Claire Danes

Claire Catherine Danes born on April 12, 1979 in Manhattan in New York is a Golden Globe Award-winning and Emmy Award-nominated American film, television, and theater actress. She attended the Dalton School. She has a brother, Asa, who graduated from Oberlin College and works as a litigation attorney for the law firm of Paul Hastings. Danes attended the exclusive private high school Lycée Français de Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California, and later attended Yale University (her father's alma mater) for two years as a psychology major, starting in 1998. She dropped out of Yale to focus on her film career. Danes is perhaps most famous as Angela Chase in the 1994 television drama series My So-Called Life, for which she won a Golden Globe Award and received an Emmy nomination, followed by her role as Juliet in Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet. Her first role in an animated feature came in 1999 with the English version of Princess Mononoke. During the same year, she took the lead role in Brokedown Palace, alongside Kate Beckinsale and Bill Pullman. She cites Meryl Streep as a mentor and major influence in her acting. In 2002, Danes starred opposite Susan Sarandon and Kieran Culkin in Igby Goes Down. She later co-starred as Meryl Streep's daughter in the Oscar-nominated The Hours, with Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Ed Harris. The following year, she was cast in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines; and Stage Beauty, in 2004. She earned critical acclaim in 2005 when she starred in Steve Martin's Shopgirl alongside Martin and Jason Schwartzman, and in The Family Stone opposite Sarah Jessica Parker and Diane Keaton. In 2007, Danes will appear in the fantasy epic Stardust opposite Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert DeNiro, and Sienna Miller, and in The Flock, opposite Richard Gere. Danes appeared in Off-Broadway plays including Happiness, Punk Ballet, and Kids On Stage, in which she choreographed her own solo dance.