Biografia
Born on the Subic Bay Naval base in the Philippines, Dania Denise moved to California as a child with her father, David, a US Merchant Marine who hailed from Detroit, Michigan, and her mother, Nina, who was born and raised in the Philippines and became an Office Technician once the family was settled in Northern California.
Creative and artistically inclined from a young age, Dania was a natural performer, singing and dancing for family and friends, recording herself reading her favorite children's books out loud and drawing a weekly comic book series, which she passed around for her middle school classmates to read.
At the age of 15, she received a casting call in the mail for aspiring models and actors in San Francisco. After attending the casting call, Dania signed with her first agency and began booking work in local commercials and publications. In her junior year, she became involved with the local summer youth theater program, where she played the lead role of Maleficent in "Sleeping Beauty."
Graduating from Armijo High School in 2001, Dania enrolled at San Francisco State University, where she graduated with a 4.0 GPA in 2005 with a B.A. in Radio/TV with an emphasis in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Journalism. That same year, Dania played a limo riding party goer in the New Year's Eve scene in "Rent." Seeing Rosario Dawson on-set and watching director Chris Columbus in action further motivated her to continue pursuing acting.
Her acting career began to take off in 2015 after booking a slew of local commercials, including spots for Comcast SportsNet, Dick's Carpet One, Golden1 and Credit Karma, among many others. Her commercial credits eventually led to a string of roles in web series, online projects and independent films. The first time Dania saw herself on the big screen was at a screening in Monterey, California for the short film, "On the Inside", where she played the lead, Kimberly, who wakes up in a daze from the night before and makes a gruesome discovery in her kitchen.
2017 served as a big year for Dania when she took on the role of "Ringmaster" at the Napa Valley Film Festival. As the main emcee at Lincoln Theatre in Yountville, California, she quickly became a crowd favorite. From conducting engaging and memorable on-stage Q&As with directors and producers to sharing special moments with Will Ferrell as emcee for his NVFF Maverick Tribute Award, her success in the Ringmaster role led to being promoted to Lead Ringmaster for NVFF 2018 and a new home at the prestigious and beloved Uptown Theatre in Napa, California. In addition to recruiting, updating/implementing the training program and scheduling for the dozens of volunteer Ringmasters for that season, Dania worked 12 hour days at the Uptown Theatre for the duration of the 5-day festival.
Several highlights of her time in that role included interviews and interactions with "Green Book" producers Nick Vallelonga and Brian Currie, celebrity chef Tyler Florence, "Cold Brook" writer, director and actor William Fichtner and co-star, Kim Coates and many others. Her fondest memory of NVFF 2018 was her one-on-one on-stage interview with Billy Bob Thornton, who received the festival's Caldwell Vineyard Maverick Tribute. After the interview, the two, along with Billy Bob's team, hung out in the green room, where Dania recalls Billy Bob's encouragement for her commitment to acting and the need for proper representation across all ethnicities.
In 2018, Dania joined the ensemble cast of the sci-fi TV series, "Chronofilm," playing the role of brainiac techie, Judy Albertson. Season 1 premiered in July 2020, with season 2 in pre-production, with an expanded look into Judy's backstory as one of the season's story lines. That same year, Dania added the roles of producer, writer and director to her entertainment credits after co-founding the independent film production company, Street House Films. Several of the short films she has produced, starred in and directed have been official selections at several film festivals.
Inspired to stake it out on her own, Dania parted ways with Street House Films to launch her own indie film production company, Runaway Mill Productions LLC. As Founder/Director/CEO, she has already grown into her new roles, including being an award-winning director for her short films. Her next project in the pipeline is early preproduction on her first indie feature, "You Were Just Here," which has already won numerous awards for "Best Screenplay" and "Best Film Trailer" (proof of concept) on the film festival circuit both nationally and internationally.
In addition to her work in front of and behind the camera, Dania is also an acting coach who enjoys giving back and inspiring other actors to pursue their passions with the same dedication and ambition that's contributed to her 25+ year professional career.
