Teri Hatcher was born on 8 December 1964 in Palo Alto, California, the daughter of computer programmer Esther Beshur and nuclear engineer Owen Walker Hatcher Jr. She trained as a dancer before moving into television, appearing as a 49ers cheerleader and in early roles including The Love Boat before landing the part of Lois Lane in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman during the 1990s, alongside fellow Welsh-American actor Dean Cain.
She achieved further worldwide fame playing Susan Mayer in the long-running ABC series Desperate Housewives, a role that won her a Golden Globe. Biographical sources describe her father as being of mixed English, Welsh and Irish descent, though no specific Welsh town, region or ancestor has been documented, so this connection should be regarded as general and unconfirmed rather than established fact.