Dena Kaplan (born 20 January 1989) is a South African-born Australian actress, singer and dancer. She is known for her role as Abigail Armstrong in Dance Academy.

Biography

Kaplan was born in Johannesburg, and is the younger sister of Gemma-Ashley Kaplan and older sister of The Saddle Club actress Ariel Kaplan. She moved to Australia in 1996, at age seven.

Kaplan attended Mount Scopus Memorial College and had dance training at numerous schools; Australian Ballet School, Jane Moore Academy of Ballet and City Dance Centre. Her first stage appearance came alongside David Campbell in the Production Company's Carousel, she played Louise, a non-singing solo ballet part in the second act of the show. Her second major public appearance was as a dancer/singer in the Disney production of the musical of Lion King. She moved to New York to study at the Ailey School and Broadway Dance Center, and was cast in a Broadway musical, but was unable to accept the offer.

Her first television role was in 2005 on the Network Ten spy series Scooter: Secret Agent as one of the party girls. In 2007, she appeared as Deborah Statesman in an episode of Australian police drama City Homicide. In 2009, she played Keli in an episode of Flight Of The Conchords and starred in the film In Her Skin alongside Rebecca Gibney. She was then cast in the series Dance Academy as Abigail Armstrong as of 2010 and also in the same year she was cast as Stephanie Wolfe in City Homicide.