A reflective type of a liquid crystal (LC) display is proposed in a twisted hybrid aligned configuration with a reflective electrode and a single polarizer. A chiral dopant was introduced into a nematic LC to produce a proper amount of twist in a hybrid aligned geometry. Numerical simulations were performed to optimize the cell parameters so that the electro-optical switching between the black and white states could be easily achieved. It was experimentally demonstrated that this reflective mode gives wide viewing and fast response characteristics. The effect of an optical retardation film on the device performance is also discussed. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.