Claire Danes

Claire Danes (born April 12, 1979, New York, New York, U.S.) is an American actress who is best known for her immersive portrayals of often complex characters, perhaps most notably a bipolar CIA agent in the TV series Homeland (2011–20).

Early life and career: Little Women and My So-Called Life

Danes was the younger of two children born to Carla (Hall) Danes, who ran a day care center, and Christopher Danes, a contractor. Both her parents were artistic—her mother was a painter and textile designer and her father a photographer—and Claire Danes had something of a bohemian childhood. From an early age she was interested in performing, and at nine she reportedly proclaimed, “Money or no money, I have to act. There’s no plan B. That’s it.” She began taking classes at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute at age 10, and she later attended the Professional Performing Arts School.

At age 12 Danes was offered a role in the soap opera All My Children but turned it down, worried that the show would hamper her development as an actress. Instead, she made her TV debut in 1992, appearing as a teen murderer in an episode of Law & Order. Two years later she landed her first role in a feature film, playing Beth March in a popular adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. Danes’s profile increased dramatically with a starring role in My So-Called Life (1994–95), a TV series about teenagers. Although it ran for only one season, the show developed a cult following, and it earned the 15-year-old Danes a Golden Globe Award in 1995. That year she also had a supporting role in Home for the Holidays, a dramedy directed by Jodie Foster.

Romeo + Juliet and The Rainmaker

More attention came with Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (1996). Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio starred as the doomed lovers in the modern take on Shakespeare’s tragic play. The film received largely positive reviews and was a box office hit. Danes later starred opposite Matt Damon in the legal thriller The Rainmaker (1997), Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of a John Grisham novel. Also in 1997 she completed her secondary education, graduating from Le Lycée Français de Los Angeles.

In 1998 Danes appeared as Cosette in Les Misérables, which was based on Victor Hugo’s classic novel. That year she also filmed the drama Brokedown Palace (1999), in which she and Kate Beckinsale played American teenagers who are jailed for drug smuggling while in Thailand. It was a difficult shoot, and Danes’s negative comments about Manila, where a number of scenes were filmed, caused controversy. It was during this time that she decided to take a break from acting to study psychology at Yale University. Though it was a positive experience, she left after her sophomore year to resume her career.

Films of the early 21st century: The Hours, Terminator 3, and Shopgirl

Wanting to avoid typecasting, Dane sought roles that would highlight her versatility. She joined an all-star cast—which included Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore—in the acclaimed The Hours (2002), which was based on a novel by Michael Cunningham. The next year she appeared in the action blockbuster Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Danes then starred with Billy Crudup in the period drama Stage Beauty (2004), in which she played a woman who defied societal norms in 17th-century London to act on the stage.

Continuing to seek out varied roles, Danes appeared with Steve Martin in Shopgirl (2005), a drama based on his novella about a store clerk who finds herself in a love triangle with a wealthy older customer and a carefree man her own age. Her other films during this period included the holiday dramedy The Family Stone (2005) and Stardust (2007), a fantasy adventure in which she played a falling star. In 2007 she also made her Broadway debut, cast as Eliza Doolittle in a production of George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion.

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TV success: Temple Grandin and Homeland

After focusing on film for more than a decade, Danes began to appear in more television projects. In 2010 she starred in the TV movie Temple Grandin, portraying the title character, a brilliant American scientist with autism. Danes immersed herself in the part, and she won an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe. That performance led to another defining role, bipolar CIA agent Carrie Mathison in the series Homeland. After seeing Temple Grandin, the show’s creators wrote the character with Danes in mind. Homeland debuted in 2011 and was an immediate hit. Danes earned particular praise for her nuanced portrayal of the gifted but troubled Mathison. Over the course of its eight-season run, the show addressed geopolitical issues while highlighting the personal cost of intelligence work. Danes earned an Emmy and a Golden Globe in 2012 and in 2013.

In 2022 Danes starred in the TV miniseries The Essex Serpent, a drama inspired by Sarah Perry’s novel about a woman in Victorian England who searches for a mysterious sea creature. Later that year Danes appeared in another TV adaptation, Fleishman Is in Trouble. The miniseries, based on a novel by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, centers on the breakdown of a couple’s marriage, as viewed from different perspectives.

Personal life

In 2006 Danes met actor Hugh Dancy while filming Evening (2007), and the couple married in 2009. They have two sons and a daughter.