Teri Lynn Hatcher was born December 8, 1964 in Sunnyvale, California and is an American actress. Sometimes people misspell it Terri or Terry. Teri Hatcher gained attention for her role as Lois Lane in the television series Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman co-staring with Dean Cain. In the mid-'90s, a publicity photo of Teri Hatcher wearing Superman's cape became the most downloaded image on America Online. Teri Hatcher has achieved her greatest fame to date starring in the show Desperate Housewives.

Teri Hatcher's father is a nuclear physicist and her mother a computer scientist (both of English descent). An only child, Teri Hatcher attended Mango Junior High (now Sunnyvale Middle School), Fremont High School in Sunnyvale and De Anza College in Cupertino.

In March 2006, Teri Hatcher told Vanity Fair that she was sexually abused for several years, beginning at the age of 5, by her then uncle, Richard Hayes Stone (who was later divorced by Teri Hatcher mother's sister). Teri Hatcher's parents, she said, were unaware of the abuse at the time. In 2002, Teri Hatcher assisted Santa Clara County, California prosecutors in indicting Richard Hayes Stone for a more recent molestation that led his female victim to commit suicide at the age of 14. Richard Hayes Stone plead guilty to four counts of molestation and was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

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In 1988, Teri Hatcher married Marcus Leithold, but they were divorced the following year. In 1994, Teri Hatcher married actor Jon Tenney; they had a daughter, Emerson Rose, in November 1997, and divorced in March 2003. Teri Hatcher was reportedly forced to give Jon Tenney half of her savings in the settlement.

In January 2006 it was reported that Teri Hatcher was romantically involved with actor George Clooney, who subsequently dumped her. Teri Hatcher was recently quoted as saying that being sexually molested at such a young age has impacted on her relationships with men, and that she hopes to have healthier relationships in the future.

Teri Hatcher began her performing career as a young girl taking ballet lessons at the San Juan Girls' Ballet Studio in downtown Los Altos, California; she later studied acting at the American Conservatory Theater. One of Teri Hatcher's early jobs (in 1984) was as a cheerleader with the San Francisco 49ers. During this time she also appeared as one of the mermaids on the show Love Boat in its final season.

While probably most noted for playing Lois Lane in the TV series Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Teri Hatcher has also appeared in such feature films as Spy Kids (2001), the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, Dead in the Water opposite Bryan Brown (1991), 2 in the Valley (1996), and Heaven's Prisoners opposite Alec Baldwin (1996). Teri Hatcher has also made guest appearances in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Seinfeld, and had a recurring role in MacGyver, playing his friend, Penny Parker.

Teri Hatcher has also appeared in a series of popular Radio Shack television commercials alongside NFL Hall of Famer Howie Long. The pair remain very close friends, and together have bought farm land on the outside of Los Angeles, with the intent of eventually raising endangered species. Teri Hatcher said her plan to do so came about after reading an article featuring the world's top 25 endangered species.

Teri Hatcher hosted Saturday Night Live in 1996.

In 1997, Teri Hatcher was voted "Sexiest Woman in the World" by the readers of FHM.

Teri Hatcher now stars as the single mother Susan Mayer on ABC's Desperate Housewives, a role for which she won the Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Golden Globe Award in January 2005. In 2005, Hatcher also won the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) award in the same category. In July 2005, she was nominated for an Emmy Award as Best Actress in a Comedy Series for the same role, along with co-stars Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman, who won the award.