the "victim" in the Psycho Soundstage Attraction (now the Shrek 4-D Soundstage) while attending UCF. She graduated with a BA in Communication with a minor in Theater Performance.

Once she switched her major to TV and radio, Hines didn't appear in theatrical productions at UCF. Instead, she produced various projects and news pieces. She did the UCF news on the air, as well, including one never-aired interview with someone with whose path she would cross again—Jerry Seinfeld, who was doing stand-up at the UCF homecoming. "It's funny to think about it now, but I did interview Jerry Seinfeld at the time . . . I only had one camera, [so] it was always Jerry the whole time, and then I had to go back and shoot my questions and reactions. This is even before Seinfeld was on the air," she says. "I've met Jerry several times since then." He and her current boss, Larry David, co-produced Seinfeld.

Photo by Jeff Garner

Although the interview never aired, Hines gained much-needed acting experience here, and she still holds Orlando in high-regard. "My experience was that there are very many talented and creative people in the industry, especially in Orlando," she says, "The theater is very strong in Orlando, a lot of great productions and great actors . . . It was a good starting place for me because I got my first professional job working at Universal Studios. I got paid as an actress to do that. I shot some commercials. I shot some print work. At the time, Swamp Thing was in production there, [and] I got a guest-starring role on Swamp Thing. So it was a good place to start for me."

Among the people Hines worked with at Universal Studios was actor/comedian Wayne Brady. This past November, they were reunited doing Comic Relief from New Orleans for Katrina victims. That appearance came on the heels of serving as the Grand Marshall of the UCF Homecoming Parade two weeks earlier. "It was really fun to come back to Orlando and lead the parade. I did a lot of waving. I got to go to the homecoming game and sit in the presidential box, so that was exciting. My whole family came, and we had a good time."

Life in LA
When Hines ventured from Orlando to make her mark in Hollywood, one of the first places she landed was the famed Groundlings. This improv theater and training ground—LA's answer to Chicago's Second City—has been in business since 1974, and launched the careers of many comedians, including Phil Hartman, Paul Reubens/PeeWee Herman, Jon Lovitz and many other Saturday Night Live cast members, as well as attracting top talent like Conan O'Brien to its workshops. Hines's first Groundlings teacher was Lisa Kudrow of Friends.

Studying at The Groundlings had a tremendous impact on Hines's career. "I'm quite sure that I wouldn't have been cast on Curb Your Enthusiasm if I didn't have improv experience from the Groundlings," says Hines. "I learned a lot at that theater . . . It's a different way to approach acting. What I had learned [before] the Groundlings was to analyze the script, study the script and what the other characters are saying about you and what your character says. But when you're improvising you don't do that at all, because you don't have a script," she says "I'm sure the idea of improvising the dialogue of a sitcom would have been intimidating" if it hadn't been for the Groundlings.

The Groundlings had a tremendous impact in other ways, too. She met her husband-to-be, Paul Young, at a Groundlings Board of Directors meeting (she was on the board and he was the chairman).They married in 2002; their daughter, Catherine Rose, was born in March 2004. Young, who owns management and production company Principato-Young, is Hines's manager.

With Catherine Rose in the family picture, Hines has been doing more voice-over work, but "I don't think it's related," she says. "It just sort of worked out that way. I was offered a short-lived television show called Father of the Pride . . . I got a call from Jeffery Katzenberg asking if I wanted to come to DreamWorks and talk to him about a project. I thought, ‘Are you sure you have the right person?'" she says with a laugh. But she met him, and he told her all about the show. "I said I would love to do it. Then he flew me and John Goodman in a private plane to Las Vegas for the day to meet Sigfried and Roy, and then flew us back home that night. . . . That started my animation [voice] career, I suppose."

Curbside
Even with training and experience, improvisation can still be uncomfortable for some actors, but not Hines. "I really enjoy the freedom of it—it's a really fun way to work. I suppose there is a pressure to it—especially because Curb Your Enthusiasm has become so successful—and people are very critical of the show." she says. "They expect a lot from it, and Larry David delivers. So I suppose when you're improvising with Larry on a hit show on HBO, there is a little bit of pressure that comes with it. Since we don't film it in front of a live audience, I don't really feel that pressure when we're shooting. But if I step back and look at the big picture, I could see how someone could feel intimidated."

Photo by Doug Hyun/HBO

As viewers of the show know, one of the "intimidating" (but funny) things David does on the show is the staredown: David glaring at someone from two-three inches away for six to ten seconds. "I've never had a staredown with him," she says, "But, I do have to say ‘Larry!' a lot. I do ask him, ‘Larry, why would you do that?' I ask him that a lot in real life, too."

But don't let the antics fool you: The cast is close-knit, and that warmth comes through. ("I like Larry and Jeff Garlin, so much. We have a really fun time," she says.) But when she was cast as Larry's wife, she had never met Larry. "That's one of the challenges of improvising: you have to assume a relationship with another character, so you have to imagine what your relationship is like and what it has been like through the years, and you have to incorporate that into your improv."
In real life, Hines and the real Mrs. David, Laurie Lennard (former executive, Late Show with David Letterman), are good friends. "I get along very well with her." she says. "She does a lot of environmental work for the NRDC (Natural Resource Defense Council). She's had a big hand in things—I'm driving a Toyota Prius on the show, and I talk about the NRDC more this season. In real life I've learned from her, as well."

