Claire Forlani was born in 1972 in Twickenham, London, the daughter of Barbara (née Dickinson), who was English, and Pier Luigi Forlani, a music manager from Ferrara, Italy. At age 11, Forlani entered the Arts Educational School in London, where she began to study acting. During her six years at the school, she also studied dance, which led to performances on stage in The Nutcracker and Orpheus in the Underworld.