Cheryl Ruth Hines (born September 21, 1965) is an American actress and director, best known for playing the role of Larry David's wife, Cheryl, on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, for which she has been nominated for two Emmy Awards. She also starred as Dallas Royce on the ABC sitcom Suburgatory and made her directorial debut in 2009 with the film Serious Moonlight. Early life Hines was born in Miami Beach, Florida, a daughter of James and Rosemary Hines. Part of her family came from Frostproof, Florida, but she grew up in Tallahassee, where she was a member of the Young Actors Theatre throughout high school. Hines also attended Lively Technical Center and Tallahassee Community College in Tallahassee. She was raised Catholic, and has two brothers and a sister. She attended West Virginia University and Florida State University before graduating from the University of Central Florida. Career Before getting her break in Hollywood, Hines worked as a waitress, television reporter and telephone operator, as well as personal assistant to Rob Reiner after she moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting. She enjoyed 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 began her acting career by performing improvisational comedy at The Groundlings Theater. Among the people with whom she studied was Lisa Kudrow. She also learned to write comedy sketches—which served her well when working on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm as Larry David's fictional wife, Cheryl. The show is written using the retroscripting technique in which the plot outlines are generally and loosely drawn—and then the individual actors improvise to create the dialogue ad lib. "When the show first came out people from Tallahassee thought, 'Well, maybe Cheryl got married'", she recalls of the show's initial reception. "Sometimes, I do feel like I live two lives." Hines received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on Curb Your Enthusiasm in 2003 and 2006. Speaking about being cast on the show, Hines 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 opposite Robin Williams, Waitress with Keri Russell, and the 2008 mockumentary The Grand,