A graduate of New World School of the Arts (Miami, Fla.) and DePaul University's The Theatre School (Chicago, Ill.) Alana was invited to join the Steppenwolf Theatre Ensemble in 2007 where she created the role of Pecola in The Bluest Eye, which ran off Broadway at The New Victory Theatre. Other Steppenwolf credits include the titular role in Marie Antoinette, The Brother Sister Plays, Tribes, Good People, and Head of Passes, which was remounted in New York at the Public Theater, for which she received a Lucille Lortel and Clarence Derwent award. Other Chicago and regional theatre credits include Disgraced (American Theater Company), The titular role in Black Diamond (Lookingglass Theatre Company) Arabian Nights (Berkeley and Kansas City Repertory Theatres), WVON (Black Ensemble Theater), and Hecuba (Chicago Shakespeare Theater). Television and film credits include David Makes Man, Canal Street, Chicago Med, Electric Dreams, Crisis, and Boss. Alana made her directorial debut with GENESIS by Mercedes White, produced by Definition Theatre Company and serves on the Definition Theatre Advisory Board.