Dawn Brodey was born in Stevens Point, Wisconsin—the youngest of three girls—and grew up on an old farm outside of Wisconsin Rapids. After high school, she moved to Minneapolis to attend college at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She graduated four years later with a BA in Theater and History. It was in theater that she made her mark, working steadily within the professional theater community of the Twin Cities for over 15 years. She has over 40 professional theater credits (including a two-year run in the hit interactive comedy Tony n Tina's Wedding), wrote four commissioned and produced plays, and hosted a long-running live variety show.She also worked regularly with film, television and as a voice-over in the Twin Cities—most notably, being the voice of a regional grocery chain (Cub Foods) for over three years. It was during this time, in her mid 20's, that Dawn bought and moved aboard a houseboat on the Mississippi River in St. Paul. She lived aboard boats throughout the hard Minnesota winters for about ten years. She met director Andrew Melby in 2009, when she auditioned for his student film at MCTC, a local film school. They moved together to Los Angeles in 2014, living full time in a vintage, silver trailer in the Valley. They married in 2015.