Morena Baccarin

Biography:

Morena Baccarin was born on June 2, 1979, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to actress Vera Setta and journalist Fernando Baccarin. Through her father, she has partial Italian ancestry from Veneto. At age ten, she moved with her family to New York City, where she attended Public School 41 and New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies, sharing classes with future Homeland co-star Claire Danes. She later studied in the drama division at Juilliard School (Group 29, 1996–2000) and is a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Baccarin made her film debut in the improvised comedy Perfume (2001) and followed with a lead role in Way Off Broadway (2001). She was Natalie Portman’s understudy in a Central Park production of The Seagull. Her first television role came in the sci-fi series Firefly (2002) as Inara Serra, a character she reprised in the 2005 film Serenity.

She provided the voice of Black Canary in Justice League Unlimited (2005) and made guest appearances on shows such as How I Met Your Mother (2006) and The O.C. (2006). Baccarin appeared in the unaired pilot of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia as Carmen and played the adult version of the villain Adria in Stargate SG-1’s tenth season, reprising the role in Stargate: The Ark of Truth.

In May 2009, she made her off-Broadway debut in Theresa Rebeck’s Our House. That same year, she starred as Anna, the leader of the alien Visitors, in ABC’s V (2009–2011), a remake of the 1984 series. In 2011, she joined Showtime’s Homeland, earning acclaim for her portrayal of the conflicted wife of a former POW and receiving an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2013.

Baccarin appeared as Agent Karen Walker in Spy (2015) and as Vanessa Carlysle in Deadpool (2016) and Deadpool 2 (2018). She played Dr. Leslie Thompkins in Fox’s Gotham across all five seasons and had a recurring role as Erica Flynn in The Mentalist (2013–2015). In 2019, she appeared in the Brazilian series Sessão de Terapia and starred in the apocalyptic thriller Greenland (2020). In 2023, she led the action film Fast Charlie.

Outside acting, Baccarin is an advocate for refugees and women’s rights, inspired by her mother. She has worked with the International Rescue Committee and participated in the Flores Exhibits project, reading the testimony of a migrant child held at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Baccarin married American producer Austin Chick in November 2011, and they had a son before divorcing in 2015. Around that time, she began a relationship with her Gotham co-star Ben McKenzie. The couple’s daughter was born during the finalization of her divorce, and they married on June 2, 2017, Baccarin’s 38th birthday. They now have two children together.