Empowerment Series: Dara Woo is Rewriting the Script from Tech to Broadway’s “A Picture of Dorian Gray”
In a world that tells us to pick one lane and stick with it, Dara Woo is rewriting the script.
By day, she was a software engineer at Lyft—fluent in Python, tackling bugs, clocking in with a steady paycheck. By night? A dreamer, an artist, auditioning for roles that felt worlds away from Silicon Valley. And then came the moment: a callback. Five rounds later, she landed a leading role in the Broadway production of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Two months after quitting her tech job, she stepped onto the stage—and into a new chapter.
“This has been a long time coming,” Dara shared on AW Confidential. “I’ve always dreamed of being a creative. COVID gave me space to ask— what do I want out of life?”
Still, the leap wasn’t easy. Dara didn’t just walk away from a stable career—she walked into a five-month theater contract with no guarantees. “I had just signed an expensive lease,” she said. “I was scared. But I realized… this moment might not come again.”
It wasn’t just the finances that made her hesitate. It was identity. “I worried people would think I couldn’t cut it in tech,” she admitted. “But I didn’t leave out of failure—I left because I was offered a dream.” She now embraces the duality: coder and performer. “You can be both. And you don’t have to choose.”
The reality of chasing dreams isn’t all red carpets and curtain calls. “We work six days a week. Rehearsals, late nights—it’s a grind. You have to love it.” But for Dara, the hustle is worth it. “The dream doesn’t start once you land the role—it continues.”
AW ended the interview with advice, so what does she say to anyone stuck in a “safe” career while dreaming of more?
“Don’t let your 9-to-5 invalidate your dreams. That job is paying for the dream. Even if you’re working full time, one hour a week toward your passion still makes you that person. You’re not ‘pretending’ to be an artist—you are one.”
Dara Woo is a living reminder that you don’t have to fit into a box. You can be logical and magical, structured and soulful. Python and Playbills – she is doing her thing!
Because sometimes the dream isn’t about dropping everything—it’s about daring to add more.
Watch the full interview, streaming on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, and iHeart Radio!
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