American actress Lauren Ambrose was born on February 20, 1978 in New Haven Connecticut. She is best known for her role as Claire Fisher on the critically acclaimed HBO series Six Feet Under. Born Laura Anne D'Ambruoso, she is of Italian ancestry on her father's side, and studied at Wilbur Cross High School and the ACES Educational Center for the Arts. A trained opera and voice singer, she attended the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and later on worked in Broadway, for film, and on television. In 2001, she married professional photographer Sam Handel of Massachusetts.
Ambrose started off her career in New York theater with off-Broadway productions. She also had several television appearances, with guest roles on Law and Order, playing a mentally challenged young woman raped by a group of high school students. In 1997, she landed her first film role In and out, which was followed by Can’t Hardly Wait. In 2000, she bagged the lead in a cult favorite Psycho Beach Party.
Ambrose would get her most notable role on the HBO series Six Feet Under in 2001. Her role as Claire Fisher, the rebellious and troublemaking child and only daughter of the Fisher family. In 2006, she made her Broadway debut in the Lincoln Center Theater revival of Awake and Sing!. The following year, she played as Juliet in the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park performance of Romeo and Juliet. In 2008, she was Ophelia on the Hamlet staging of Shakespeare in the Park.
Ambrose’s other screen credits include Summertime’s Calling Me, Saving Graces, Swimming, Admissions, Diggers, and the 2008 TV series The Return of Jezebel James.