# Dino Dana

Dino Dana is a Canadian comedy-drama science fiction television series created and directed by J. J. Johnson. The series was developed as a follow-up to Dino Dan: Trek's Adventures and premiered on Amazon Prime Video on May 27, 2017. Dino Dana: The Movie was released on Prime Video in September 2020. It was originally going to be a theatrical release on March 21, 2020, but was delayed and later canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. A new spin-off of Dino Dana, titled Dino Dex, debuted in October 2024.

## Plot

A sequel series to Dino Dan, Dino Dana focuses on a nine-year-old girl named Dana Jain who sets out to complete "Dino experiments" that teach her more about dinosaurs, pterosaurs, prehistoric marine reptiles, synapsids, prehistoric insects and prehistoric mammals. She often also increases her understanding of life and grows in her personal life as a result of the lessons learned while solving the experiments. Other characters include her older stepsister, Saara; her mother, Ava; her stepfather, Ahman; and Gloria, her maternal grandmother, and Dexter, her baby half-brother born at the beginning of season 3. Jason Spevack and Trek Buccino also make periodic guest appearances as Dan and Trek Henderson.
The series combines live action with CGI animation.

## Cast

* Michela Luci as Dana Jain
* Saara Chaudry as Saara Jain, Dana's older step-sister
* Nicola Correia-Damude as Mom (Eva Jain)
* Amish Patel as Step-Dad (Aman Jain)
* Rayan Mahklouf as Dexter Jain, Dana and Saara's younger half-brother
* Maria Vacratsis as Grandma
* Eric Peterson as Grandpa
* Ali Hassan as Uncle Ravi
* Nelu Handa as Anjali, Uncle Ravi’s girlfriend
* Bill Cobbs as Mr. Hendrickson, Dana's neighbour
* Laaibah Alvi as Young Saara
* Loretta Yu as Cai (recurring)
* Anna Cathcart as Robyn (recurring)
* Olivia Presti as Olivia (recurring)
* Millie Davis as Riley (recurring)
* Jayne Eastwood as Ms Currie
* Jason Spevack as Dan Henderson
* Trek Buccino as Trek Henderson

## Episodes

| Season | Episodes | Episodes | Originally released | Originally released |
| Season | Episodes | Episodes | First released | Last released |
| 1 | 13 | 13 | May 24, 2017 (2017-05-24) | August 17, 2017 (2017-08-17) |
| 2 | 13 | 13 | March 24, 2018 (2018-03-24) | August 4, 2018 (2018-08-04) |
| 3 | 13 | 13 | May 22, 2019 (2019-05-22) | July 3, 2019 (2019-07-03) |
| 4 | 13 | 13 | April 16, 2020 (2020-04-16) | April 16, 2020 (2020-04-16) |

## Awards

Awards and nominations for Dino Dana :
| Award | Year | Category | Recipients | Result |
| Canadian Screen Awards | 2018 | Best Direction, Children's or Youth | J.J. Johnson | Nominated |
| Canadian Screen Awards | 2018 | Best Performance, Children's or Youth | Michela Luci | Nominated |
| Canadian Screen Awards | 2019 | Best Pre-School Program or Series | Dino Dana | Won |
| Canadian Screen Awards | 2019 | Best Cross-Platform Project - Children's and Youth | Dino Dana Digital | Won |
| Canadian Screen Awards | 2019 | Best Direction, Children's or Youth | J.J. Johnson | Nominated |
| Canadian Screen Awards | 2019 | Best Writing, Children's or Youth | J.J. Johnson, Christin Simms and Nathalie Youglai | Nominated |
| Canadian Screen Awards | 2019 | Best Performance, Children's or Youth | Michela Luci | Nominated |
| Canadian Screen Awards | 2019 | Best Performance, Children's or Youth | Saara Chaudry | Nominated |
| Daytime Emmy Award | 2018 | Outstanding Preschool Children's Series | Dino Dana | Nominated |
| Daytime Emmy Award | 2019 | Outstanding Preschool Children's Series | Dino Dana | Nominated |
| Daytime Emmy Award | 2019 | Outstanding Performer in a Children's, Family Viewing or Special Class Program | Michela Luci | Won |
| Daytime Emmy Award | 2019 | Outstanding Writing in a Children's, Pre-school Children's or Family Viewing Program | J.J. Johnson, Christin Simms and Nathalie Younglai | Nominated |
| Daytime Emmy Award | 2019 | Outstanding Directing in a Children's, Pre-school Children's or Family Viewing Program | J.J. Johnson | Nominated |
| Daytime Emmy Award | 2019 | Outstanding Art direction/Set Direction/Senic Design | Amanda Vernuccio, Tyler McFarland and Kevin Morra | Nominated |
| Daytime Emmy Award | 2019 | Outstanding Lighting Direction | George Lajtai CSC | Nominated |
| Daytime Emmy Award | 2019 | Outstanding Sound Editing for a Live Action Program | Sean W. Karp, Will Preventis, Noah Siegel, Charles Duchesne, Blag Ahilov and Jakob Thiesen | Nominated |
2017: won the Kidscreen Award for Best New Series
2018: won the Kidscreen Award for Best Non-Animated or Mixed Series
2019: won the Daytime Emmy Award for Best Performer in a Children's Program
2019: won the 2019 YMA Award for Best Program, Live Action Scripted and Non-Scripted, Preschool

## Broadcast

On October 6, 2016, on YouTube, short introductory Dino Dana clips were first published, reusing footage from the past two shows. Dino Dana launched on May 24, 2017 on TVOKids in Canada. Two days later, the show premiered on May 26 on Amazon Prime Video in the US and UK. In Australia Dino Dana screens on ABC Kids. In Latin America, it premiered on Nat Geo Kids Latin America.