Homeland: Cast biographies

Claire Danes (Carrie Mathison)

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Claire Danes has established herself as one of Hollywood’s leading actresses.
Danes currently stars on Showtime’s critically acclaimed series Homeland. For her performance as ‘Carrie Mathison,’ she has won back to back Golden Globe® Awards for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama, a 2013 SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series and the 2012 Emmy® for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
Danes also received critical acclaim for her performance in HBO’s Temple Grandin biopic. Based on the extraordinary life of Temple Grandin, the film chronicles how she turned her unique talent into a behavioral tool that revolutionized the cattle industry and laid the groundwork for her successful career as an author, lecturer, and pioneering advocate for autism and autism spectrum disorder educations. Danes won the 2010 Emmy® Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie and the film won for Outstanding Made for Television Movie. She also won the 2011 Golden Globe® Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television and the 2011 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries.
Danes starred in Richard Linklater’s critically acclaimed film Me and Orson Welles, opposite Zac Efron and Christian McKay. The screenplay by Holly Gent Palmo and Vincent Palmo Jr. is based on the novel by Robert Kaplow and is set in the heady world of Orson Welles’ famed Mercury Theater. The National Board of Review named the film as one of 2009’s Top Independent Films.
In 2007, Danes made her Broadway debut starring in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion opposite Jefferson Mays. Her performance as ‘Eliza Doolittle’ was well reviewed by critics.
Danes garnered critical acclaim for her performances in Anand Tucker’s Shopgirl opposite Steve Martin and Jason Schwartzman, Richard Eyre’s Stage Beauty opposite Billy Crudup, Burr Steer’s Igby Goes Down opposite Susan Sarandon, Jeff Goldblum, Ryan Phillippe and Kieran Culkin, and Baz Luhrman’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio.
Danes first caught critics’ and audiences’ attention in Ed Zwick and Marshall Hershkovitz’s acclaimed series My So Called Life, which earned her an Emmy® nomination, and she was awarded the Golden Globe® for her leading role as ‘Angela Chase.’
Danes’ other film credits include Matthew Vaughn’s Stardust opposite Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer; Lajos Koltai’s Evening opposite Toni Collette, Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Natasha Richardson and Vanessa Redgrave; Thomas Bezucha’s The Family Stone opposite Diane Keaton and Sarah Jessica Parker; Jonathan Mostow’s Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger and Nick Stahl; Stephen Daldry’s Academy Award®-winning drama The Hours opposite Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, Allison Janney, Ed Harris and Toni Collette; Jonathan Kaplan’s Brokedown Palace opposite Kate Beckinsale; Billie August’s Les Miserables; Theresa Connelly’s Polish Wedding; Francis Ford Coppola’s The Rainmaker opposite Danny DeVito and Matt Damon; Oliver Stones’ U Turn opposite Sean Penn, Nick Nolte and Joaquin Phoenix; Michael Pressman’s To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday opposite Michelle Pfeiffer and Peter Gallagher; Jocelyn Moorhouse’s How to Make an American Quilt opposite Winona Ryder, Anne Bancroft and Ellen Burstyn; Billy Hopkins’ I Love You, I Love You Not opposite Jude Law; Jodie Foster’s Home for the Holidays opposite Robert Downey Jr., Holly Hunter and Anne Bancroft; and Gillian Armstrong’s Little Women opposite Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon and Kirsten Dunst.
Danes is also an accomplished dancer and has received critical acclaim for her performances in Edith and Jenny and Christina Olson: American Model, both choreographed by Tamar Rogoff at P.S. 122.