Jean Smart is a native of Seattle, Washington. She received her BA in fine arts from the University of Washington. Her first professional job was in 1975 at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival where she performed in Much Ado About Nothing, Long Day's Journey Into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. Jean also spent several years doing regional theater with the Hartford Stage Company, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Alaska Repertory Theatre and Alliance Theatre.

After moving to New York City, Jean appeared on Broadway in Piaf and in the off-Broadway play Last Summer at Bluefish Cove - for which she won a Drama Desk Award. The taping of Piaf for PBS brought Jean to Hollywood, where she remained to star as a regular on the series For Teachers Only, Maximum Security and Reggie. She also made guest appearances on the series Remington Steele, Alice, The Facts of Life, Goodnight Beantown and CPT's Lime Street before moving on to play Charlene Frazier on Designing Women for five seasons.

Since Designing Women, Jean has had lead roles in two more series, High Society -- an Americanized version of the British phenomenon Absolutely Fabulous -- and Style and Substance.

She received two consecutive Emmy Awards for her acclaimed guest appearances on the series Frasier in 2000 and 2001, and enjoyed a successful 2000 Broadway run with Nathan Lane in The Man Who Came To Dinner, for which see was nominated for a Tony Award. She was also nominated for an Emmy for her recurring role on the CBS hit show The District.

Jean's many film credits include Joyride, Project X, Protocol, Flashpoint, The Brady Bunch Movie, The Odd Couple II, Sweet Home Alabama, Bringing Down the House, Garden State and a cameo in I Heart Huckabees.

In January 2006, Smart received her fourth Emmy nomination for her role as the troubled and medicated First Lady Martha Logan on 24. That same year the show won the Emmy for Best Drama and received a Golden Globe nomination and a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Ensemble Cast.

In October 2007, She joined the cast of the ABC comedy Samantha Who? starring Christina Applegate, Smart plays Regina Newly, Samantha's mother.