Biografia
Donna is an actress, comic, voice actor and singer extraordinaire. She is a member of SAG-AFTRA and AEA.
While competing at Miss America, Donna won the honor of representing the pageant for various corporate events ranging from Gillette and American Greetings. She then hosted for Dick Clark Productions and such direct response programs as Shopping Line, At Home USA and Illuminare Cosmetics and appeared in spots for Kellogg's, Gain, Lockheed Martin, Marriott Resorts, Phillip Morris, ThighMaster and LG. She played the ditzy mom in the annual campaign for the cult favorite LA County Fair commercials, which won Ad Week's Best Spot Award and were featured in ABC's Funniest Commercials.
From Off-Broadway to regional and beyond, Donna has played leads in "Funny Girl" (Drama-Logue Critics Award), "Kiss Me Kate", "Dames At Sea", "Mamma Mia", "The Sensuous Senator", "My Fair Lady", "How To Succeed In Business...", "Godspell", "Li'l Abner", "The Tale of Tyler Tee", "Happy Hour" and an original Gene Kelly musical - to name some of her favorites.
Donna's numerous television credits include guest star and recurring roles on ABC's Desperate Housewives, Nickelodeon's Big Time Rush, Disney's The Suite Life Of Zach And Cody, FOX's The Wanda Sykes Show, Lifetime's The Division, CBS' The Nanny, FOX's Sliders and in an HBO/Fox sitcom pilot, Chief, with Gregory Harrison and Bobcat Goldthwaite. She appears in the pilot of Andrew Daly's Comedy Central show, Review with Forrest MacNeil when he mistakes her for being one of the real housewives and has to have an affair with her!
Her film roles stretch from studio film to independent features. She appeared as the unsuspecting First Lady in Most Wanted with Keenan Ivory Wayans and Jon Voight, as the calculating cougar Sarah Stevens in The Ultimate Gift with Academy-Award nominees James Garner and Abigail Breslin, and in a comedic moment in The Mexican starring Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt. Indie films that have enjoyed festival and distribution success include Panicked, where she plays a drugged-out psychiatrist and the award-winning short Skylab, where she plays meddling Merle. Other roles include the justice-seeking mayor in Criminal, the ex-CIA zombie-killing mom in The Deadleys, and the stern though heartbroken mother in the exquisite Victorian period piece, The Last Hymn.
Dazzled with Donna's comedic talent and singing impressions, Mitzi Shore hired her as a paid regular at The Comedy Store where she was a regular fixture for years on Sunset, Las Vegas and La Jolla. It was through this connection which she met Barry Manilow and subsequently toured with him, receiving rave reviews in his Showstoppers World Tour. Donna also has appeared on The Tonight Show, Arsenio Hall Show, ABC's World's Funniest Commercials and has performed at the Wembley Arena, Madison Square Garden and Universal Amphitheatre. She performed on USO Tours to the Mediterranean and Middle East. Donna also toured nationally for 7 years in the critically acclaimed 3 Blonde Moms, a delightful stand-up romp with 2 other established comics into the madness of motherhood, marriage and family mayhem.
As a voice-over artist, she's the title voice on two different cartoon series: the Emmy Award-winning Tutenstein (Discovery Kids) as well as JayJay the Jet Plane (PBS Kids). Donna's voice can also be heard in a multitude of projects for Disney, Rick Dees and many others including TBS' 2 Stupid Dogs, the highly rated documentary Evita: The Life of Eva Peron, and the popular Namco video game SoulCalibur III as well as working for Premiere Radio Network/Comcast doing comedic drop-in voice-overs for morning-drive shows, she has voiced national ad campaigns for Time Warner Cable, Mazda, Chrysler, and Union Bank.
Donna received a Bachelor in Music (Vocal Performance concentration) with a minor in Media/Theatre from California State University, Northridge after attending Oral Roberts University. She also studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and at Juilliard.
She resides in New York City.
