Dena Kaplan

Dena Kaplan (born 20 January 1989) is a South African-born Australian actress, singer and dancer. She is known for her role as Abigail Armstrong in Dance Academy.

Kaplan was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has an older sister Gemma-Ashley Kaplan and a younger sister Ariel Kaplan. She moved to Australia in 1996, at age seven. Kaplan lives in Sydney, Australia and enjoys traveling during her spare time.

Kaplan attended Mount Scopus Memorial College and had dance training at numerous schools, including Australian Ballet School, Jane Moore Academy of Ballet and City Dance Centre. She first appeared onstage alongside David Campbell in The Production Company's Carousel, playing Louise, a non-singing solo ballet part in the second act of the show. Her second major appearance was as a dancer/singer in Disney's musical production of The Lion King. She moved to New York City to study at the Ailey School and Broadway Dance Center, and was cast in a Broadway musical, but was unable to accept the offer. Kaplan's mother and grandmother were both ballet dancers. After watching Gemma taking ballet lessons Dena followed in her footsteps. A TV series that will star Gemma, Dena, and Ariel is currently being workshopped.Kaplan's father was a musician and her grandfather was an actor. Dena comes from a Jewish family.

Her first television role was in 2005 on the Network Ten spy series Scooter: Secret Agent as one of the party girls. In 2007, she appeared as Deborah Statesman in an episode of Australian police drama City Homicide. In 2009, she played Keli in an episode of Flight Of The Conchordsand starred in the film In Her Skin alongside Rebecca Gibney. She was then cast in the series "Dance Academy" and in the same year was cast as Stephanie Wolfe in City Homicide. In 2011, Kaplan starred as the love interest in Chris Sebastian's music video for "Flow". During 2013 she was cast in the role of Sarah Brennen in Camp. Dena Kaplan is an ambassador for Soi Dog Foundation. Kaplan and her sisters are ambassadors for The Australian Cervical Cancer Foundation.