Actors typically incorporate their past experiences into their improvisations, but current experiences find their way into the scripts, too. "There have been a few instances . . . where I said, ‘You wouldn't believe what happened,' and next thing you know, it ended up being in the show." She offers a for-instance: "When I went home for Christmas a few years ago, someone in my family had baked a nativity scene. They constructed it with toasted coconuts and made a display for it. They set it up like a manger scene, and everyone was walking around the house saying, ‘No one eat baby Jesus!' I immediately called [David] . . . and said, ‘If you were at my house right now, you would eat baby Jesus and my family would be upset with you.' And he said, ‘Oh, we have to do that.'" And they did do a show about that.

For the past five years, the critically acclaimed Curb Your Enthusiasm has been a hit. Hines has been nominated for an Emmy as Best Supporting Actress, along with Best Actor for David, and Best Comedy Series for the show. But the sixth—and supposedly final—season is now filming. Does she think it will be the last? "I would say there's probably a 98 percent chance that it's the final season."

Beyond Curb
When Curb's run is curbed for good, Hines will make the move to films, scoping out upcoming film projects. But she's not abandoning TV: "I'd like to continue producing television—it's very exciting. And it's a great way for me to work with my talented friends, so I like that a lot."

"I just wrote a pilot for a TV show with one of my friends (Julie Wells), not for me to star in, but I would love to produce it," she says. It's about personal assistants, which is also based on her own experience: she was working as Rob Reiner's personal assistant just before she landed Curb. "The life of a personal assistant is crazy. You end up doing the strangest things." An example: "Rob was having a fund-raiser for Al Gore in [Reiner's] home. The house was surrounded with Secret Service men. One of the other assistants who were ‘above' me gave me an antique shotgun that was used in the movie Ghosts of Mississippi, which Rob directed. She wanted me to take it to FedEx to mail it to have it framed. I said ‘I am not walking out of this office with a shotgun. I'll be killed!' There are moments like that all the time."

A project already in production is the comedy series Campus Ladies on Oxygen, about two women in their 40s who decide to go back to college. Hines is the executive producer. "My role on Campus Ladies is to help put together the crew. I help find directors for the show. I've directed a few myself. I help cast the show [and] many of our guest stars who appear on the show, like Megan Mullalley, Shawn Hayes, Jason Alexander, Jeff Garlin. All the people I know—I call them up and ask if they're fans of the show and if they'd like to appear on the show. And so far, they have all said yes."

Photo by Joe Lederer

Hollywood Moments
One of Hines biggest starring roles to date was Robin Williams' wife in RV. With that role, the idea of being a "star" hit home for Hines. "I had to stop and pinch myself for a second. When I walked up on the set, there were two director's chairs side by side. One said ‘Robin Williams' and the other said ‘Cheryl Hines.' It was pretty exciting."

So was working with her co-star. "You have someone like Robin Williams . . . who really is a living legend. He's so nice. If he ran into my mother on the street, he would talk to her for ten minutes. He is so personable, and has a lot of energy—he's either really ‘on' or he's very, very quiet, and most people don't get to see the quiet side. But he's a lot of fun to work with."

The star admits to getting a little star-struck now and then. Many top comedians have appeared in Curb over the years, and one of Hines's favorite big-name moments was when, on the show, Larry David landed a role in The Producers on Broadway. "We were shooting Curb in New York, when I walked into the trailer: it was me, Larry, Jeff (Garlin), Mel Brooks, Jerry Seinfeld, David Schwimmer—and then Anne Bancroft came into the trailer. It was one of those life experiences that are priceless . . . you're just sitting there shooting the breeze."

But her everyday life is filled with Hollywood friends. She spent New Year's Eve with some of them, including Kevin Nealon. "Kevin is married to a good friend of mine and we get together a lot." Other friends: Jane Kaczmarek (the mother on Malcolm in the Middle), Megan Mullally (best-known as Karen on Will & Grace), and Allison Janney (The West Wing's CJ Craig). "We like to hang out every so often," she says.

Winner
This year will be busy for Hines. She has three feature films coming out soon. Waitress, a romantic comedy in which she stars with Keri Russell, made its world premiere in January at the Sundance Film Festival. She has voice work in the upcoming animated feature, The Legend of Secret Pass, with a cast that includes Graham Greene, Shelley Berman and Frankie Muniz. And the poker film The Grand takes her back to improv. The cast, which also includes Ray Liotta, Woody Harrelson, David Schwimmer, Jeff Goldblum and Jason Alexander will improvise most of the dialogue as they play poker on their way to a fake tournament.

Of course, Hines doesn't need to gamble when it comes to her career. Her talent, hard work, good humor and winning ways seem to be enough, and are definitely paying off. S

Bill Ernst is the publisher of Seminole magazine.