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Desta Sheridan is originally from San Jose, California, where she acquired most of her early training in dance, voice, acting and music. She worked as a dance teacher and choreographed musicals for local theaters, while completing her B.S. Degree in Business / Accounting. While working as an industry accountant and CPA for Ernst & Young, she continue to perform in many musicals in the community. She also worked professionally as a performer for Royal Cruise Line and Great America theme park in California.
After making the “big move” to New York City, she was cast in the Broadway revival and National Tour of “Hello, Dolly!” (starring Carol Channing), and also recorded the 1994 revival cast CD, which received a Grammy Award nomination. Following “Hello, Dolly!”, she performed in two other Broadway National Tours, including “Funny Girl” (starring Debbie Gibson), and the musical “Big” (based on the Tom Hanks movie), where she understudied and performed the role of Josh’s mother. Internationally, she performed in the Harold Prince/Susan Stroman Tony Award winning production of “Showboat” at the Prince Edward Theatre in London’s famous West End.
Some of Desta’s favorite regional musical credits include: Eva Peron in “Evita”, Cassie in “A Chorus Line”, Chairy Barnum in “Barnum”, Sheila Kelly in “Annie Warbucks”, Irene in “Irene”,
Hodel in “Fiddler on the Roof”, and Woman #2 (Karen Ziemba role) in “The World Goes ‘Round”. Since moving to Florida in 2000, Desta has been performing in Equity roles at Walt Disney World. Notably, she performed for 8 years in the comedic role of Dolly Drew in the long-running dinner show, “The Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue”, at the Fort Wilderness Resort.
Desta is delighted to be a part of Raskin Dance Studio’s teaching team, and hopes to bring her varied background and expertise to inspire future generations of performers to achieve their goals and dreams.