Actress Deena Freeman was born in Palo Alto, California, the daughter of an industrial engineer father, and a funny housewife mother. Deena began acting in high school and performed in a professional acting company called, "The Theatreworks". She was best known for her characterization of a duck, called Ducky Daddles, in "Story Theatre", as well as her impersonation of Crab the dog, in "Two Gentelemen of Verona". She starred in many productions, including "Ah Wilderness' with Zelko Ivanek, "Vanities", and many others. She graduated from SFSU and continued graduate work at UC Irvine.
She moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting professionally. Within a short period of time she landed a leading role in a pilot for ABC, called "In Trouble", with Nancy Cartwright and Lisa Freeman. Following the pilot, Deena was cast as a regular on "Too Close For Comfort", playing Ted Knights rebel niece, April. She went on to guest star on numerous popular shows including, "Newhart", "The White Shadow", "Crazy like a Fox" to name a few. In a special episode of "Golden Girls", she had the honor of playing Bea Arthur's daughter, Kate.
She continued to work in TV commercials from everything from being a spokesperson for both McDonald's to the vintage soft drink Tab. Deena was honored on the Screen Actors Guild awards ceremony for her body of work in commercials. You could not turn on the TV, without seeing Deena playing the quintessential commercial mom. As a voice-over actress, your kids would know her from "Monster's Inc", "Buzz Light Year", and "The Incredibles", to name a few. Most recently, she was nominated for Best Supporting actress at The Houston International Film Festival for her role as once again the overbearing Jewish mama, in "Banana Bread", and also appeared on the hit sitcom, "Melissa and Joey" on ABC.
Deena married David Brandes, producer/writer, has two daughters who are actresses, Aviva Brandes and Noa Brandes.
