Dino Dana

Not to be confused with Dino Dan.

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.^[1][2] Dino Dana: The Movie was released on Prime Video in September 2020.^[3][4] 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.^[5] A new spin-off of Dino Dana, titled Dino Dex, debuted in October 2024.^[6]

Dino Dana
Genre	Television series
Created by	J. J. Johnson
Starring	Michela Luci Saara Chaudry Nicola Correia-Damude Amish Patel Bill Cobbs
Country of origin	Canada
Original language	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	52
Production
Production locations	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Production company	Sinking Ship Entertainment
Original release
Network	TVOKids
Release	May 24, 2017 (2017-05-24) – April 16, 2020 (2020-04-16)

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.^[7]

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

Main article: List of Dino Dan episodes § Season 5 (Dino Dana)

Season	Episodes		Originally released
			First released	Last released
1	13		May 24, 2017 (2017-05-24)	August 17, 2017 (2017-08-17)
2	13		March 24, 2018 (2018-03-24)	August 4, 2018 (2018-08-04)
3	13		May 22, 2019 (2019-05-22)	July 3, 2019 (2019-07-03)
4	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
		Best Performance, Children's or Youth	Michela Luci	Nominated
Canadian Screen Awards	2019	Best Pre-School Program or Series	Dino Dana	Won
		Best Cross-Platform Project - Children's and Youth	Dino Dana Digital	Won
		Best Direction, Children's or Youth	J.J. Johnson	Nominated
		Best Writing, Children's or Youth	J.J. Johnson, Christin Simms and Nathalie Youglai	Nominated
		Best Performance, Children's or Youth	Michela Luci	Nominated
		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
		Outstanding Performer in a Children's, Family Viewing or Special Class Program	Michela Luci	Won
		Outstanding Writing in a Children's, Pre-school Children's or Family Viewing Program	J.J. Johnson, Christin Simms and Nathalie Younglai	Nominated
		Outstanding Directing in a Children's, Pre-school Children's or Family Viewing Program	J.J. Johnson	Nominated
		Outstanding Art direction/Set Direction/Senic Design	Amanda Vernuccio, Tyler McFarland and Kevin Morra	Nominated
		Outstanding Lighting Direction	George Lajtai CSC	Nominated
		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 ^[8]

2018: won the Kidscreen Award for Best Non-Animated or Mixed Series ^[9]

2019: won the Daytime Emmy Award for Best Performer in a Children's Program^[10]

2019: won the 2019 YMA Award for Best Program, Live Action Scripted and Non-Scripted, Preschool^[11]

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.^[12] Two days later, the show premiered on May 26 on Amazon Prime Video in the US and UK.^[13] In Australia Dino Dana screens on ABC Kids.^[14]In the United Arab Emirates, it premiered on e-Junior. In Latin America, it premiered on Nat Geo Kids Latin America.