Claire Danes

Actor

Claire Danes made a splash as the teen heroine of My So-Called Life, a 1990s TV homage to high school angst that became a cult favorite. An actor since childhood, she jumped successfully to the big screen in 1997's Romeo and Juliet, playing Juliet to Leonardo DiCaprio's Romeo. She has since appeared in several movies, usually in supporting roles, including the film version of John Grisham's The Rainmaker (1997, starring Matt Damon), Igby Goes Down (2002) and The Hours (2002, starring Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman). Her other films include Oliver Stone's U Turn (1997, with Sean Penn), Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines (2003, with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Steve Martin's Shopgirl (2005).

Extra credit: Following in the footsteps of Jodie Foster, Danes enrolled in Yale University in the fall of 1998.