Dara Woo is a Broadway actor and former software engineer who proves that you don’t have to pick and choose your passions.
While working in tech, she quietly pursued acting on the side, landing roles in projects like “Blue Bloods” and “Sins of The Bride” before booking her breakout role in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Her background also includes internships across gaming, Business-to-Business, and entertainment at Electronic Arts, Salesforce, and Disney.
Dara is drawn to stories that center strong, complex women — characters who hold or want
power, make mistakes, and defy expectations. She’s passionate about increasing Asian
American representation onstage and onscreen, and continues to mentor women and
underrepresented talent in tech. She brings sharpness, curiosity, and a deep respect for
storytelling to every role she takes on.
Check out our interview with Dara:
On Instagram posted that you quit your job to make your Broadway debut. Can you explain a little bit about what your life was like before coming to Broadway?
Dara: Oh gosh, my life, you know, did a complete 180. I was a full time software engineer at Lyft, the rideshare company, and I had been doing that for over three and a half years, and on the side, I was auditioning for some acting projects. I basically got the email from my agent asking me to go to the audition and it was a block away from my office, so I was like, “Sure, I’ll pop down during my lunch break.” I spent the morning coding for lunch, then I went over and did the audition really quick. I thought nothing of it. I was like, “okay, you know, I’ll probably never hear back.” So, I went back to the office, and started coding and joining one-on-ones with my manager again. And then, you know, five interviews later, I ended up getting the role. But yeah, my life was very different. Before I was completely immersed in the tech world. I still think of myself as half a technologist. So, I definitely see myself going back into the tech world very shortly. But yeah, it’s been so crazy to see how instantaneously my life changed.
That’s incredible. It reminded me very much of Elle Woods– “what? like? It’s hard?”
Dara: I’m glad! I love Elle Woods! I guess it was sort of like, “I finally did it.” Plus, I think a lot of people in my life knew that my goal was to book an acting job big enough to quit my job. So yeah, I was very happy and excited to make that post.
Both of these fields, tech and acting, are incredibly rigorous and very time consuming. You mentioned that you were doing both for a little while. How did you manage to balance that?
Dara: The answer is not very well. It’s funny, because looking back on it, I often find myself simplifying how crazy it was, or saying, “oh, it really wasn’t that bad.” The honest truth is it was terrible at any given point. I was only giving, like, 60% of my energy into anything, and I felt like things were constantly, you know, slipping through the cracks. But to be more positive, I think maybe the chaos felt more chaotic in my head than it actually was. Like, I never received complaints from people outside, so yeah, maybe it was more just internal, but basically I was working my nine to five, and luckily– and I think this is kind of the savior for me– is that software engineering can be remote, and my team was based on the west coast. That means whenever I had auditions and stuff like that, I could shift work to fit my schedule. So for instance, a lot of the time I would have gigs in the morning, and so if I started work at 1pm that was okay, because that was still 10am PST, so then I was shifting my hours back. And I don’t think my teammates really noticed. I would just tell them, “hey, I’m working PST hours today.” But yeah, then at night, I was doing my heavier auditions, I was working out, I was pitching myself. I was really just kind of running around and filling in the gaps. I really like to pride myself on doing one thing a day for acting so, you know, I had to make sure every single day I was getting in that one thing.
Yeah, that balance sounds incredibly hard, but the time zones are a lifesaver, for sure!
Dara: They were a lifesaver. Honestly, the people who helped the most were my awesome and amazing and supportive friends. I could balance, you know, just software engineering and just acting, but the second you threw on modeling, it became extremely difficult. The second you threw on friends, it was extremely difficult. I’m also doing a lot of Jiu Jitsu, so managing jiu jitsu was also very difficult. I’m also trying to, you know, hopefully, be a good daughter, and hang out with my family. So, yeah, I think, like, if you just narrow it down to software engineering and one other thing, it’s very manageable, but the second you throw in any other semblance of things you wanted with your life, it was like running around like a headless chicken.
Even though this balance is pretty chaotic, are there things in software engineering and in acting that kind of go hand in hand or like complement each other?
