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Packed To The Rafters

Dancing With The Stars

Dana Delany brings her family back to live on Wisteria Lane as Katherine Mayfair on ABC's "Desperate Housewives." Delany made her mark as Army nurse Colleen McMurphy on ABC-TV's critically acclaimed "China Beach," for which she received four Emmy nominations and two Emmy Awards for Best Actress.

A Stamford, Connecticut native, Delany graduated from Wesleyan University, then went to New York, where she honed her skills in daytime television drama and theatre. She starred in the Broadway show "A Life" and received critical acclaim in a number of off-Broadway productions. Her starring role in Nicholas Kazan's "Bloodmoon" in New York led to her arrival in Los Angeles for the west coast production of the controversial drama. Opting to stay in LA after the run of the play, Delany was soon cast in popular television shows, including "Moonlighting" and "Magnum, P.I.," as well as in the movies "Tombstone," "HouseSitter," "Live Nude Girls," "Exit to Eden," "Light Sleeper," "Moon Over Parador," 'Masquerade," "Patty Hearst," "Where the River Runs Black" and "Almost You."

Other television credits include the CBS miniseries "Shake, Rattle & Roll," "True Women," the telefilms "Resurrection" (ABC) and "The Patron Saint of Liars" (CBS), both directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal, and the critically acclaimed ABC telepic "For Hope," in which she played a woman suffering from scleroderma. Delany also starred in Lifetime's "Choices of the Heart: The Margaret Sanger Story," Showtime's "Sirens," "Rescuers: Stories of Courage" and in "The Right Temptation" for HBO. She is the voice of Lois Lane on "The New Batman - Superman Adventures" on Kids WB! In 2000 she completed a tour-de-force performance in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Dinner with Friends," alternating roles in New York, Los Angeles and Boston. She also produced and starred in the ABC telefilm "Double Jeopardy," the first in a series of films based on New York sex-crimes prosecutor Linda Fairstein's novels.

Delany shone in the role of Catherine, the matriarch in waiting to the wealthy Greeley family on "Pasadena," an hour-long drama for Columbia TriStar Television which aired on Fox. She followed that up with the griping "Presidio Med" on CBS, a medical drama revolving around a group of female doctors in San Francisco. She also co-starred in the Showtime drama "Conviction" with Omar Epps.

In 2003 Delany joined Doris Roberts in the Alzheimer themed drama, "A Time to Remember," for The Hallmark Channel, and appeared in the big screen in the James Redford independent film, "Spin." A year later she treaded the boards in "Much Ado About Nothing" at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre opposite Billy Campbell, and captivated audiences in the Lifetime drama "Baby for Sale." She has also guest starred in NBC's "Law & Order: SVU," ABC's "Boston Legal," USA's "Kojak," Showtime's "The L Word" and WB's "Related."

Most recently Delany starred in NBC's "Kidnapped" with Timothy Hutton. Her latest project, "Multiple Sarcasm," co-starring Oscar-winner Mira Sorvino and Stockard Channing, is currently in production.

PERSONAL INFORMATION HOMETOWN Stamford, CT BIRTDATE March 13