Morena Baccarin was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to actress Vera Setta and journalist Fernando Baccarin. Her uncle was actor Ivan Setta. Morena has Italian and Brazilian Portuguese ancestry. She moved to New York at the age of 10, when her father was transferred there. She attended the LaGuardia High School of Music and Performing Arts and then the Juilliard School.

Staying in New York she, worked in the theater - notably in the Central Park production of Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull" where she was also Natalie Portman's understudy - and appeared in several movies.

Trivia

Daughter of Vera Setta and journalist Fernando Baccarin.
She attended PS 41 and the New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies, where she and Claire Danes were classmates. She later attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts where after graduating, she entered the theater program at the Julliard School for the Performing Arts. While at Julliard, she was one of the subjects of the PBS series American Masters which focused on the school and the students.
Raised in New York City
One of four actors from Firefly (2002) who voiced superheroes on Justice League (2001). She voiced "Black Canary" while Adam Baldwin voiced "Hal Jordan, the Silver Age Green Lantern", Nathan Fillion voiced "The Vigilante" and Gina Torres voiced "Vixen".

I would love to be a Bond girl. That is on my bucket list, definitely.
I love a good road trip. And I have been known to sing cheesy '80s songs at the top of my lungs on a windy road when no one can hear.
I do think it is possible to be in love with two people at the same time.
They have a joy for life in Brazil unlike any country I've ever seen.
I've had long hair, I've had short hair, and I've had in between hair... and its all good.
I feel that I have grown so much, as an actor, by being on Homeland (2011).
We're all interested in life outside of Earth. We all have a fascination with what's out there because we don't really know.
Humans have a sense of spontaneity and emotion. We have a dichotomy between grief and happiness.