Claire Danes

The actress was in a brief relationship with American actor, Billy Crudup from 2003 to 2006.

She then married actor, Hugh Dancy in a private ceremony in 2009, with whom she has a son, Cyrus.

Claire Catherine Danes was born in Manhattan, New York City to Carla and Christopher Danes. Her mother worked as a day-care provider and designer, while her father was an architectural photographer and computer consultant. She has an elder brother, Asa.

She enrolled in Dalton School and as she recognized her love for the arts from very early on, she studied at the Professional Performing Arts School and completed high-school at the Lycee Francais de Los Angeles.

She joined Yale University in 1998 to study psychology, but dropped out after two years after deciding to seriously pursue acting.

Her acting career took off when she landed a small role in one of the episodes of a popular American show, ‘Law & Order’. She then appeared in ‘Lifestories: Families in Crisis’, when she was just 13.

Her first major breakthrough was in the hit television drama series, ‘My So Called Life’ as Angela Chase. She was nominated for numerous awards and won the prestigious Golden Globe Award for role in this series.

Even before her television career ended, she made her film debut with Winona Ryder, Christian Bale and Kirsten Dunst in ‘Little Women’, in 1994.

In 1995, she appeared in ‘How to make an American Quilt and she was also got the lead role as ‘Juliet’, with Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘Romeo + Juliet’, in 1996.

She landed a major role in ‘The Rainmaker’ in 1997 and also starred in ‘Les Miserables’, the next year. However, she put her acting career on hold for a few years to pursue a course in psychology at Yale University in 1998.

‘My So Called Life’ was a popular, short-lived American teen TV series, which ran from 1994 to 1995. Danes received accolades for her performance as ‘Angela Chase’. The show was listed on Time Magazines, ‘100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME’. The series was also ranked number 16 on the ‘Top 25 Cult Shows Ever’ list.

Her performance as Carrie Mathison in ‘Homeland’ earned her a great reputation in the world of television and won her a number of industry awards and nominations including an Emmy Award for ‘Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series’. The final episode of season 1 of the series had a total of 1.7 million viewers, making it the ‘most-watched finale’ of any first year series.