Claire Catherine Danes was born on April 12th, 1979 in SoHo, NY. Her father, Chris, is a computer consultant and her mother, Carla, is a teacher and lately also works as a painter. She has one older brother, Asa, who is six years her senior and works as a lawyer in NY. Claire grew up in NY where she attended elementary school. At the age of 4 she slowly began showing obsessive-compulive behaviour, and at the age of 6 she started taking modern dance lessons as a therapy to calm her and free her body of the demons that were haunting her. Dancing quickly became her passion which then led to her fascination with acting. Aged 9, she knew that acting was her calling and announced to her parents that she would be an actress. Only two years later she attended classes in Method Acting at the renowned Lee Strasberg Theater Institute in NY. So her career took off with her combining her two new-found passions by acting and dancing in a couple of off-off-Broadway productions between age 9 and 11. She first hit the big screen in 1990 when she was picked for a part in the short movie Dreams Of Love. With her mother posing as her manager and a new agent at her hand, she played two small roles in TV series in 1992. Aged 13, she turned down a role in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List because there was no possibility to provide schooling for Claire for the duration of the shoot in Poland. Shortly afterwards she auditioned for the role of Angela in a new TV series, My So-Called Life. The pilot was shot in 1993 and a year later more episodes were commissioned. This would later be Claire's claim to fame, even though the show was cancelled after only 19 episodes. To be able to play her supposed alter ego, Angela, she moved to LA with her parents, where she then attended the Lycée Francais high school. Winona Ryder, a fan of Claire's performance in MSCL, spoke for her at the audition of Little Women and Claire got the part of Beth March. She and Winona quickly became friends and would stay close for several years to come. In 1995 Claire was nominated for an Emmy Award and won a Golden Globe Award for her performance in MSCL. Later that year she starred in the movie Home For The Holidays, directed by Jodie Foster, who was in raptures about Claire and interceded for Claire to get the part of Juliet Capulet in the new adaption of Romeo + Juliet. After completing her work on Baz Luhrman's Shakespeare adaption in Mexico, she managed to juggle both internationally promoting her movies and finishing high school. Having worked with director Oliver Stone in U Turn, he wrote her letter of recommendation for Yale University. Claire was accepted at Yale in 1997 but postponed her studies until 1998 in order to participate in further movie projects. While shooting Brokedown Palace in the Phillipines in 1998, she was publicly condemned by the President of the Phillipines for making derogatory remarks about the country and was banned until 2000. The years between October 1998 and 2001 she dedicated her time to studying at Yale, majoring in sociology and psychology. It wasn't until 2001 that she took on another role, this time in the independent production Igby Goes Down. She never actually finished her studies at Yale and eventually dropped out in 2003. To work off her frustration at the disappointing It's All About Love she joined the cast of her first big-budget project: Terminator 3. In 2004 she starred in the period film Stage Beauty which proved to be a challenge, as she was playing an aspiring actress who herself was only delivering bad performances. For this movie and the 2005 film Shopgirl she received rave reviews. In 2005 she revived her passion for modern dance and worked for almost a year on her first ever dancing solo. In Christina Olsen: American Model she portrayed a paraplegic young woman. She delivered 12 performances between September and October 2005 in NY. In 2006 Claire filmed The Flock, a thriller she just finished filming alongside Richard Gere, the fantasy story Stardust which includes Robert DeNiro, Michelle Pfeiffer and others, with Claire playing Yvaine a falling star everyone is after and in the summer of 2006 completed Evening which includes Meryl Streep, Patrick Wilson, Toni Collette and others, Claire plays the role of Young Ann reflecting back on a weekend she had, with a man she fell in love with. In 2007 Claire performed once again at PS122 in Edith and Jenny with one of her life long friends, Claire played Edith. The performances were well recieved and people were able to see Claire's dancing ability once more. This show included both friends playing their characters from their first films, Claire's being Dreams of Love and clips were shown from each film. Later in June Claire was awarded in Hawaii with the Nova Award and was given a tribute there where she was honoured.

Last updated: June 2007