Claire Catherine Danes (born April 12, 1979) is an American actor. Prolific in film and television since her teens, she is the recipient of three Primetime Emmy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. In 2012 and 2026, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Danes first gained recognition for starring in the 1994 teen drama series My So-Called Life, winning a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama and receiving a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She made her film debut in the same year in Little Women (1994), and gained wider fame for starring in the romance Romeo + Juliet (1996). Danes has since appeared in The Rainmaker (1997), Brokedown Palace (1999), The Hours (2002), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Shopgirl (2005), and Stardust (2007). She appeared in an Off-Broadway production of The Vagina Monologues in 2000 and made her Broadway debut playing Eliza Doolittle in a 2007 revival of Pygmalion. In 2010, Danes portrayed the title character in the HBO film Temple Grandin for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film. From 2011 to 2020, she starred as Carrie Mathison in the Showtime drama series Homeland, for which she won two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a Drama Series. She has since starred in the Apple TV series The Essex Serpent (2022), the FX on Hulu series Fleishman Is in Trouble (2022) and the Netflix series The Beast in Me (2025), receiving Emmy nominations for the latter two.