Dana Alison White (born 27 July 1959; age 65) started her career in 1986, after graduating, together with Gary Hutzel (with whom she would be reunited when Hutzel joined the franchise in 1987), from the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, as one of the two production staff associates (the other one being David Takemura) in Gene Roddenberry's production office at Paramount Pictures, where she resided for two years, helping out with the pre-production of Star Trek: The Next Generation. She apparently enjoyed a warm working relationship with Roddenberry as was evidenced by a remark of Michael Okuda, "I remember when you built that beautiful Ertl Enterprise-D for Gene Roddenberry. It sat proudly on the shelf in his office for the rest of his life." [1](X) (That model was sold as Lot 1479 in Julien's Star Trek auction of 27 June 2010 as part of Roddenberry's estate.)
After her stint there she was promoted to the art department, where she resided another two years until 1989 when she moved over to Greg Jein, Inc. While there, she worked with others on the studio models of the 2½-foot Galileo-type shuttlecraft for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, the four-foot USS Enterprise-D, and the USS Princeton. [2](X) By her own admission, White relished her time at Jein's company, "Long history, but enjoyed working for Greg. Not only was it hard and extremely challenging in many ways, but it was FUN and CRAZY!" [3](X) White left the franchise halfway through the fourth season of The Next Generation.
Captain Dana White was named after her.
White is married to former seaQuest DSV effects supervisor of Amblin Imaging and fellow Brooks Institute graduate, Micheal Shea. Having left the motion picture industry after her tenure on The Next Generation, she is currently, together with her husband, operating her own company, Circle Shea Designs, LLC. out of Santa Ynez, California, [4] designing furniture and other interior accouterments.
External link[]
- Circle Shae Designs – official site