Dawn Chandler is a passionate and vibrant performer who obtained a BA (Hons) in Acting affiliated with Northumbria University. She has been engrossed with the theatre for as long as she can remember and from an early age her parents took her to see plays and musicals in Glasgow, Ayr Edinburgh, London and many more.

In May 2010 Dawn decided to pursue her love of acting and applied for the Acting and Performance course at Motherwell College after hearing such positive things about them from various sources. After a calm, friendly and very successful audition, Dawn was offered a place on the HNC course. Thrilled, she threw all she had into the year and learned about many aspects including: Estill Voice Training, devising theatre, directing a text, basic stage combat, vocal classes sparking Dawn's love for voice over work through the use of poetry, prose etc., practitioner history and topping off the year with a lead role as Hobby in Teechers by John Godber.

Dawn was then offered a place in the HND course. During this year, she had been involved in two outstanding and challenging productions, Find Me by Olwen Wynmark and Confusions by Alan Ayckbourn. She also explored more into camera work: a daunting prospect for this theatre based actor who had only been involved in a few short films before but none the less she enjoyed these classes and and felt she had once again expanded as an actor.

In this year, Dawn felt she had grown not only as an actor but as a person. Dawn has always been plus size and throughout this year, more so than ever, she realized how she could use her size to her advantage by making the industry see it as an addition to her talent rather than a difficulty that was to be overcome.

As the end of her HND approached, Dawn applied for the BA Honours course at Motherwell. She worked exceedingly hard in proving that she was worthy of one of the mere 16 places on the course. Fortunately, her hard work paid off and as of August 2012, Dawn has been a part of the BA (Hons) Acting course.

Since starting on the course, Dawn has appeared in her first production: The Possibilities by Howard Barker. This was a challenging piece of text that pushed Dawn in her acting abilities but a challenge that she met and thoroughly enjoyed. Not only did she get the chance to perform the show at the East Kilbride Arts Centre for two sell out performances but she also had the opportunity of performing in Newcastle at Northumbria University which was an experience she will never forget.

After a very successful block containing mock auditions and a showcase in both Glasgow and London, Dawn was fortunate enough to be cast as Bernie Alba in her final Motherwell production: Federico Garcia Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba adapted by Rona Munro.  She was given an excellent review by the Glasgow Theatre Blog and hugely enjoyed playing such a challenging role in front of sell out audiences.

After college, Dawn signed with Stiven Christie Management in Edinburgh whom she had a wonderful partnership with for many years. In November 2022, her time with Stiven Christie came to an end. She has now joined with APM Associates and cannot wait to see what the future has in store. 

Dawn is now working professionally and most recently starred in Doctors for the BBC which can now be caught up on via the BBC iPlayer (Series 23, Episode 32 - Results). As well as this she starred in the final ever series of legendary Scottish series, Still Game. Not only did she love being back at the BBC (after staring in the CBBC series A Long Long Crime Ago in 2015) but she also felt honoured to be part of such a legendary Scottish show before it took it's final bow. If you missed the episode, you can catch up on the BBC iPlayer. Series 9, Episode 2: The Cat's Whiskers. 

Dawn has also been lucky enough to star in Series 2 of Outlander where she got to act opposite leading actor Caitriona Balfe. Catch her in the Season 2 Finale, Episode 13: 'Dragonfly in Amber', on Amazon Prime now.

Also she has been in two nation wide commercials: firstly for the supermarket chain Tesco where she was one of the lead actors as part of their Christmas Campaign 2017 (An Extended Family Christmas) and secondly as part of a Party Political Broadcast (2018) with the Scottish National Party (SNP). Both projects were wonderful to be part of and have been very well received.  As well as being in front of the camera, Dawn has certainly not forgotten her theatre roots and has been part of the UK wide tour The Devil Wears Primark and travelled to Strathpeffer to star as the larger than life Dame Donuts in their pantomime Rapunzel, A Tangled Tale (oh yes she has!). 

Finally, Dawn is also an excellent singer. She has recorded several tracks which can be found on her Youtube channel (link above) varying in style and tempo to show off her talents. She hopes to record more tracks soon and is keen to promote herself as a singer as well as an actor

She can't wait to see what the future hold as she feels very positive and excited to dive into new projects and  work with new people.

Dawn would like to thank her family, friends and the acting professionals who have believed in her talent and showed their continued love and support.