Having been the most frequently downloaded female artist from the Internet in the late '90s, Teri Lynn Hatcher certainly has scored one thing that distinguishes her from other television and movie stars. Nevertheless, this stunning actress had undergone a long and winding road to embrace what she has finally achieved. Born on December 8, 1964 in Palo Alto, California, she used to make public performances as a student of San Juan Girls' Ballet Studio in Los Altos. During her study at Fremont High School, she joined Featherettes, her school dance team which looked like a cheerleader squad, and quickly was appointed to be its captain. This only child of Owen and Esther Hatcher then smoothly took a higher step in 1984 when she was included in Gold Rush, the professional cheerleading squad of the American football San Francisco 49ers.

Her love to entertain people brought her to take acting class at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater after her high school graduation in 1982 while she also entered De Anza College in Cupertino, California to pursue a degree in mathematics and engineering. In 1985, however, her course of life slightly changed when she accompanied a nervous friend to an open casting call of Aaron Spelling's "The Love Boat" (1977-1986). Instead of her friend, Teri surprisingly earned a role as Amy of The Mermaids, leading her to postpone plan to transfer to California Polytechnic Institute. As the series came to its end, she then appeared in two other TV shows of "Capitol" and "Mac Gyver", the latter consequently gave her a chance to be in the same scenes with male lead Richard Dean Anderson, who later became her sweetheart. Sadly, this love relationship only went for a few years.

No long after the split, Teri shockingly decided to marry a personal trainer named Markus Leithold in June 1988. To her dismal, their marriage did not last long for they quickly separated less than a year ten. Despite this miserable condition, Teri kept working on her acting career, landing her big screen debut in "The Big Picture" (1989) alongside Kevin Bacon and Jennifer Jason Leigh. She afterwards took roles in both television and movie projects, among others "Tango & Cash" (1989), "Soapdish" (1991), "Dead in the Water" (1991), and "Straight Talk" (1992). But it was in year 1993 that her star started to shine when she won the role of Lois Lane in "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman." An instant hit, the series undeniably brought her to widespread popularity along with a lot of devoted fans. Her happiness was doubled as she found her new love in actor Jon Tenney whom she eventually married in May 1994.

Becoming a rising star, it was easy for Teri to make many performances either in TV or films throughout the first half of the 1990s. She showed up as a guest star in "Seinfeld" and took roles in the movies, like "The Cool Surface" (1994) and "Heaven's Prisoners" (1996) as well as appearing in "Late Show with David Letterman" and "The Rosie O'Donnell Show." During this time, she tried to explore another potentiality within her by writing an episode of "Lois & Clark" entitled "It's a Small World After All" which was aired in 1996. On November 10, 1997, she happily welcomed her daughter, Emerson Rose Tenney, the same year "Lois & Clark" came to its last episode. By the early 2000s, the beauty had already established herself as a Hollywood renowned actress through several box-office movies like "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997) and "Spy Kids" (2001), in the meantime made her first venture in stage production by playing Sally Bowles in the road tour of "Cabaret."

2003 proved to be a cloudy year for Teri since she had to face another marriage break-up as well as a lack of career prospect. "I was in some deeply, deeply sad places," she recalled. "I wanted something to be solid for Emerson. When I was crying there, I was feeling I wouldn't be able to pay my mortgage for much longer - there was a lot of money that I'd had that I didn't have anymore. That was a low point." Nevertheless, things gradually were able to run smoothly by the following year when she was cast as a leading role in ABC's "Desperate Housewives." The series received wonderful response, striving to be a mega hit program with million enthusiastic audiences. It also brought Teri's name up to the surface again, ultimately leading her to achieve a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy in 2005 plus the SAG Award for Female Actor in a Comedy Series. Once faintly gleamed, her star indeed glowed brightly for that time.

Following the achievement, Teri was then honored the British magazine Glamour's Women of the Year Award for her talent to combine motherhood and a career, while looking glamorous at the same time. Still in the same year, she also was named US TV Actress of the Year for her portrayal in "Desperate Housewives." Handed both awards in London on June 7, 2005, the actress commented "I flew in today from California. I'm red-eyed, tired and drunk...I hope I inspire women to believe just how much can change in just one year." The more success she achieved, the more hectic her schedule was as she's been chosen as the new spokeswoman for Clairol's Nice 'n Easy hair color, that will have her stars in both print and TV ads for the at-home product.

Everything really turned out good for Teri as she once again was able to find a new love in Stephen Kay, a director who once dated her "Desperate Housewives" co-star Eva Longoria, and happily proclaimed their relationship in "Extra" aired on November 24, 2006. Sad to say, the pair later on split up. In contrast to this rocky path of her private life, her acting career went quite velvety for she managed to score role in "Resurrecting the Champ" (2007), which also included Josh Hartnett and Samuel L. Jackson in the cast, before taking a voice stint in Henry Selick's animated feature "Coraline" (2009) as the titular character's mother.