Claire Danes

Claire Danes was born on April 12, 1979 in Manhattan, New York City, New York. She’s a well-known television and film actress whose first TV role as Angela Chase in the cult short-lived series My So-Called Life made her a star by winning a Golden Globe for her role when she was only 15 years old.

Her most memorable roles include Juliet in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio, Cosette in Les Misérables, Temple Grandin in the HBO TV film with the same name and of course, her latest role as Carrie Mathison in the celebrated Showtime series Homeland.

Claire Danes' parents are Carla, who is a painter and textile designer, and her father, Christopher Danes, who is a computer consultant and former architectural photographer. Her paternal grandfather, Gibson Andrew Danes (1910–1992 in Litchfield, Connecticut), was the dean of the art and architecture school at Yale University. She also has an older brother, Asa.

Danes' education started at Dalton School, New York and was followed by The New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies, The Professional Performing Arts School and Lycée Français de Los Angeles. She went to Yale University to study psychology, but dropped out after two years to focus on her acting career -her letter of recommendation was written by Oliver Stone who directed her in U-Turn (2007), so dropping out might have been her best decision after all.

She has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry such as Susan Sarandon, Christian Bale, Wynona Ryder and Gabriel Byrne in Little Women (1994); Jodie Foster directed her in Home for the Holidays; Jude Law and Jeanne Moreau in I Love You, I Love You Not (1995); Matt Damon and Francis Ford Coppola in The Rainmaker (1997); Sean Penn and Oliver Stone in U-Turn (1997); Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman in The Hours among others.

Sources:

http://www.etonline.com/news/125221_Claire_Danes_in_T_Magazine/index.htm...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claire_Danes

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000132/