Best known as a comedy actress, she has played Cheryl in The Royle Family (1998-2010), Siobhan Sharpe in Twenty Twelve (2011-2012) and W1A (2014-2017) and Emily Yates in There She Goes (2018-2023).

Early in her career, Hynes teamed up with future Spaced co-star Katy Carmichael in a comedy double-act called the Liz Hurleys, appeared in two productions at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre, and acted for television shows including Staying Alive, Six Pairs of Pants, (Un)natural Acts, and Asylum (on which the Spaced team of Hynes, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright first assembled).

For which she won two comedy awards and was nominated for an International Emmy and a Bafta for writing and creating the show alongside Simon Pegg.

Hynes' London theatre début was in April 2002, playing the tough ex-prisoner "Bolla" in Jez Butterworth's The Night Heron at the Royal Court for which she was nominated for a Lawrence Olivier Award [5] In 2004, she played a minor part as Yvonne in horror comedy Shaun of the Dead, again working with Pegg and Wright.

In early 2007, Hynes took a lead role in the film Magicians, starring alongside comic duo David Mitchell and Robert Webb.

She then appeared in part two of the story "The End of Time", playing a character named Verity Newman, who is Joan's great-granddaughter.

[6] Hynes appeared in Big Finish's Eighth Doctor audio adventure "Invaders from Mars", with her Spaced colleague Simon Pegg.

It is based on the real life of writer Shaun Pye and his wife Sarah Crawford whose daughter was born with a chromosomal disorder.

The couple have been together since they were 18 years old, but only married in 2002, when she officially changed her surname from her birth name of Stevenson – including for screen credits.