Sarah Clarke was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1972. She is the middle child of Ernest, a St. Louis engineer, and Carolyn, a homemaker. Her older brother, Preston, is a musician and her younger brother, Swope, works as a banker in New York.

She studied Fine Arts and Italian at Indiana University, spending her senior year in Bologna, Italy, where she also began acting. After that she returned to St. Louis and began working as an architectural photographer. She received free acting classes for taking photos of a cultural arts center.

She moved to New York and continued to study acting at Circle in the Square, also working with Robert Wilson, Axis Theatre Company and The Willow Cabin Theatre Company. She played the role of Madeline in the 24 Hour Plays production "k, x, z and y".

Her first movie role was starring in Nara Garber's short film "Pas de Deux" for which she won a CiNY Award for Outstanding Performance at the Brooklyn Film Festival.

She was the actress in the award-winning VW Jetta commercial "Synchronicity."

She made guest appearances in "Ed" and "Sex And The City", and starred in the independent film "The Accident" before landing a part in FOX's drama "24". For the part of Nina Myers she won a Golden Satellite Award for best performance by an actress in a supporting role in a drama series.

She also had a small part in the critically acclaimed movie "Thirteen" and she recently starred in "Happy Endings". She was one of doctor House's complicated patient in the new Fox's hospital drama "House M.D.".

Sarah married "24" co-star Xander Berkeley on September 7th, 2001.

Credit: sarah-clarke.net