Homeland’s Morena Baccarin was born in Rio de Janeiro. Her mother is actress Vera Setta, and her father is journalist Fernando Baccarin.

When she was seven years old, she moved with her family to Greenwich Village, New York, as her father was transferred to work as an editor at Globo TV‘s headquarters. 

Baccarin attended Public School 41 and New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies, where she and her future Homeland co-star Claire Danes were classmates.

She later attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts before she entered the theater program at the Juilliard School, where she was in the Drama Division’sGroup 29 (1996–2000).