Raised in a Quaker family in Ohio, Hodge began her career in comedy clubs and at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. She stayed in Minnesota until 1986, when she headed to Los Angeles. It was while she was performing at Igby's, a comedy club in West Los Angeles, that she got what might have been her first break--a holding deal with NBC. But the deal yielded little but a role supporting Nell Carter in the unsold pilot "Morton's By the Bay" (1989). Still, with her looks that can alternate between sweetly All-American or brassy, Hodge soon found steady work as both a stand-up and an actress. In 1990, she landed her first regular series role as Loretta Devine's friend on the short-lived CBS sitcom "Sugar and Spice". Hodge later served as co-host with Cynthia Stevenson on the critically-praised but low-rated syndicated series "My Talk Show" (1990). When NBC fired her, she found a haven at rival CBS where she headlined the summer sitcom "Muddling Through" (1994), playing Connie Drago, a tough-talking paroled con before finding success on the fledgling The WB.