Dara: This is a great question. In my head, I like to tell myself that the reason I know I will succeed is because I come from a very corporate background in which not only do I have to be very professional, but I have to get very good at strategizing, strategizing my career, but also just my time. There’s only so many hours in a day, and I never get less than eight hours of sleep, so I have to be very strategic in what I say yes to and what I put my effort into. I can’t say yes to everyone. I can’t say yes to everything. And so I’d like to think that because I’m a software engineer, I am able to sort of zoom out in a way that other actors aren’t, and see my career as sort of like a game, like a playing field in which I’m moving certain pieces and focusing on only certain aspects of my career. You know, I have had a few actor friends say to me, they’re like, “Dara, I don’t know how to make my career feel active, like, I just I feel like I’m just waiting around for the next audition.” And I can totally understand why someone might feel that way, but I think for me, like I have a never ending plethora of things I need to do within this career, and I think it’s because I take so much time to strategize what my next steps are. So, I think that helps. I also like to think that when software engineering was getting really difficult for me, it was really great to have acting to lean on. It was sort of like a second space for me to really pour my identity and like soul into. And so, in that sense, it was very easy for me to, like, when one thing became difficult, I was able to focus on the other, and vice versa. So, I think the two of them really help me balance out. But yeah, I think in terms of similarities, I like to bring myself to every role. So, anytime I get a role where the characters are more professional, or hard headed, or powerful, I love those kinds of roles, because that’s exactly how I have to be in software engineering and, yeah, I just feel like they’re more roles that feel more natural to me and who I am.
I love hearing when career paths seem like polar opposites, but when you think about it, they complement each other very nicely.
Dara: It’s so interesting because, you know, one is behind the computer versus the other one’s in front of this camera. So, you would think they’d be very different, but I actually feel like my success in both has come from the fact that I’m doing both at the same time.
What do you hope people take away from your journey?
Dara: Something that I feel very passionately about is the idea that life is very long and you can do many, many different things… I think people put too much pressure on themselves to find their perfect path in life and they don’t realize that you can have many different passions, many different interests, and you can have multiple streams of income. So, I would just say, don’t quit your day job. You know, I had the day job to pay my bills, and, it was a day job that, like, I care very much about and I see myself going back into. It’s not like I hated software engineering and I quit to become an actor. It’s more like I love the two of them and I find a lot of joy and importance in my life by balancing the two of them at the same time. So yeah, I think just like letting people know that life is long, and that you can do many different things.
Also, if you ever want to do some sort of creative or kind of a more turbulent pursuit, don’t quit your day job unless you have very, very wealthy parents to provide for you. You know, don’t do that to yourself. That’s too stressful. And I think, like, if you’re a songwriter and you have a job at your local store, like, you can draw inspiration from that to put into your songwriting… like there’s all sorts of different ways you can be a more full artist, and I think that only comes if you have a more full life, and that’s if you’re not stressed about your bills. A big part of my journey is being fearless and brave, at least that’s what I tell myself at night when I’m feeling lost. But, put yourself out there. You don’t have to put your whole life and being and essence into one certain thing. You can straddle the two of them and not go crazy. That’s probably my biggest advice to people.
Very inspiring words. That’s great advice. Switching gears to Broadway, what can you tell us about The Picture of Dorian Gray?
Dara: Oh my gosh. I can say The Picture of Dorian Gray is like no show you have ever seen before. It’s what I would argue is a technological feat. You know, we have over 300 spike marks on the floor, directing us actors where to go at every single given point of the show. I’m basically on stage for two hours straight, running from spike mark to spike mark, setting up specific shots, helping move along the show, you know, adding to the intensity of the show. It’s just like a super intense show where the entire time your eyes are going to be, like, wide open in awe. So, yeah, I mean, it’s been such an awesome show to be a part of, especially for someone who comes from a technological background and can really appreciate all the technological things that are happening. Like, oh my gosh. I don’t know how they do it. I’m there every single day, and I’m still just completely shocked how they accomplish this. I actually think, you know, going back to how software engineering and acting go hand in hand, I think I got this role because I was a software engineer, and I talked a lot about my appreciation for the technology. So, yeah, it’s so impressive.
I’ve heard nothing but great things about it. What exactly is your role in the show?
Dara: Yes, so I am one of the five camera operators. Half of us are actors, half of us come from, like, camera backgrounds, but our role in the show is that we are all actors, and we basically enable Sarah [Snook] to– I don’t know how I would describe it– I would say that Sarah has all the lines, but it’s not quite a one woman show, because the camera operators are, like, helping enable, like, certain technological parts of the show. But come to the show to see it. We’re on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre until June 29th so there’s not too much time left. But, yeah, it’s been really cool to be a part of.
What are your plans for after the show closes?
Dara: Yes, so I’m actively auditioning for TV and film parts, and then I’m also actively interviewing for roles at other tech companies. So I think it’s just sort of what comes first. But yeah, I see myself kind of balancing the two nicely as both an entertainer and actor, and then also like an entrepreneur and technologist. I’m really inspired by acting right now, so ideally it would be an acting role, you know, whether that’s theater or TV and film. But also, I’m at a point in my tech career, where I’m hoping to transition out of software engineering and into a different type of role. I think either of those two paths forward is kind of cool for me. It’s, you know, a little nerve wracking, because I have no idea what I’m going to be doing in two months. But I guess that’s where the excitement of life comes in, right?
