Diana Dale Dickey is an American actress who has worked in theater, film, and television. Dickey won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female for her performance as Merab in the 2010 independent drama film Winter's Bone. She is also known for her character roles in a number of mainstream and independent films as of the early 2000s, and for recurring performances in television shows such as My Name Is Earl, Breaking Bad, True Blood and Justified. She also appeared on the television series Vice Principals on HBO.
Life and career
Diana Dale Dickey was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and attended Bearden High School. She played several roles in high school productions, notably as Emily in Our Town. She later attended the University of Tennessee from 1979 to 1984, but left to pursue her acting career. On December 10, 2015, she returned to the University of Tennessee as a guest speaker, where she gave the commencement speech to fall graduates and was awarded an honorary Master of Fine Arts degree from the university. Dickey has been working as a character actress in both mainstream and independent films since the 1990s. She is known for her recurring roles as Nash on the hit HBO seriesVice Principals and as Patty on NBC comedy series My Name Is Earl and as Opal McHone in CBS historical dramaChristy. Dickey has had several roles in films such as The Pledge, Our Very Own, Domino, Super 8, Being Flynn and The Guilt Trip. She performed on many Broadway productions, like The Merchant of Venice and A Streetcar Named Desire. Dickey has appeared in guest roles on numerous television series, including The X-Files, Frasier, , Gilmore Girls, The Closer, Grey's Anatomy and Breaking Bad. Dickey received critical praise for her performance as Merab in 2010 independent drama film Winter's Bone opposite Jennifer Lawrence, winning the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female in February 2011. In 2012 she plays Martha Bozeman in the fifth and sixth seasons of the HBO series True Blood. Dickey appeared in the superhero filmIron Man 3, directed by Shane Black in 2013. She also was cast in Bonnie and Clyde: Dead and Alive miniseries in 2013. In 2014, she had a recurring role in the FX series Justified. In 2015 Dickey portrayed Rose Gray in the Spanish-American thriller filmRegression, in which she co-stars with Ethan Hawke and Emma Watson.
