Claire Holt

Biography of Claire Holt

Claire Rhiannon Holt was born on June 11, 1988 in Brisbane, Queensland. She is an Australian actress.

Holt attended Stuartholme High School in her native Toowong, where she took part in the school choir and acting classes. She also took private acting lessons. Holt had her first role at the age of 17 in the Australian youth series H2O - Just Add Water, in which she starred from 2006 to 2008 as Emma Gilbert.

On October 20, 2007, she attended Britain's Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards along with her co-stars Phoebe Tonkin and Cariba Heine. When Australian broadcaster Network Ten decided to produce a third season of H2O, Holt turned it down because she wanted new challenges.

In 2009, she starred as Lindsey Rollins in the prequel Messengers 2: The Scarecrow to the 2007 motion picture The Messengers. Holt has also appeared in commercials for Dreamworld, Sizzler and Queensland Lifesaving.

In 2011, she starred as Chastity Meyer in the TV movie Girls Club 2, alongside Meaghan Jette Martin, Jennifer Stone, Maiara Walsh and Nicole Anderson. She also had a supporting role in the 2011 mystery series Pretty Little Liars as Samara Cook. In addition, in 2011 she got the role of the original vampire Rebekah Mikaelson in The CW series Vampire Diaries, which she also embodied in its spin-off The Originals from 2013. However, Holt left the series during the first season, although she often made guest appearances. From 2015 to 2016 she portrayed the role of Charmain Tully in the NBC series Aquarius opposite David Duchovny.

In July 2015, she became engaged to television producer Matthew Kaplan after a little over a year of dating. The two married at the end of April 2016, the divorce followed a year later. She has been married to a real estate manager since August 2018. Their son was born in March 2019. A daughter followed in September 2020.