[3] Hatcher took ballet lessons at the San Juan School of Dance in Los Altos and grew up in Sunnyvale, California.

[2] In March 2006, she alleged that she was sexually abused from the age of five by Richard Hayes Stone, an uncle by marriage who was later divorced by Hatcher's aunt.

[4] In 2002, she assisted Santa Clara County prosecutors with their indictment of Stone for a more recent sexual offense that led his female victim to commit suicide at 14.

[citation needed] From 1986 to 1989, she appeared in six episodes of the TV series MacGyver as talkative but naive Penny Parker opposite Richard Dean Anderson's eponymous hero.

[7] In 1987, she played the sensible, intelligent 18-year-old daughter of Patty Duke's lead character in the short-lived Fox comedy Karen's Song, and had a guest-star role in an episode of Night Court.

She then played Sylvester Stallone's younger sister, a dancer, in the big-budget police action-comedy Tango and Cash, also starring Kurt Russell; it was a critical and box office disappointment.

After a short guest appearance in an episode of Murphy Brown in 1990, Hatcher's next TV series role, in 1991, was in the Norman Lear creation Sunday Dinner, a comedy.

In 1992, Hatcher tried out for the role of Jamie Buchman on Mad About You and made it to the final two choices, but lost the part to Helen Hunt.

[1] At the height of the show's popularity in 1995, a picture of Hatcher wearing nothing but Superman's iconic red cape[9][better source needed] was reportedly the most downloaded image on the Internet for several months.

Hatcher won the role of Paris Carver (beating Monica Bellucci) in the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies.

Hatcher appeared in a series of RadioShack television commercials alongside National Football League player Howie Long.

In July 2005, she was nominated for an Emmy award as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, along with co-stars Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman.

[17] As of April 2006, Hatcher was one of the highest paid television actresses in the United States, reportedly earning $285,000 per episode of Desperate Housewives.

[20] A report in November 2010 suggested that Hatcher, along with co-star Felicity Huffman, would be quitting Desperate Housewives, but ABC denied the claim.

[21] Hatcher later addressed the rumors of her departure from Desperate Housewives, saying that "[t]here are not enough adjectives to describe how stupid, off base, and ridiculously untrue this is".

In 2016, Hatcher had a recurring role as Charlotte, a successful single mother who becomes Oscar's (Matthew Perry) love interest in the second season of the comedy series The Odd Couple.

Teri Hatcher narrated the "Hidden Worlds: The Films of LAIKA" exhibit at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle.