Susan Damante's heritage is Italian, Swedish and Irish.  At 19 she ran for the Miss America Pageant, won the San Mateo County crown (with a musical theatre performance of "I'm the Greatest Star" from Funny Girl) and went on to win First Runner Up in the Miss California Pageant.

With her scholarship money she studied classical theatre under William Ball at The American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. She also trained at the Atlantic Theater Acting Studios in New York and in Los Angeles with Milton Katselas and Jeffrey Tambor.

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Susan's film performances include, THE CANDIDATE with Robert Redford, THE STUDENT TEACHERS directed by Jonathan Kaplan (THE ACCUSED) and starring in the popular film trilogy THE WILDERNESS FAMILY.

Her numerous TV performances include the classics, COLUMBO and THE ROCKFORD FILES.

 

Her favorite role on the New York stage was Bev McHale in HER SONOMA STORY at the

Neighborhood Playhouse. She performed her autobiographical award-winning solo show: LIFE… DEATH… AND ENTERTAINMENT at many festivals, including New York Fringe.

A member of Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills, she has starred as Madame Prefere' in THE GAMESTER and as Mary in the World Premiere of MORAL IMPERATIVE and as Mary in the World Premiere of DEATH WITH BENEFITS.

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Susan has recently become  a filmmaker. Her short film, REPERCUSSIONS, has won several Film Festival Awards (Golden State FF and Silver State FF) She wrote it, stars in it and executive produced it. 

Celebrating 30 years of being Crohn's Disease free, she is currently preparing a new Podcast called "TELL ME EVERYTHING with Susan Damante" about overcoming adversity ...to be launched by Spring of 2022.

She has been  practicing Nichiren Buddhism with the SGI for four decades and is a dedicated volunteer leader .