Claire Forlani Biography

Claire Antonia Forlani (born 1 July 1972) is an English actress. She is best known for her roles in films such as Mallrats, Basquiat and Meet Joe Black.

Early life

Claire Forlani was born in 1972 in Twickenham, London, the daughter of Barbara (née Dickinson), who was English, and Pier Luigi Forlani, a music manager from Ferrara, Italy. At the age of 11, Forlani entered the Arts Educational School in London, where she began to study acting. During her six years at the school, she also studied dance, which led to performances on stage in The Nutcracker and Orpheus in the Underworld.

Career

Forlani's parents moved to San Francisco in 1993, in order to allow for wider casting opportunities in Hollywood films. Subsequently, Forlani was cast in the television mini-series J.F.K.: Reckless Youth and the film Police Academy: Mission to Moscow. In 1995, she played the supporting role of Brandi Svenning in Mallrats. In 1996, Forlani appeared in a supporting role as Sean Connery's daughter in the film The Rock. She continued to appear in both widely released and smaller-budget films. In 1998, she starred with Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt in Meet Joe Black. She then appeared in Antitrust, a thriller released in January 2001. Forlani was the new face of L'Oréal in 2001. She has been ranked no. 51 (2000) and no. 89 (2001) in Stuff magazine's "100 Sexiest Women", no. 85 (2001) in FHM magazine's "100 Sexiest Women" and was slotted in Loaded's "Hot 100 Babes". In 2003, she co-starred with Jackie Chan in The Medallion.

In autumn 2006, Forlani joined the cast of CSI: NY in a recurring role as a medical examiner, Dr. Peyton Driscoll. In February 2007, Forlani portrayed Tori Bodeen in the film version of Nora Roberts's best-selling book Carolina Moon. In 2008, she starred opposite Daniel Craig in Flashbacks of a Fool. In 2011, Forlani played Queen Igraine in Camelot and Kate Templeton in Love's Kitchen alongside her husband Dougray Scott.

In 2011, she also made an appearance in NCIS: Los Angeles as Agent Lauren Hunter, replacing Henrietta Lange (Linda Hunt) temporarily as the operations director at NCIS for the end of season 2. She also appeared in season 3's finale, where her character is killed in a car bombing.

She has recently begun to appear in a series of television commercials for Dewar's Scotch whisky, where she sports a thick Scottish accent.

Personal life

In June 2007, Forlani married Scottish actor Dougray Scott, with whom she has two stepchildren.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1991, 1992	Press Gang	Judy Wellman	Debut
1992	Gypsy Eyes	Katarina
1994	Police Academy: Mission to Moscow	Katrina
1995	Mallrats	Brandi Svenning
1996	Basquiat	Gina Cardinale
	The Rock	Jade Angelou
1997	The Last Time I Committed Suicide	Joan
1998	Basil	Julia Sherwin
	Into My Heart	Nina
	Meet Joe Black	Susan Parrish
1999	Mystery Men	Monica
2000	Boys and Girls	Jennifer Burrows
2001	Antitrust	Alice Poulson
2002	Triggermen	Emma Cutler
2003	The Medallion	Nicole James
	The Pentagon Papers	Patricia Marx	Daniel Ellsberg's wife
2004	Bobby Jones: A Stroke of Genius	Mary Malone Jones
2005	Green Street	Shannon Dunham
	The Shadow Dancer	Isabella Parish	Titled Shadows in the Sun in the United States
	Ripley Under Ground	Cynthia
2006	Nightmares & Dreamscapes " "Crouch End"	Doris Freeman
2006"07 2010	CSI: NY	Dr. Peyton Driscoll	Season 3 (nine episodes) Seasons 4 & 6 (one episode each)
2007	Hallam Foe	Verity Foe
	Carolina Moon	Tory Bodeen
2008	Flashbacks of a Fool	Ruth Davies
	In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale	Solana
	Beer for My Horses	Annie
2009	Shannon's Rainbow	Christine
	False Witness	Pippa Porter
	Not Forgotten	Katie
2010	Love's Kitchen	Kate Templeton
2011	Camelot	Queen Igraine	Ten episodes
2011-12	NCIS: Los Angeles	Lauren Hunter	Season 2 (two episodes) Season 3 (four episodes)