Claire Catherine Danes aka Claire biography

Real biography: She's the melodramatic high-schooler from My So-Called Life, who is now all-grown-up.

Life Story

Though the show My So-Called Life lasted one season, young people around the country could identify and fall in love with Claire Dane's character Angela Chase. Before that show, however, the New York actress was already making a name for herself in movies like Little Women with Winona Ryder and on TV shows such as Law and Order. After the success of My So-Called Life in 1994, Danes appeared in several films including Home for the Holidays with Holly Hunter and How to Make and America Quilt. In 1996, Danes starred alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in the splashy Romeo and Juliet remake and appeared in Oliver Stone's U-Turn in 1997. She asked Stone to write Yale University a recommendation for her to attend. She attended Yale for two years, studying psychology. She returned to films, starring in several movies throughout the late 90s. In 2002 she had a small role in the independent movie Igby Goes Down (Amanda Peet). She also starred in the big-budget movie Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines with Kristanna Locken in 2003 and played the title character in the Steve Martin romantic comedy Shop Girl.

Danes has also stirred up a slight bit of controversy after filming Brokedown Palace in the Philippines. She told Premiere magazine that the place "Smelled of cockroaches, with rats all over and that there is no sewage system and the people do not have anything -- no arms, no legs, no eyes." Because of these statements, Danes has been banned from ever returning by president of the Philippines.

Most recently, she played Yvaine in the fantasy film Stardust with Sienna Miller and will next appear in the film The Flock with Avril Lavigne.

Trivia

Has a song about her by the band 'The Ataris' called "My So-Called Life"