Dana Robins Ivey is an American character actress, who has performed on Broadway and other stage roles, in film and on television. Ivey was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Her mother, Mary Nell Ivey Santacroce , was a teacher, speech therapist, and actress who appeared in productions of Driving Miss Daisy and taught at Georgia State University. Her father, Hugh Daugherty Ivey, was a physicist and professor who taught at Georgia Tech and later worked at the Atomic Energy Commission. Her parents later divorced. She has a younger brother, John, and a half-brother, Eric Santacroce, from her mother's... re-marriage to Dante Santacroce. She received her undergraduate degree at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, and earned a Fulbright grant to study drama at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. She received an Honorary Doctorate from Rollins College in February 2008. Ivey's first job was at the age of 16, in Davison's, a department store in Atlanta, GA. With the earnings, she bought a guitar and opened a bank account for her savings.
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