As a teenager, Hynes was a member of the
National Youth Theatre company, and made her stage début with the company in
Lionel Bart's
Blitz! in 1990. In 1991 she appeared in Disney's
Swing Kids (1993 film) alongside Frank Whaley and Robert Sean-Leonard. In the same year she appeared in
Peter Greenaway's film
The Baby of Macon playing The First Midwife. Between 1992 and 1993, she played a
season at the
West Yorkshire Playhouse,
Leeds. In 1994, Hynes appeared as an uncredited extra in the first episode of
The Day Today in the Attitudes Night segment, a parody of the UK's changing attitudes. 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). From 1998 to 2000, she played the supporting role of Cheryl in the hit sitcom
The Royle Family; she reprised the role for special episodes in 2006, 2009 and 2010. In 1999, she co-wrote and starred in
Spaced. Hynes' London theatre debut 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
Laurence Olivier Award. In 2004, she played a minor part as Yvonne in horror comedy
Shaun of the Dead, again working with Pegg and Wright. In the same year, she was also cast as Magda, friend of the titular character, in the Hollywood sequel
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. In early 2007, Hynes took a lead role in the film
Magicians, starring alongside comic duo
David Mitchell and
Robert Webb. She provided the voice of
Mafalda Hopkirk in
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. She played Joan Redfern in the 2007
Doctor Who episodes "
Human Nature" and "
The Family of Blood". 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. Hynes appeared in
Big Finish's
Eighth Doctor audio adventure "
Invaders from Mars", with her
Spaced colleague Simon Pegg. She starred in
Son of Rambow (credited as Jessica Stevenson), playing Mary Proudfoot opposite the star of the film,
Bill Milner. In November 2007,
BBC One released
Learners, a comedy drama television movie which Hynes starred in and wrote. In 2008, she appeared in a revival of
Alan Ayckbourn's
The Norman Conquests at the
Old Vic. In 2009 she made her Broadway debut in the play's transfer and was nominated for a
Tony Award for her performance. The show itself won a
Tony Award for best revival that year. Hynes appeared as a "right-on" PR person, Siobhan Sharpe, in the
London Olympics centred satire
Twenty Twelve, of which the first series screened on
BBC Four in 2011, moving to
BBC Two in spring 2012. A further series was screened in July 2012. She reprised the role in the 2014 series
W1A for which she won a
BAFTA. In 2017, she directed her first feature film,
The Fight, produced by Jamie Adams and Unstoppable media. In 2018, she played the role of a mother in the BBC Four programme
There She Goes. She stars alongside
David Tennant, raising a daughter with a severe learning disability. It is based on the real life of writer
Shaun Pye and his wife Sarah Crawford, whose daughter was born with a chromosomal disorder. She won a BAFTA for her role in the series and was nominated for an
International Emmy for her role in '414' the special made in 2023. In 2019, she starred in the BBC and HBO production
Years and Years for which she won a
Royal Television Society award. ==Personal life==