Officially...
Dana Lyn Baron’s career as an actor, dancer, singer, writer, and producer continues to expand on stages, screens and recording booths from coast to coast – highlights include David Fincher's Oscar-Winning Mank, guest appearances on Amazon's Bosch, FX's Golden Globe, SAG and Emmy Award-winning The Assassination of Gianni Versace, NBC's This is Us, Showtime’s Shameless, on the Cartoon Network’s We Bare Bears, and in the lead role in the Emmy Award-winning comedy short In Passing. She likes her rolls hot and her roles deep.
Her versatile voice has been heard as iconic characters in video games (Sonya Blade in Mortal Kombat, Lady Liadrin in World of Warcraft), and as the signature of well-known national brands (GAP, Ragu, and Thomas’, among many others). A graduate of UCLA, Dana studied at the La Jolla Playhouse (including as an apprentice to Bill Irwin) and at the British American Drama Academy at Oxford University.
She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband, kitties, and her yoga mat.
But, just between you and me...
INT. KITCHEN - MORNING
Dana, 7 years old, with blonde pigtails and pudgy cheeks,
stomps her foot and crosses her arms, as her mother
wearily puts dirty dishes into the dishwasher.
MOM
Oh, Dana. You’re so dramatic!
Dana narrows her eyes. She’s heard this many, many times.
DANA (emphatically)
I. Am. NOT!
A pause.
Mom stares at her daughter.
Dana giggles.
She runs out of the kitchen.
CUT TO:
After hearing some of her young, dancer friends talk about working in TV and commercials, Dana thought: “I want to do that, too!”
And so, at a “very mature" 13-years-old, she started cold-calling talent agencies in Los Angeles. She may have been clueless, but the girl had gumption!
From her earliest encounters with “drama,”a
creative artist was born. Who knew?
But, by age 12, Dana had traded in her soccer cleats for dance shoes and was soon sharing the stage with Debbie Reynolds, Mario Lopez, and the San Francisco Ballet (she was cast in their visiting production of The Nutcraker two years in a row).
By age 16, she made her professional musical theatre debut at
the San Diego Civic Light Opera as a diva tapper in a hit production of 42nd Street. So, yeah, Mom was right after all.
Admittance to UCLA's highly competitive communications program finally brought Dana to L.A. – where she promptly auditioned for the Laker Girls. Doesn't everyone? And then she promptly fell in the Forum and sprained her ankle. And then she promptly realized that perhaps acting might be a less-physically-risky career move.
Not one to waste time, between classes Dana did musicals in and around Los Angeles and was accepted into the La Jolla Playhouse Summer Conservatory where she had a game-changing apprenticship to Bill Irwin.
Her next summer was even better –
acceptance into the British American Drama Academy at Oxford University. Lots of "aha" moments later, she knew that, once she graduated college, she was headed to New York City .
Once in NYC, Dana produced three short films – the last one of which was accepted into the Berlin Film Festival. For three years (beginning in 2000), she volunteered at the Sundance Film Festival where she learned (among many other things), that you haven't really networked until you've networked in mittens.
As an actress, Dana has been repeatedly praised for her grounded sensuality and captivating intensity...
...so hats off to acting coach Susan Batson who refined Dana's innate ability to reflect the spectrum of the human experience and connect with characters on a very deep, tactile, visceral level.
By 2002, Dana was back in L.A. where she was mentored by several successful (and generous) voice over artists who saw a bright future in their biz for her.
Boy, were they ever right!
From video games to animation to commercial campaigns, Dana’s voice is consistently heard on screens and radios across the US (and sometimes even Canada).
If Dana’s not on set or in a recording booth, she’s in a class working on stuff that scares her. (Speaking of scary things, she’s just finished the first draft of her first TV pilot, based on her summer living and working in a small English town during her 20s.)
Dana yearns to turn the mirror on her audiences, and say: "Let's look at you." Experiencing life and understanding her inner “creature” in each moment is Dana’s passion... just an awkward, intellectual, rock star gal finding art in the everyday.
Whether as an actress, dancer, singer, producer, or writer, Dana's approach to her career is with a business mind that can let go when it’s time to play – and to allow the "script to play her." The wonderful opportunities and experiences of her life have made her unable to deny that "a creative life is worth everything."
