A native of Davenport, Iowa, Dana Davis is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. She took a degree in music, and is a skilled violinist. She started her Hollywood career, however, in 1996, where she played a speaking bit role in the Arnold Schwarzenegger action film Eraser. She made her television debut in 2000, when she played a guest role in the comedy The Steve Harvey Show. She continued playing different guest roles on television: her credits during the time include stints in Boston Public, One on One, Malcolm in the Middle, Joan of Arcadia and That’s So Raven.
Davis had her first film starring role in 2002, when she starred in the short film No Prom for Cindy. Two years later, she starred in the Hilary Duff starrer Raise Your Voice, which earned negative reviews from critics. This was followed by a role in the 2005 drama Coach Carter, where she appeared alongside Samuel L. Jackson. She also continued appearing in different television guest roles, appearing in shows like Point Pleasant, Cold Case, Gilmore Girls, The OC, Veronica Mars, CSI: Miami and Hidden Palms.
In 2006, Davis was cast in her first major television role, for the short-lived drama The Nine. She plays the role of Felicia Jones, the daughter of Malcolm (Chi McBride), the manager of the bank which was being robbed—the center of the show’s premise. After the robbery, she develops amnesia and doesn’t remember anything from the entire event. The show wasn’t successful, but she nevertheless cast for yet another major television role, this time in the hit series Heroes. She plays Monica Dawson, the cousin of Micah Sanders (Noah Gray-Cabey) and niece of D.L. Hawkins (Leonard Roberts) who has the ability to mimic any physical motion she sees without having to practice it.