Claire Danes

1979-present

Claire Danes is an award-winning actor who captivated audiences with her performance in the Showtime series Homeland. The Manhattan native rose to fame as a teenager in the critically acclaimed but short-lived 1994 series My So Called Life and went on to pursue a variety roles in art films and more expensive blockbusters, including Romeo+Juliet and Terminator 3. Beginning in 2011, Danes reestablished herself in TV as CIA agent Carrie Mathison on Homeland, which earned her both Emmy and Golden Globe awards. Her recent credits include Fleishman Is in Trouble and The Beast in Me.

FULL NAME: Claire Catherine Danes
BORN: April 12, 1979
BIRTHPLACE: Manhattan, New York
SPOUSE: Hugh Dancy (2009-present)
CHILDREN: Cyrus, Rowan, and daughter
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aries

Claire Catherine Danes was born on April 12, 1979, in Manhattan, New York. Her father, Christopher, was a photographer and contractor, and her mother, Carla, was a textile designer and day care owner. Growing up in an artistic household with her older brother, Asa, Danes was encouraged to pursue acting at an early age. “I was very driven to act from a very young age, and my parents were not only tolerant of that drive but also encouraging,” she told The Guardian in 2005.

Danes first discovered her passion for performing when she began studying modern dance at the age of 6. Having caught a whiff of life on the stage, she soon shifted her focus to acting. Danes started taking acting classes at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Instigate at 10 years old and was auditioning for roles in student films by age 11. She landed her first agent a year later—but her career was far from an overnight success. “I was 12 when my first job offer was to be on a soap opera,” Danes recalled to the New York Times in January 2010. “I turned it down because I didn’t want to develop bad habits.”

With her parents' support, Danes maintained an early, sporadic television schedule. She made her first TV appearance in an episode of Law & Order in 1992 and was later cast in a failed pilot, starring Dudley Moore.

My So-Called Life

At 13 years old, Danes caught her first big break when she landed the starring role of Angela Chase, a curious, hyper-intelligent teen in the series My So-Called Life, which premiered in 1994. While ratings for the program never ballooned, My So-Called Life proved to be a hit with critics, with Danes even winning a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV Drama in 1995. However, the network's patience for the show was thin, and the series was pulled after just one season.

Little Women and How to Make an American Quilt

Even before the end of her television show, Danes had started to make her way onto the big screen. She made her feature film debut in 1994's Little Women, based on the Louisa May Alcott book of the same name. Starring opposite Kirsten Dunst, Christian Bale and Winona Ryder, Danes played the quiet and pilot Beth March, who dies of scarlet fever. A year later, she joined Ryder in How to Make an American Quilt, appearing as younger version of Anne Bancroft's Glady Joe Cleary. The young actor also played Holly Hunter's teenage daughter in the 1995 film Home for the Holidays.

Romeo + Juliet and The Rainmaker

By the late 1990s, Danes's film career was on an upward trajectory. In 1996, she landed her first leading film role in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, a modern retelling of the famous William Shakespeare play. Starring alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Danes received high praise for her performance and the film was a box office hit. She soon scored another major role in the 1997 legal drama The Rainmaker, in which she played a victim of domestic violence. The following year, she was cast as Cosette in an update of Victor Hugo's classic tale Les Misérables.

The Hours and Terminator 3

In 1998, Danes put her film career on hold to pursue an undergraduate degree at Yale University. "I needed to find myself," she explained. "I had played so many roles but I didn't really know who I was." After completing two years at Yale, she slowly returned to her acting career. There were small roles at first, like The Hours (2002), before Danes was back at it full time. In 2003, she co-starred in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

Shopgirl and Temple Grandin

Danes continued to tackle roles in such interesting films as Shopgirl (2005), Evening (2007) and Stardust (2007), among other projects. Venturing back to the small screen, she played the role of an autistic woman in the 2009 film Temple Grandin, which brought the talented actress her first Emmy Award.

Homeland

Danes went on to another television triumph with Homeland. Debuting in 2011, the series featured Dane as CIA agent Carrie Mathison, who suspects a Marine sergeant (Damian Lewis) of being involved in a possible terror plot. The role brought Dane strong reviews and numerous accolades, including Emmys in 2012 and 2013 for outstanding lead actress in a drama series. Lewis also picked up an Emmy, while the show's Emmy and Golden Globe wins underscored its standing as one of TV's premier programs. Following eight seasons, Homeland signed off in April 2020.

Her big-screen projects largely taking a backseat during her lengthy run on Homeland, Danes eventually surfaced in the 2017 comedy Brigsby Bear and the 2018 drama A Kid Like Jake.

Fleishman Is in Trouble and The Beast in Me

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Claire Danes and her husband Hugh Dancy in 2016.

In September 2009, Danes married British actor Hugh Dancy in a small ceremony in France. The couple met while filming the 2007 movie Evening. They had their first child together, a son named Cyrus, in December 2012, and welcomed a second son, Rowan, in August 2018.

As of November 2025, Danes has an estimated net worth of $35 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

• Acting is the greatest answer to my loneliness that I have found.

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