Claire Danes Biography

Birth Name : Claire Catherine Danes 

Date of Birth : 12 April 1979, New York City, New York, USA 

Height : 5' 5½" (1.66 m) 

Occupation : Actress

Claire Catherine Danes was born in New York City on April 12th, 1979, into what she would later describe as a "very creative household." Her father, Chris, a computer consultant and architectural photographer, and her mother, Carla, a painter and teacher, first met at the Rhode Island School of Design. Both Claire's parents encouraged her participation in the arts at an early age. Claire also has a brother, Asa, six years her elder, who is a graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio and works for a non-profit organization. 

At age six, Claire began classes in modern dance, which remains one of her interests to this day. At nine, she enrolled in the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. Claire's acting career began in "off-off-Broadway" productions such as Happiness, Punk Ballet and Kids on Stage, for which she choreographed her own dance number. In 1992, she landed a guest spot on the hit NBC series Law & Order, playing a teen model who murders her photographer-lover. 

Though she has charmed the masses, Danes eagerly joined her peers as a college student, enrolling at Yale in the fall of 1998. While studying, she chose only to make films during summer breaks, often resulting in major duds such as The Mod Squad (1999) and Brokedown Palace (1999) (both 1999). She then took a break from filming, returning to the big screen in 2002 with a supporting role in Igby Goes Down (2002), followed by a role in the critically acclaimed The Hours (2002), which won a Golden Globe for Best Picture and starred Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. She acted alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines (2003), then co-starred with Joaquin Phoenix in It's All About Love (2004).

While filming Stage Beauty (2004) in 2003, she fell in love with co-star Billy Crudup, whose girlfriend of seven years, actress Mary-Louise Parker, was pregnant with his child. He left Parker for Danes, 11 years his junior. Parker went on to give birth to Crudup's son, whom she named William Atticus. Danes and Crudup have since broken up and in September 2009, she married British actor Hugh Dancy, whom she met in 2006 while filming Evening (2007).