Helen is Daria's mother.  She's a lawyer with the firm Vitale, Davis, Horowitz, Riordan, Schrecter, Schrecter, and Schrecter, and tends to place her job ahead of her family, and is an ex-hippie who occasionally gets worried about having sold out.

She and Jake don't have a very good relationship at all, and their continuing marital problems need some sort of resolution soon one way or the other, just as soon as she and Jake can find some time to work on it.

She's a definite control freak, and has had several run-ins with the local version of Genghis Kahn, the high-school principal, as well as with Linda Griffin.

She's very insecure about her age, and she's very sensitive to anything that might be considered sexism.