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 2012, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
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). Danes has since appeared in The Rainmaker (1997), The Hours (2002), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Shopgirl (2005), and Stardust (2007). 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. 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.
Early life and education
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. They moved two days after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
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.
