Hey there, hi there, I’m Lydia-Renee Darling.

You can call me Lyd.

I’m an actor, scriptwriter and development producer working across TV and theatre with companies like Second City, The Royal Court, Orchard Studios and more. I love dark dramedies wrapped in perfectly pink bows and heightened sci-fi and fantasy worlds a la OG Star Trek and Lord of the Rings— specific mashes of genre, tone and subject matter that influence every project I touch. Why just be only or cute when you can be both?

I was born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin in a blended household of German (mom), Ghanaian (dad) and Puerto Rican heritage (my second mom!). After living in the UK for four years, I moved to sunny Los Angeles and have German, Ghanaian and UK citizenship and residency status (respectively).

I completed high school with a 4.0 as valedictorian and was accepted into Webster Conservatory of Theatre Arts, one of the most competitive and respected B.F.A performance programs in the United States. In the fall of 2021, I moved to London to earn my MA with Merit from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. I’ve since become part of Equity UK alongside my US EMC status.

I also run the immersive theatre and episodic production company Oh! (My Gosh) Creative Co, founded in London in 2021, and cover beauty and fashion through a satirical lens at darling.social, founded in 2024.

When I’m off the clock, I can be found sipping on matcha lattes and crafting while binge-watching anime or historical documentaries in the background. In the pre-COVID days, I put my love for language and culture to good use by traveling frequently. I attended Concordia University’s Japanese lingo-cultural summer programs before interning in Tokyo. I also studied at Webster Vienna Private University and traipsed across Spain, Switzerland, France and Korea.

Since the severity of the pandemic waned, I transitioned to indulging my appetite for bookstores, travel and cute cafes by splitting time between the US and Europe.