Clare McKelway was born and raised in small town Maine, but she decided to be an actor around the age of three, when, after seeing 'The Little Mermaid,' she made her mother lie on the bathroom floor every night pretending to be Prince Eric so that Clare could rescue her as Ariel. Her dramatic childhood only continued in this fashion when she taught herself an English accent in an effort to complete her transformation into Ginny Weasley.
Clare relocated to New York City after earning her BA in theatre from the University of Southern Maine and training at Shakespeare and Company's Summer Training Institute in 2016. She has performed at multiple theaters in Maine, and at The Producer's Club in Midtown and Open Hydrant Theatre in the Bronx. She spends her downtime playing Dungeons and Dragons with her husband, baking, and walkng her dog/goblin creature, and her train rides knitting and reading.