Dana Terrace facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Dana Terrace
Terrace accepting a Peabody Award in 2021
Born	(1990-12-08) December 8, 1990 (age 34) Hamden, Connecticut, U.S.
Education	School of Visual Arts (BFA)
Occupation	Animator writer director voice actress
Years active	2011–present
Employer	Disney Television Animation (2013–2023) Glitch Productions (2024–present)
Notable work	The Owl House Knights of Guinevere

Dana Terrace (born December 8, 1990) is an American animator, writer, director, and voice actress. She is most famous for creating the popular Disney Channel animated series The Owl House. She also co-created the upcoming web series Knights of Guinevere for Glitch Productions. Before creating her own shows, Dana worked as a storyboard artist on Gravity Falls and directed episodes of the 2017 DuckTales reboot.

Early Life and Creative Beginnings

Dana Terrace grew up in Hamden, Connecticut. She attended a local Catholic school for eight years. During this time, she became interested in artists like John Bauer and Hieronymus Bosch. As a child, she loved watching cartoons such as The Powerpuff Girls, Pokémon, and The Simpsons. These shows, along with Studio Ghibli films like Princess Mononoke, inspired her later work.

In 2000, when she was about 10 years old, Dana made her very first flip-book animation. It showed Pikachu using a thunder shock on a Charmander. She also spent 10 years as a dancer. For high school, she went to Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School in New Haven, Connecticut. While there, she worked at a natural history museum for three years.

Studying Animation in College

Dana studied animation at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York. She spent many hours drawing each day and shared her art on her Tumblr blog. In 2012, during her third year at SVA, she created a short animated film called "Kickball." This film was praised for its cool design and lively animation. It even won a grant from the National Board of Review.

The next year, she worked with Iker Maidagan on another animated short called "Mirage." Dana animated and designed the characters for this film. "Mirage" was called "flawlessly executed" and was shown at the LA Shorts Fest. Dana later said that her time at SVA was a mix of good and bad. She learned a lot from online tutorials, her friends, and other students.

In 2011, Dana also helped with a student horror comedy film called Blanderstein. This film won an award for its animation and character design.

Starting Her Animation Career

After finishing college in 2013, Dana had an internship at JibJab. There, someone from the Gravity Falls team saw her student film Mirage. They offered her a storyboard test, which led to her first job at Disney Television Animation. She became a storyboard revisionist for Gravity Falls.

Dana said that the creative people on Gravity Falls liked her work on Tumblr. They hired her because she was willing to animate any scene. This job was her "first professional animation job." She learned how to storyboard, manage a team, and have a clear vision for a project. She also animated some important scenes for the show herself. In 2019, she said her experience on Gravity Falls was "wonderful."

In 2014, Dana sold her art, sketchbooks, and prints at the CTN Animation Expo. In 2018, she helped draw 34 pages for the Gravity Falls: Lost Legends: 4 All-New Adventures! graphic novel.

Directing and Creating New Shows

In 2017, Dana Terrace directed several episodes of the 2017 DuckTales reboot. She helped make the character Webby Vanderquack more active and interesting. However, Dana later felt she wasn't being "fulfilled artistically" by this job. This feeling inspired her to create her own animated series.

She started developing ideas for an original series in late 2016. A few months later, in 2017, she pitched her idea: "a young girl goes to another world and learns magic from an older witch." This idea grew into The Owl House. The first character she created was the Owl Lady, who was inspired by the strong women in Dana's family. The main character, Luz Noceda, is named after Dana's college roommate. The show was also influenced by the video game Pokémon Red, which Dana's father gave her before he passed away when she was 11.

Dana wanted to create The Owl House to prove it was a good story. She chose the name because of the "mystique surrounding owls." She also worked as a storyboard artist for Tangled: Before Ever After and an episode of Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure in 2017.

The Owl House and Its Impact

The Owl House officially began development on February 23, 2018. It premiered on January 10, 2020, on Disney Channel. The show was quickly approved for a second season on November 21, 2019. Dana also provided guest animation for an episode of Adventure Time called "Bad Timing".

In 2021, it was revealed that Dana had also been a storyboard artist for the movie The Mitchells vs. the Machines. She also provided rough animation for several The Owl House season 2 episodes.

In March 2023, Dana announced that she had left Disney. On January 17, 2025, it was announced that she had co-created a new series for Glitch Productions called Knights of Guinevere. She created this show with John Bailey Owen and Zach Marcus, who also wrote for The Owl House. This new series is described as a "sci-fi psychological thriller" and is Glitch Productions' first 2D animated show.

From February 2 to March 9, 2025, Dana had her own art exhibit in Alhambra, California. It showed many of her artworks from 2015 onwards. This exhibit celebrated the release of her art book, skin & bones.

Representing Diverse Identities in The Owl House

The Owl House has received much praise for showing a loving relationship between the characters Luz Noceda and Amity Blight. Dana Terrace was responsible for including this relationship. In its second season, the show was also celebrated for featuring a non-binary transgender character named Raine Whispers. Dana often uses Twitter to confirm the diverse identities of her characters.

Even though Disney was at first hesitant about showing a queer relationship on the show, Dana eventually got their support. She said her "stubbornness" helped change their minds. Dana told Vanity Fair in March 2021 that she was open about her plans for Luz to be bisexual and to include other diverse characters from the start. She was initially told she couldn't have a "gay storyline among the main characters." Dana explained that she got upset and was ready to leave if needed. A week or two later, she was given the "all-clear," and the studio has been supportive since then.

News outlets like CNN and Deadline have supported these portrayals.

Personal Life and Advocacy

From 2015 until sometime before April 2022, Dana Terrace was in a relationship with Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch.

Dana shared that she is bisexual in 2017. She used her own experiences to help create The Owl House and the bisexual character Luz Noceda. She has mentioned many times that Luz Noceda is inspired by herself. In 2025, she stated that the term bisexual no longer felt completely right for her, and she is comfortable being called simply queer.

In 2018, Dana signed a petition that supported pay equity in the animation industry. This means fighting for equal pay for equal work. In 2022, she joined other animators at Disney who spoke out against Bob Chapek's initial refusal to comment on a bill in Florida. She argued that his letter to employees used "flowery and compassionate words to shut you up."

In November 2024, Dana responded to news that Disney had reportedly put an episode of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur on hold because it focused on a transgender character. She said that Disney is "terrified of everything" and should "grow some guts."

Filmography

Film

Television

Web series

Awards and Recognition

See also

In Spanish: Dana Terrace para niños