DeLanna Studi is a proud citizen of the Cherokee Nation. Studi has over twenty-five years of experience as a performer, storyteller, educator, facilitator, advocate, and activist. Her theater credits include the first national Broadway tour of the Tony Award– and Pulitzer Prize-winning play August: Osage County, off-Broadway’s Gloria: A Life (Daryl Roth Theatre), and Informed Consent (Duke on 42nd Street); her regional credits include work at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Portland Center Stage, Cornerstone in Los Angeles, and the Indiana Repertory Theatre.

She originated roles in twenty-plus world-premiere plays, including fourteen Native productions. A pivotal moment in her career was writing and performing And So We Walked: An Artist’s Journey Along the Trail of Tears, for which she retraced with her father her family’s footsteps along the Trail of Tears. And So We Walked has been produced throughout the country and was the first American play chosen for the Journées Théâtrales de Carthage in Tunisia. It recently made its off-Broadway debut at Minetta Lane Theatre, where it was recorded for Audible.

As a playwright, she has been commissioned by the Theatre Company,  Theatre for One (New York and Chicago), and the Period Piece series. She stars in the Peabody Award-winning film Edge of America, Hallmark’s DreamKeeper, and the TV series Goliath, Shameless, and General Hospital. She is a recipient of the Butcher Scholar Award, MAP Fund grant, and a grant from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation. Since 2007, she has served as the chair of the SAG-AFTRA Native Americans Committee. Studi is the artistic director of Native Voices at the Autry.