Dianna Agron
Dianna Elise Agron (/ˈeɪ.ɡrɒn/ AY-gron;[fn 1] born April 30, 1986) is an American actress and singer. After dancing and starring in small musical theater productions in her youth, Agron made her screen debut in 2006, and in 2007, she played recurring character Debbie Marshall on Heroes and had her first leading role. In 2009, she took the role of the antagonistic but sympathetic head cheerleader Quinn Fabray on the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. For her role in the series, she won a SAG Award and, as part of the cast, was nominated for the Brit Award for Best International Breakthrough Act, among other accolades.
Dianna Agron
- Actress
- singer
- dancer
2006–present
- Vocals
After her breakthrough success in Glee, Agron began working more in film, first starring in the popular young adult adaptation I Am Number Four (2011) as Sarah Hart before taking on films aimed at more diverse audiences, including the 2013 mob-comedy The Family and 2015's Bare. She has also directed several short films and music videos and, in 2017, began performing as a singer at the Café Carlyle in New York City, while continuing to star in films including Novitiate and Hollow in the Land in 2017, Shiva Baby in 2020, and As They Made Us in 2022. She acted in and directed part of the 2019 anthology feature film Berlin, I Love You.
Agron is Jewish and has spoken of how her religion relates to her career. She has also been involved with significant charity work, particularly in support of LGBTQ+ rights and human rights.
Career[edit]
2006–2008: Early career and Heroes[edit]
Agron moved to Los Angeles in 2005,[28] attending an audition for a dance agency on the same day.[30] She had wanted to go to New York, but instead chose Los Angeles as it was closer to her family in case she needed to support them.[57] She was signed by the agency and told them that she wanted to be in musicals; they sent her out for music video auditions. Agron was hesitant to be in music videos, worrying that she could not be considered both a dancer and an actress, though she agreed to be in the video for Robin Thicke's "Wanna Love You Girl"; she was cut when Pharrell Williams became involved and the concept was changed.[30] Her dance agency helped her find an acting agent and she again requested to be considered for musicals, which she was told were too outdated.[28][30] When she moved to Los Angeles she also began to watch movies other than old musicals; after watching 2001 and A Clockwork Orange back-to-back she was pleasantly surprised at how much more scope there was available as an actor.[58]
From 2006 to 2008 she appeared on television series including Shark, Close to Home, Drake & Josh, CSI: NY and Numbers.[59] Her first film role was an uncredited appearance as a cheerleader in the 2006 remake film When a Stranger Calls.[60] Agron told Rolling Stone that during her early career most of the film roles she was offered were horror films or nudity, and that she turned down all of these.[61] She instead appeared in comedy films like Skid Marks[62] and Rushers,[63][64] which won the short film audience award at the 2007 Method Fest,[65] and the action-thriller film T.K.O..[66] She had a recurring role in the third season of Veronica Mars as Jenny Budosh, a student in Veronica's criminology class at college who is also involved with a fraud cover-up.[67][68] During her early years in Los Angeles, Agron lived in the same building as Christina McDowell and Emma Stone, which was once raided by a SWAT team, and spent time with them and other "young artists and starlets" in the neighborhood, including Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Bynes.[32][69][70]
In 2007 she played the main role of Harper in the Milo Ventimiglia-directed MTV series It's a Mall World, alongside Sam Huntington, for its single season.[71][72] She then appeared in a recurring role for the second season of Heroes as Debbie Marshall, the mean captain of the cheerleading squad at the new school Claire Bennet attends.[73][74] Initially, she read for the nice cheerleader role, as she had previously been typecast as the "nice girl", but a producer thought it would be more interesting to see her play a mean character. She said that when she was cast in the role it "helped open a lot of people's eyes to [her], as an actor", because it is different to who she is as a person.[51][75] During the 2007–2008 writers' strike, when auditions stopped, Agron wrote a feature screenplay about a 28-year-old man and his relationships with different women in his life as he learns how to say "I love you", which was optioned in 2008; Agron had wanted to direct the film.[76][77][78]