Jean Smart is an Emmy-Award Winning American stage, film and television actress, best known for her starring roles in Hacks and Designing Women. After beginning her career in regional theater in the Pacific Northwest, she appeared on Broadway in 1981 as Marlene Dietrich in the biographical play Piaf. Smart was later cast in a leading role as Charlene Frazier Stillfield on the CBS sitcom Designing Women, in which she starred from 1986 to 1991.

Smart was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the 2000 Broadway revival of The Man Who Came to Dinner, and she received two Primetime Emmy Awards for her role as Lana Gardner on the NBC sitcom Frasier. She won a third Emmy Award for her starring role as Regina Newley on the ABC sitcom Samantha Who? In the past decade she's appeared in TV projects such as FX's Fargo and Legion, both created by Noah Hawley, as well as in the HBO's Watchmen, Mare of Easttown, and Hacks. The latter three earned her Primetime Emmy Award nominations, with Hacks winning her the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

Smart's film credits include The Brady Bunch Movie, Sweet Home Alabama, Garden State, I Heart Huckabees, Youth in Revolt, The Accountant, and A Simple Favor. She also received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for 1999's Guinevere.