Biography
Hobbies: Snowboarding, Rollerblading, Hiking, Biking, Scuba Diving,
and other outdoor activities. Dina was born and raised in Forest
Hills, Queens, New York but she moved to Dix Hills, Long Island
just before her last year of Junior High School. She has two
siblings, an older brother and a younger brother named Evan and her
father owns an auto parts and repair shop in Queens and drives a
Harley. Her first experience in the entertainment industry came
when she did some modeling from age nine to sixteen. She always
wanted to become an actress but her parents didn't think that was a
wise career move; they wanted her to get a good education, so she
went to college and graduated in 1990 with a bachelor's degree in
business administration with a concentration in marketing (and a
minor in French). She started her acting training at The
Neighborhood Playhouse, in New York, where she studied Sanford
Meisner's acting techniques with Ron Stetson for about three years.
Other actors to receive such training are Sandra Bullock, Michael
Douglas, Jeff Goldblum, Leslie Nielson, Diane Keaton, and others.
She got her first part in the TV show Beverly Hills 90210 which
required her to move out to LA. Soon after, she scored the lead in
the movie Johnny Mnemonic, where she did almost all of her own
stunts establishing herself as an athletic actress. She then moved
to eastern Europe for six months while shooting her second movie,
Dragonheart, which was also a very physical role but also required
her to deal with CGI special effects. In her very next movie,
Starship Troopers, she made use of her latest acting experience
because she again had to deal with CGI special effects and act in
front of.. nothing. I guess she's now established as an athletic
actress as well as a CGI special effects actress. ;) Her next few
roles came in the area of TV which allowed her to expand her
experience a little more. Her talent agent also represents Matt
LeBlanc so through her she was able to score a reoccurring role on
Friends. Next, she had a short lived part on the TV show Michael
Hayes and a guest starring role in an episode of Ally McBeal before
landing her next movie role opposite James Caan in Poodle Springs,
which aired on HBO. Since then, she's gone on to score an
independant film project as well as other big-budget films which
should be coming to theaters in the near future.
Biography courtesy of the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com).
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