Claire Danes

Claire Catherine Danes (born April 12, 1979) is an American actress.

Prolific in film and television since her teens, she is the recipient of three Primetime Emmy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards.

In March 1993, a pilot episode was shot; it would be almost another year and a half before broadcast.

She then starred as the 15-year-old Angela Chase in the television drama series My So-Called Life.

For her role, she won a Golden Globe Award and received an Emmy nomination.

Despite being canceled after only 19 episodes, My So-Called Life has developed a large cult following.

Danes first gained recognition for starring in the 1994 teen drama series My So-Called Life, winning a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama and receiving a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

She made her film debut in the same year in Little Women (1994), and gained wider fame for starring in the romance Romeo + Juliet (1996).

They moved two days after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

In 1995, she starred in the Soul Asylum music video for "Just Like Anyone".

Danes has since appeared in The Rainmaker (1997), Brokedown Palace (1999), The Hours (2002), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Shopgirl (2005), and Stardust (2007).

Danes graduated from the Lycée Français de Los Angeles in 1997.

In 1998, she began studies at Yale University.

After studying for two years as a psychology major, she dropped out to focus on her film career.

Danes started studying dance when she was six years old.

She took dance classes from Ellen Robbins at Dance Theater Workshop and acting classes at HB Studio the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute at the age of 10.

She appeared in theater and video productions in New York City.

Although she continued to dance, Danes said that her focus shifted to acting by the time she was nine years old.

Her audition with Miloš Forman when she was 11 led to roles in several student films.

She signed with agent Karen Friedman at the Writers & Artists talent agency at age 12.

At age 13, Danes got her first big job working on the Dudley Moore TV sitcom pilot called Dudley, which was shot at Silvercup Studios in Astoria, Queens.

Danes played a teenage murderer in a guest starring role on Law & Order in the season three episode "Skin Deep".

She appeared in an episode of HBO's Lifestories: Families in Crisis entitled "The Coming out of Heidi Leiter".

She appeared in an Off-Broadway production of The Vagina Monologues in 2000 and made her Broadway debut playing Eliza Doolittle in a 2007 revival of Pygmalion.

In 2010, Danes portrayed the title character in the HBO film Temple Grandin for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film.

In 2010, Danes starred in the HBO production of Temple Grandin, a biopic about the autistic animal scientist.

From 2011 to 2020, she starred as Carrie Mathison in the Showtime drama series Homeland, for which she won two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a Drama Series.

In 2022, she starred in the FX on Hulu series Fleishman Is in Trouble.

Danes was born in Manhattan, New York City, the daughter of sculptor and printmaking artist Carla Danes (née Hall), and photographer Christopher Danes.

Her older brother, Asa, is a lawyer.

During Danes's childhood, her mother ran a small toddler day care center called "Danes Tribe" out of the family's SoHo loft and later served as Danes's manager.

Danes's father worked as a residential general contractor in New York for 20 years in a company he ran called "Overall Construction".

He also worked as a photographer and computer consultant.

Danes is named after her paternal grandmother, Claire Danes (née Tomowske).

Danes describes her ethnic origins as "WASPy as you can get".

The family lived in an artist's loft on Crosby Street.

Danes attended P.S. 3 and P.S. 11 for elementary school and Professional Performing Arts School for junior high school.

She attended the New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies in Manhattan.

She attended The Dalton School for one year of high school before moving with her parents to Santa Monica, California, for the role in My So-Called Life.

In 2012, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.