Ms. Furlan was born on the 7th of September in Zagreb, then part of the former Yugoslavia, now the capital city of the Republic of Croatia. She grew up surrounded by books and learning in the company of three university professors, her father and mother (Branka Weil), and her grandmother (Ljuba Kosar). Mira's grandmother taught her to speak German at an early age and then later French, and her mother, who was an avid theatregoer, introduced her to the magic of the dramatic arts when she was still very young. The high school that she attended was heavily oriented towards English and other languages, and it was there that she had her first taste of acting thanks to one of her teachers, an Englishman named David Jolley(sp?).

Mira went on to attend the University of Zagreb, to further her language studies with the original intention of pursuing a career as a simultaneous translator, and at the same time enrolled in Zagreb's Academy for Theatre, Film and Television. During her second year at the academy she began to get her first acting jobs and by her fourth year there was starring in a series on Zagreb TV ("Velo Misto" or "The Little Big Town"). Ms. Furlan then became a member of the Croatian National Theatre Company where she played major parts in the world's dramatic classics, including works by Shaw, Moliere and Brecht. She also performed regularly at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, playing "Ophelia" in a production of "Hamlet" directed by the brilliant Czechoslovakian director Jiri Menzel ("Closely Watched Trains") and as "Gloria" in Marinkovic's "Gloria". Her first film role in 1982 won her the Golden Arena for Best Supporting Actress.

Singing in a band for the fun of it in the mid-1980's, she met a young, charming director who had come to do a rock video of one of the songs. The video never did get made, but Mira had met the love of her life, and her husband to be, the talented director Goran Gajic. He was studying film in Belgrade at the time so Mira moved there to be with him and began to take roles at some of the Belgrade theatres but continuing to work in her hometown of Zagreb as well.

As the former-Yugoslavia began to tear itself apart in 1991 with nationalist sentiments, ethnic divisions and war, Ms. Furlan was performing at BITEF, an international theatre festival in Belgrade, along with actors from all over the world. Her statement in the program, that art should not serve any political or nationalist ideas, angered fanatics on both sides of the conflict and a campaign of hatred was begun against her in the press. Publicly vilified and subjected to abuse, she was accused in Croatia of treason and dubbed the "Serbian whore", and branded as a spy in Serbia. Strangers called her and left messages on her answering machine describing in lurid detail exactly how she was to be brutally massacred. By the time she left she was receiving 100 death threats a day. Yet she received not a single call from any of her friends or colleagues.

On the first of November 1991, she penned the powerful epistle "A Letter to My Co-Citizens" which was published in the newspapers in both Belgrade and Zagreb. Some two weeks later she and her husband flew from Belgrade to New York to begin their new lives.

Mira has found, and won the hearts of, a new audience with her compelling portrayal of the Minbari Ambassador "Delenn", on the award winning series "Babylon 5". Since her arrival in the U.S. she has also performed in a number of theatrical productions, a made-for-television movie, and released a new CD.

In 1998 Mira gave birth to her and Goran's first child. Marko Lav Gajic, a healthy 6 lb. 10 oz, 19 inch baby boy, was warmly welcomed at 5:45 am PST on December 15 at Cedars of Sinai Medical Center. The Gajic family currently resides in Los Angeles, California.

After an exile of some eleven years, Mira returned to the stage in Croatia to perform the title role in Euripides "Medea" during the summers from 2002 through 2005, with Rade Sebedzija's Ulysses Theatre Company on the island of Mali Brijuni. In recent years she has been working in flim in Europe and television in North America, including a recurring role on the Emmy award winning series LOST.