Marg Helgenberger is an established dramatic actress whose prominence has been steadily increasing. Her work has been noted on stage, film and TV. Most of her career has been spent in dramatic roles on television, but she has also had a noteworthy presence in feature films.

Helgenberger earned a degree in drama at Northwestern University. A talent scout recruited her from there to work on the soap opera Ryan's Hope where she appeared over the course of the next four years.

Throughout the 1990s Helgenberger took on numerous roles in made-for-TV movies and as a guest star on many TV series. In particular she appeared in many movies made specifically for the Lifetime cable network and also for Showtime. She won critical acclaim for In Sickness and in Health, Thanks of a Grateful Nation and Perfect Murder, Perfect Town: JonBenét and the City of Boulder.

In TV series she won an Emmy for her portrayal of a hard-bitten prostitute who catered to Vietnam War soldiers, in the series China Beach. She also was George Clooney's love interest in a multi-episode arc of the monumentally successful TV series ER.

In feature films, Helgenberger has appeared in Tootsie, Steven Spielberg's Always, Species and In Good Company.

Her greatest claim to fame on the silver screen may be when she played opposite Julia Roberts as a chemical exposure victim in the popular movie Erin Brockovich.

Helgenberger is most known for her TV role as a crime scene investigator in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. She shared in CSI's 2005 Screen Actors Guild award for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series.

In her personal life, Helgenberger is the daughter of a cancer survivor and is very active in supporting research for breast cancer.
Earned a B.S. degree from the School of Speech (now the School of Communications) at Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois). On ER episode #2.21, ER: Take These Broken Wings, Karen Hines, the character she played, wears a Northwestern University pullover. Has a son: Hugh Howard Rosenberg; born Oct 21, 1990 and named after Marg's father, who died in 1986 of complications from Multiple Sclerosis. Got her start as a local news weather girl in her native Nebraska. The news producer felt her name was too long and made her change it to Margi McCarty. This was her night job. Her day job was as a meat boner at the meat packing plant where her father was a meat inspector. Her Hollywood home once belonged to silent movie star William S. Hart Six years before the premiere of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, she and Gary Dourdan starred together in an unsuccessful TV series pilot called Keys to Her Past. Had a plane scare while attempting to fly from Dallas, Texas to Omaha, Nebraska. The pilot aborted take-off after the plane blew two tires. Marg eventually made it to Omaha. [October 20, 2005] Sister-in-law of Mark Rosenberg and Paula Weinstein. Middle of 3 children. Her older sister is Ann Helgenberger (jazz musician) and her younger brother is Curt Helgenberger (a meat inspector). Daughter of Hugh Helgenberger, who was a meat inspector, and Kay Helgenberger, who was a nurse. Marj originally wanted to be a nurse like her mother. Her mother, Kay, is an Irish American and her father, Hugh, was a German American. Meet husband Alan in 1984 and they started dating in 1986. Her hometown of North Bend, Nebraska named a local street after her called Helgenberger Avenue.