Early life

Clarke was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Carolyn, a homemaker, and Ernest Clarke, an engineer.

She attended John Burroughs School in St. Louis, Missouri (along with Mad Men star Jon Hamm, who was her prom date), and Indiana University, where she studied Fine Arts and Italian. During that time she also dated fellow actor Paul Rudd for a short time. While a student at IU, Clarke became a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. She was initiated into the Beta chapter in 1990.

Clarke first became interested in acting while studying abroad during her senior year in Bologna, Italy. Upon returning to the United States, she began studying architectural photography. She received free acting lessons in return for taking photographs of a cultural arts center, and she studied acting at Circle in the Square Theatre School, Axis Theater Company, and The Willow Cabin Theatre Company.

Career

Clarke began her acting career with an appearance in a 1999 award-winning commercial for Volkswagen. She followed this with a role in the 2000 short film Pas de deux and received an Outstanding Performance award at the Brooklyn Film Festival. Clarke's career soon blossomed with minor roles, including films All About George in 2000 and The Accident in 2001, as well as television shows such as Ed and Sex and the City.

In 2001, Clarke auditioned for the role of CTU agent Nina Myers on 24. She won the role on the day that filming began. The wardrobe department didn't have time to fit her, so she had to wear her own outfit for the entire season of filming. In her three seasons with the show, Clarke was featured in a total of 36 episodes. Clarke won a Golden Satellite Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Drama Series for this role. Clarke also lent her voice to 24: The Game, as her 24 character, Nina Myers.

She has guest-starred on House and Life. She played Renée Dwyer, Bella Swan's mother, in Twilight. She accepted a leading role on new TNT series entitled Trust Me, opposite Eric McCormack and Thomas Cavanagh. The series premiered on January 26, 2009 to positive reviews, though it was cancelled after one season due to declining ratings. In 2010, Clarke reprised her role as Renée Dwyer in Eclipse, the third movie in the Twilight series. In 2013, she was cast as Marla Jameson in the US version of The Tomorrow People.

Personal life

Clarke met her husband, Xander Berkeley, while on the set of 24 (he played her supervisor, George Mason) and they were married in September 2002, a year after meeting. They have two daughters: Olwyn Harper (born on September 23, 2006) and Rowan (born c. March 2010).

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Interior. Bedroom - Night	Heather Cinicci	Short film
2000	Pas de deux	The Clown
2000	All About George	Catherine	Short film
2001	Accident, TheThe Accident	Reeny	Short film
2002	Emmett's Mark	Sarah
2003	Thirteen	Birdie
2003	Third Date, TheThe Third Date	Katrina	Short film
2004	Human Error	Company Spokesperson
2005	Happy Endings	Diane
2005	Psychic Driving	Selma	Short film
2006	Lather Effect, TheThe Lather Effect	Claire
2007	Colony, TheThe Colony	Olga	Short film
2008	Twilight	Renée Dwyer
2009	Women in Trouble	Maxine McPherson
2010	Below the Beltway	Anne
2010	Twilight Saga: Eclipse, TheThe Twilight Saga: Eclipse	Renée Dwyer
2010	Bedrooms	Janet
2011	Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1, TheThe Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1	Renée Dwyer
2012	Quick Jog, AA Quick Jog	Jogger	Short film
2012	Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2, TheThe Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2	Renée Dwyer
2015	Staring at the Sun	Dolly Alexander	Post-production
2016	Punk's Dead	Trish

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Sex and the City	Melinda Peters	"Politically Erect"
2001	Ed	Kara Parsons	"The Test"
2001-2004	24	Nina Myers	Recurring role
2003	Karen Sisco	Barbara Simmons	"The One That Got Away"
2005	House	Carly Forlano	"Control"
2005	Las Vegas	Olivia Duchey	"The Big Ed De-cline", "The Real McCoy"
2006	House Divided, AA House Divided	Jackie	TV film
2006	24: The Game	Nina Myers (voice)	Video game
2006	Commander in Chief	Christine Chambers	"Unfinished Business"
2007	Life	Mary Ann Farmer	"A Civil War"
2007	Alibi	Sarah Winters	TV film
2008	Wainy Days	Rebecca	"Rebecca"
2008	Cleaner, TheThe Cleaner	Lauren Keenan	"To Catch a Fed"
2009	Trust Me	Erin McGuire	Main role
2009-2011	Men of a Certain Age	Dory	Recurring role
2010	Booth at the End, TheThe Booth at the End	Sister Carmel	Recurring role
2011-2012	Nikita	Katya Udinov	"Guardians", "Pale Fire", "Arising"
2012	Covert Affairs	Lena Smith	Recurring role
2013-2014	Tomorrow People, TheThe Tomorrow People	Marla Jameson	Recurring role
2014	Line of Sight	Dot Bernt	TV film
2015	Couch Surfing USA	Mary	TV series
2015-present	Bosch	Eleanor Wish	Main role
2016	NCIS	FBI Agent Tess Monroe	2 Episodes

[ Source: Wikipedia ]