Originally from Liberty, Oklahoma, DeLanna Studi is a proud citizen of the Cherokee Nation. Her theater credits include the First National Broadway Tour of the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning play August: Osage County; Off-Broadway’s Informed Consent at Duke Theater on 42nd Street; and regional theater credits at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Portland Center Stage at The Armory (Astoria: Part One and Two), Cornerstone Theater Company, Indiana Repertory Theater and others. DeLanna has originated roles in more than 18 world premieres, including 14 Native productions. She has done more than 800 performances of the Encompass “Compassion Play” KICK, a one-person show written by Peter Howard that explores the power of images, stereotypes and Native American mascots. Her roles in the Hallmark/ABC mini-series Dreamkeeper and Chris Eyre’s Edge of America have won her numerous awards. She is an ensemble member of America’s only Equity Native American theater company, Native Voices at the Autry. DeLanna serves as chair of SAG- AFTRA’s National Native Committee, which has, under her leadership, produced an award-winning film about American Indians in the entertainment industry and created a “Business of Acting” workshop that tours Indian Country.

DeLanna was the winner of the 2016 Butcher Scholar Award from the Autry Museum of the American West. She mentors for the Mentor Artist Playwright Program, Young Native Playwrights and American Indian Film Institute’s Tribal Touring Program. Her artist-in-residencies include the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Wisconsin (where she co-taught “Native American Oral Histories and Storytelling” and “American Indians in Film”) and Brown University. And So We Walked is her first play.