DeLanna Studi

DeLanna Studi is a Cherokee actress born on June 4, 1976, in Muldrow, Oklahoma, to her mother Deanna and father Thomas. Growing up in a small town with strong ties to the Cherokee tribe, she was an active member of her community. Her uncle, actor Wes Studi, influenced her decision to pursue acting as a means of representing Native American culture. Before turning to performance, Studi studied architecture at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith and Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

At the age of 22, Studi relocated to Los Angeles to begin her acting career. Her first screen appearance came in 1998 in the music video for "Perfect" by The Smashing Pumpkins, which aired on MTV. That exposure led to her being cast as Talks A Lot in the Hallmark film DreamKeeper in 2003. The role earned her the American Indian Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2003 and the First Americans in the Arts award for Outstanding Supporting Performance by an Actress in a TV Movie/Special in 2004. Additional screen credits include Edge of America (2003) and Shameless (2011).

Studi made her Broadway debut in 2009 in August: Osage County. Her stage work has extended to original material rooted in her own family history. In 2015, she and her father traveled the 900-mile route known as the Trail of Tears, retracing the path their ancestors were forced to take following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. That journey became the basis for her play And So We Walked, which received the Butcher Scholar Award from the Autry Museum of the American West in 2016.