Bonnie Hunt, born and raised in Illinois, started her career when she joined up with the famed Second City theater group, and went on to appear in their productions "Bright Lights, Night Baseball," "Jean Paul Sartre and Ringo" and "How Green Were My Values." She took three days off of her day job to shoot her feature film debut, Barry Levinson's Oscar-winning Best Picture "Rain Man." Hunt moved to Los Angeles shortly thereafter and helped launch a West Coast offshoot of Second City, while making her primetime debut as a regular on the short-lived, soap-like sitcom "Grand."

In Hollywood, Hunt worked on developing ideas for her own sitcom and in the meantime stayed busy with a stint on the elementary school sitcom, "Davis Rules." Her first leading role was in "Beethoven," and she later appeared in "Jumanji." There continued to be offers for the perky comedienne in film, and after a small role in the coming-of-age drama "Now and Then."

She voiced the character of Rosie the black widow spider in the delightful, animated adventure comedy "A Bug's Life," and she played Tom Hanks' plain-speaking, ever-warm wife in "The Green Mile."

She then starred in "Life With Bonnie," which was largely improvised. The show was renewed for a second season as part of ABC's "TGiF" lineup, and the actress received Golden Globe nominations for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy in both 2003 and 2004.

Her film career continued unabated and she teamed with Steve Martin to play the parents of a dozen demanding kids in the mild but commercially successful remake of "Cheaper by the Dozen."

For Pixar Studios' animated blockbuster "Cars," Hunt had a scriptwriting credit and also voiced snazzy blue Porsche, Sally Carerra. The same year she co-starred in Jeff Garlin's feature directing debut, "I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With," a well-received indie about a self-deprecating comedian looking for love in Chicago. She returned to television in the fall of 2008 with another small screen creation, a syndicated talk show that shared its name with one of her earlier projects, "The Bonnie Hunt Show." With its incorporation of both everyday people and celebrity guests and Hunt's offhanded banter with the crew and audience, the well-received hour-long show proved a perfect outlet for Hunt's relatable, down-to-earth comedy style.

In 2010, Hunt was nominated for "Outstanding Talk Show Host" at the Daytime Emmy Awards. The final episode aired Wednesday, May 26, 2010.

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