Hello! I'm Cheryl Hunter. I’m primarily a writer, occasionally an actress, and over the years I've also done stand-up comedy, producing and directing. I realized that was all a little much to fit on a business card, so I scaled back.
I grew up as a rodeo cowgirl in the thriving metropolis of Rye, Colorado, population 178. As the daughter of a pro-cowboy cattle rancher and a yogi, hippie, vegetarian whose parents were Italian immigrants.
Once, at a rodeo, some photographer approached me and asked me if I wanted to be a model. I was sure I hit the big time, after all, this was Boone, Colorado! He and his crew took me out in a field and had me pretend I was using the gate they were featuring in their ranch supply catalogue. They paid me ten bucks, and I was hooked. So, as a teenager, with the aforementioned “gate catalogue” in tow, I moved to London, to launch a career as a high fashion model. That and because they allowed underage drinking at the pubs.
Luckily, I had the foresight to start studying drama at that point, even though I was practically an expert at drama by this time anyway; I thought I’d take actual classes to “formalize” my education. Not that I really needed it, after all, I was a model, and nothing screams “drama queen” like a bunch of overpaid, underfed women who are chased around the globe by rock stars and royalty, and think they’re famous or worse yet – are!
As a model, I lived all over the world: Paris, Milan, Tokyo, Madrid, Barcelona and Hamburg, and I got to work on location everywhere from the Canary Islands to Singapore to glacier skiing in the Italian Alps. This is all by the time I’m 21.
Then I moved to New York City, and I got the glamorous job of being a bike messenger. I toiled in the NY theater and independent film scene for a few years, then moved to LA where I got the job of a lifetime: I became a dog-walker to the stars.
Ah. Good times. Then the real fun began.
Along the way I racked up some credits, including several forgettable feature films, lots of television guest spots (The L Word, The Wayne Brady Show, Seinfeld, Sports Night), dozens and dozens of national commercials (Amex, Ford, Kraft, Coca-Cola, MacDonald's, AT&T) as well writing and starring in my own critically acclaimed plays, which have run nationally and received glowing reviews in the press.
As an actor I trained at the LAMDA Academy and The Actors' Centre in London, NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and The Lee Strassberg Theatre Institute in New York, and with Kate McGregor-Stewart in Los Angeles.
My original writing has been developed by FOX and HBO and under contract with NBC and Paramount Pictures. As a writer I studied with Syd Field and at UCLA. Somewhere along the line, I even became a guest instructor at UCLA and Cal State Long Beach. Not bad for a college drop out, huh? Uh, excuse me, Board of Education, I’m just seeing if you’re paying attention…
For fun? I’m a rodeo cowgirl, a yogi, a bad surfer, a fierce rollerblader and Disneyland annual passholder. I travel often and speak another couple of languages (although my family in Italy pretend that Italian is NOT one of them!) I volunteer extensively in many different capacities, and I’ve been doing that ever since I was a kid. It gives my life a sense of purpose, and makes living all the more delicious! I’ve led motivational seminars for over 70,000 people. And several hundred cows.
Thanks for stopping by!
Cheryl