Daryn Strauss

Daryn Strauss was born and raised in suburban New Jersey. At 11, she danced with the New Jersey Ballet Company in The Nutcracker. At 14, she performed at Radio City Music Hall, singing in a choir of kids behind Barry Manilow, and again the following year with tenor Jose Carreras in his charity concert, also at Radio City Music Hall. She studied screenwriting at UCLA and worked as a paralegal in NYC to make ends meet. She is the creator, writer, director, executive producer, and co-star of the web series "Downsized," a dramedy about middle class New Yorkers adjusting to the absurdities of life during the economic crisis. She was nominated for a Writers Guild Award in 2012 for the show's second season. Her unique voice has been praised by the Los Angeles Times, UK's Guardian, Fast Company, IndieWire, Boston Globe, Tubefilter, Script Magazine, Bostinnovation, and Clicker. Downsized was also an Official Selection at the Cologne Conference in Germany in 2010. She served as the Programming Director for the multi-platform series MAKERS for AOL & PBS, leading an online content strategy for the broadcast of "MAKERS: Women Who Make America" on PBS, which became the biggest social activation in AOL history. She also contributed as a writer on the Emmy Award winning interactive series "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries" and was a guest star on the award-winning web comedy "Then We Got Help" from Hitch star Julie Ann Emery.