About

DeLanna Studi is a proud citizen of the Cherokee Nation with 25 years of experience as a performer, storyteller, playwright, and activist. Her theater credits include the First National Broadway Tour of Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning play August: Osage County, Off-Broadway’s Gloria: A Life (Daryl Roth Theatre), Informed Consent (Duke Theater on 42^nd Street), and Regional Theaters (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Portland Center Stage, Cornerstone, and Indiana Repertory Theater). DeLanna originated roles in over thirty World Premieres, including writing and performing in And So We Walked: An Artist’s Journey Along the Trail of Tears where she retraced her family’s footsteps along the Trail of Tears with her father. And So We Walked has toured throughout the country and was the first American play chosen for the Journees Theatricales de Carthage in Tunisia, Africa. Recently, it made its Off-Broadway debut at Minetta Lane where it was recorded for Audible. As a playwright, Theatre for One recently commissioned her newest short plays Before American Was America and The Golda Project (New York and Chicago), The Theatre Center commissioned Capax Infiniti, Period Piece commissioned her play Wolves, The Center Theatre Group is workshopping her newest play I is for Invisble. In film and television, DeLanna starred in the Peabody Award winning Edge of America, Hallmark’s Dreamkeeper, Goliath, Shameless, General Hospital, Disney + Launchpad: The Roof, and Reservation Dogs. She has served as a cultural liaison for theatre, film, and television, most recently the television series La Brea. DeLanna has been devoted to social justice work and youth, having partnered with the National Conference for Community and Justice, Encompass, City at Peace, Shakespeare LA, Voices of Reproductive Justice, and the Heman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility. Her work in her Native communities include the Tribal Touring Program, the Mentor Artist Playwriting Program, Young Native Playwrights, the Alliance Against Racial Mascots, Challenge to Say No Tribal Tours, and the Cante Sica Foundation where she collected testimonials of survivors of the American Indian Boarding Schools. She serves on the Advisory Council for the Association of American Indians, and the following boards: PlayPenn, Portland Center Stage and the National New Play Network. DeLanna has been the chair of the SAG-AFTRA National Native Americans Committee since 2007. She is also the Artistic Director of Native Voices at the Autry, the only Equity Theatre in the country developing and producing plays written by Native American playwrights. Under her leadership, Native Voices and the Autry received their first Mellon Grant. She is a recipient of the Butcher Scholar Award, Mapfund Grant, Cherokee Preservation Grant, and the Doris Duke Artist Fund. DeLanna is a 2022 United States Artists Fellow.