Dara Reneé Brooks (born: November 7, 2000) is an American actress. She is best known for playing Kourtney Greene in the Disney+ musical dramedy High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.
Reneé stars in the Descendants spinoff for Disney+ Descendants: The Rise of Red, as Uliana, the younger sister of Ursula, and the aunt of Uma. She will also perform alonside her co-stars on the Descendants/Zombies: Worlds Collide Tour.
Early life[]
Reneé was born in Los Angeles, California, and raised in Baltimore where her mother, Kimberly Brooks, founded a non-profit performing arts school, Encouraging Youth To Dream, in Pikesville. Brooks is a voice actress, and Reneé's grandmother was a member of 1960s Baltimore soul group The Royalettes. Reneé attended John Paul Regional Catholic School in Milford Mill. She initially tried auditioning for theatre roles in New York before moving back to California to finish high school at Charter High School of the Arts (CHAMPS) in Van Nuys.
Career[]
Reneé debuted with the role of Savannah in the 2018 Disney Channel Original Movie Freaky Friday. In 2019, she had a recurring role as Stunts in the fifth season of the ABC Television series Black-ish. She also had a guest role in The Kids Are Alright. Reneé stars in the Disney+ series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series as Kourtney, a student costume designer and Nini's best friend. The series premiered in November 2019. Reneé had auditioned for the roles of Ashlyn, Gina, and Kourtney; Kourtney was originally intended to be a one-off character, but Reneé was invited to become a series regular. She created the series' arrangement of "Bop to the Top". Starting in season 2 of the series, her own mother played her character Kourtney's mother, Michelle. In 2021, it was announced that she would host Disney's Magic Bake-Off with Raven's Home star Issac Ryan Brown.
Both her and her co-star Kylie Cantrall have appeared in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, Interestingly enough, both have played a character named Savannah with Reneé playing the character just three years before Cantrall did. In 2020, she was also one of the guests on the Remix Dance Party special alongside Cheyenne Jackson who reprised his role as Hades just a year after the character debuted in Descendants 3. The remix would also star Rise of Red co-star Kylie Cantrall.
Roles in Descendants[]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Descendants Remix Dance Party | Herself | Performer |
| 2024 | Descendants: The Rise of Red | Uliana | Main |
| Chibi Tiny Tales: "Descendants 1+2+3: As Told By Chibi" | Herself | Voice role; Narrator | |
| Wickedly Sweet: A Descendants Short Story | Uliana | TV short |
Trivia[]
- Dara reprised her role as Uliana at D23 Expo where she sang Life Is Sweeter with the rest of the cast.