Dascha Polanco
Biography
Dascha Polanco is a Dominican actress who grew up in Brooklyn and Miami after being born in Santo Domingo and moving to the United States as a child. She studied psychology at Hunter College and worked in hospital administration before enrolling at BIH Studios in New York, where a talent agency signed her. Minor television parts came first, then in 2012 she was cast as Dayanara Diaz in Orange Is the New Black, the Netflix series on which she later became a series regular. Her films include Gimme Shelter (2013), The Cobbler (2014), Joy (2015) and The Perfect Match (2016), and she played Cuca in In the Heights (2021). She also had recurring roles in American Crime Story, Russian Doll and When They See Us, voiced Ms. Camilla Torres in the animated series Karma's World, and starred in the 2025 Lifetime film Terror Comes Knocking: The Marcela Borgas Story.
43years old
Turns 44 on December 3in 50 days
- Born Santo Domingo
- Star sign: SagittariusThe sign runs November 22 to December 21
- Also credited as Dascha Yolaine Polanco
Movie Career
- Films
- 11
- Career span
- 11 years2013 to 2024
First and latest
Share
Dascha Polanco movies on Netflix
Best known for
The films on Netflix they are best known for, with the part played in each.
Worked with
Dascha Polanco shares two films with Robert De Niro, and one with each of the others. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
Robert De Niro's page
Steve Buscemi's page
Harvey Keitel's page
Alfred Molina's page
Keanu Reeves's page
Sylvester Stallone's page
All films by Martin Scorsese
All films by David O. Russell
Jared SternDirector, 1 film, 2022
All films by Jared Stern
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.