The daughter of Catherine Dehn and Douglas Dehn,[1] Dehn was born and raised in Anoka, Minnesota. She is a 1998 graduate of Anoka High School, where she played flute and sang in the school choir.[1] She received voice training from Judy Bender and sang in her high school's choir. She attended a vocal summer camp at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she later went to college. For graduate school, she attended the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia.[2]
After seeing Dehn in a singing competition, Eve Queler of the Opera Orchestra of New York cast her as an understudy in Il Corsaro in 2005.[3] Since then, Dehn has performed as Elvira in Don Giovanni at the Metropolitan Opera and the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Royal Opera House.[3][4] She has been a frequent performer at San Francisco Opera, where she has performed as Musetta in La Boheme, Manon in Manon, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, and Arabella in Arabella.[5] She has portrayed Donna Anna in Don Giovanni for San Francisco Opera, Opera Colorado, Michigan Opera Theatre, and Opera Memphis.[5][6][7][8] Dehn has also performed on fellow Anoka native Garrison Keillor's radio show, A Prairie Home Companion.[9]
Dehn has a daughter, Arabella,[1] born in 2018.[5]