Dana Youngman

Youngman spent her early years in the Auckland suburb of Avondale.^[1] Her mother, Mata, had emigrated from Samoa to train as a nurse, and her Pākehā father, Brian, was a police officer. The family moved to Dannevirke in the Hawke's Bay region when she was at primary school.^[2] During high school, Youngman attended the National Youth Drama school and studied documentary-making with Bruno Lawrence and Chris Verberg. After leaving school she returned to Auckland to study television directing and production management at Unitec Institute of Technology.^[1]

While a tertiary student, Youngman had work experience placements at TVNZ, and on graduating was employed as a production co-ordinator. In 1997, she joined the morning television show Good Morning. She became one of New Zealand's youngest and first prime time television producers of Pasifika heritage in 2001 and in 2004, she was appointed head of the network's lifestyle unit and produced a number of drama, documentary and animated television shows until moving to Sky TV as an Entertainment Commissioner in 2019.^[1][3] After three years at Sky, Youngman was appointed strategic advisor to the chief executive at the New Zealand Film Commission.^[4]

Youngman has been nominated for television awards. In 2003, she was nominated with Lisa Pringle for the Best Lifestyle Series Award at the New Zealand Television Awards for Maggie's Garden Show. In 2019, she was nominated with Damon Fepulea'i for the Best Pasifika Programme Award and the Best Sports Programme Award for Life After Footy – Legends of the Pacific at the New Zealand Television Awards.^[5] Her commissioned series INSiDE won an International Emmy Award for Best Short-Form Series in 2021.^[2]

Youngman is one of three New Zealand members of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.^[2] In 2021, she won the Diversity Award at the prestigious New Zealand Women of Influence Awards.^[2]