Teri Hatcher is an American actress, writer, presenter, and former NFL cheerleader with a remarkable career spanning multiple television roles. She gained widespread recognition for her portrayal of Lois Lane on the ABC series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993-1997) and as Susan Mayer on the television series Desperate Housewives (2004-2012). Her performance on Desperate Housewives earned her numerous accolades, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.
Born Teri Lynn Hatcher in Palo Alto, California, she is the only child of Esther (Beshur),a computer programmer, and Owen Walker Hatcher, Jr., a nuclear physicist and electrical engineer. Her ancestry is a blend of Syrian (from her immigrant maternal grandfather),Frisian, English, and Irish. Growing up in Sunnyvale, California, Teri spent her childhood dancing and fishing with her father. While at Fremont High School, she was captain of the Featherettes, a dance team that wore large headdresses. She was voted "Most Likely to Become a Solid Gold (1980) Dancer" by her graduating class in 1982.
Teri studied acting at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and took a degree course in mathematics and engineering at De Anza College in Cupertino, California. She became a member of the 1984 Gold Rush, the professional cheerleading squad of the American football San Francisco 49ers. Her early television career began with an open casting call, where she auditioned and won the role of the singing and dancing mermaid on the television series The Love Boat (1977). She went on to play "Penny Parker," a ditsy but sweet-hearted struggling actress on MacGyver (1985).
After MacGyver ended, Teri auditioned for and won the role of smart and savvy "Lois Lane" on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993),aiming to break away from her "Penny Parker" image. She married actor Jon Tenney in May 1994 and gave birth to daughter Emerson Tenney on November 10, 1997. Teri later signed to play "Sally Bowles" in a road tour of Cabaret, which debuted in Los Angeles on March 2, 1999. She took a hiatus from the industry before landing a role on the darkly comedic soap opera Desperate Housewives (2004),which became a massive hit, catapulting her to the A-list. Her portrayal of "Susan Mayer" consistently earned her recognition as America's favorite "Desperate Housewife."
