Delany ’78 Stars in New ABC Drama Body of Proof

David LowMarch 23, 20113min
Dana Delany '78 on Body of Proof. (Photo by Handout, ABC)

For three years, Dana Delany ’78 brought a refreshing jolt of energy to ABC’s Desperate Housewives, in which she played the intriguing and conniving Katherine Mayfair. After displaying remarkable chemistry with actor Nathan Fillion on another popular ABC show Castle, she will now star on the same network in her own program, Body of Proof, which premieres on Tuesday, March 29.

Delany plays Megan Hunt, a medical examiner who formerly was the first female head of neurosurgery at a prominent U.S. university hospital. Hunt takes on a new career when a car crash leaves her unable to continue performing surgery.

Delany was recently interviewed about her exciting new character by Alex Strachan in the Vancouver Sun:

“She’s complicated,” Delany said. “That’s what drew me to the character. She’s smart. She’s complex. I just had dinner with an actual female neurosurgeon, and she told me she watched the pilot with trepidation, because nobody ever gets it right. She was pleased, though, because it’s very rare for a woman, especially at my age, to be a neurosurgeon. It’s a lot of years of work, a lot of years at school, and you’re not really allowed to have a personal life.

“I kind of see her as an addict, an addict who was addicted to the job, addicted to the power, addicted to the life and then she lost it all. She lost her husband, she lost custody of her child and lost her job. It’s as if she now needs to reinvent herself.”