Marin Elizabeth Hinkle (born March 23, 1966) is an American actress. Among several television and movie roles, her best known include Judith Harper-Melnick on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men as well as Judy Brooks on the ABC television drama Once and Again.
Hinkle was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the daughter of Margaret R. (Polga) Hinkle, a Justice of the Superior Court of Massachusetts, and Rodney Hinkle, a college dean and teacher who met while serving in the Peace Corps. Her family moved to Boston, Massachusetts, when she was four months old. Two years later, her brother Mark was born. After graduating from Newton South High School, she attended Brown University and New York University's Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in 1991.
She originally planned to be a professional ballerina, but after an ankle injury permanently ended the possibilities at the age of 16, she decided to take up acting.