DawnMarie Ferrara is cousin to Rita Moreno and a Native New Yorker, she was raised on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.DawnMarie experienced many losses very early in her life beginning with the untimely deaths of both her parents. Her father was killed when she was five years old and her mother succumbed to Cancer a year later. At the tender age of six DawnMarie went to live with her maternal grandmother but sadly she too died from Cancer; DawnMarie was eighteen years old.Although she had been a dancer and performer most of her childhood she was initially interested in a career in fashion and studied at The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.After coming to the realization that the Fashion business was not fulfilling her she changed course and turned her sights towards performing. In 1999 DawnMarie made her feature film debut in "The Item" which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and has never looked back. Show less «