Morgan Saylor

Morgan Frances Saylor (born 1994) is an American actress. She is best known for starring as Dana Brody in the Showtime series Homeland (2011–2013). She has also starred in several feature films, including her critically acclaimed portrayal of Leah in the 2016 Sundance film White Girl. Other films include Rob Reiner's Being Charlie, Novitiate (2017), and Blow the Man Down (2019).

Along with the rest of the cast of Homeland, Saylor was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2013 and 2014.

Early life and education Morgan Frances Saylor was born in 1994 in Chicago, Illinois. , her mother was an employee at REI and her father doing renovations for Starbucks; they are divorced. Saylor moved to Villa Rica, Georgia, at age two, and Decatur, Georgia, at age ten. She attended the University of Chicago for a few years between roles, before transferring to Columbia University School of General Studies, graduating in 2024 with a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing.

Career Saylor began acting through summer camps and community theater as a child. In fourth grade, she visited Los Angeles for the summer where she booked her first professional job: a voice-over as young Meadow in HBO's hit television series The Sopranos. Saylor played Annie in Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant in 2009 and young Claire in Father of Invention in 2010.

From 2011 to 2013, Saylor played Dana Brody in the Showtime political thriller television series Homeland. While the show garnered nearly universal praise, especially for its first two seasons, Dana has frequently been labelled one of the worst characters ever written.

In June 2014, Saylor made her stage debut at the Manhattan Theatre Club as Penny opposite Cherry Jones and Zoe Kazan in When We Were Young and Unafraid, written by Sarah Treem and directed by Pam MacKinnon. Also in 2014, she played Gracie Highsmith in Jamie Marks Is Dead, an adaptation of Christopher Barzak's 2007 novel One for Sorrow, directed by Carter Smith.

Saylor played Kevin Costner's character's daughter Julie in the sports drama McFarland, USA, which was released on February 20, 2015. She played the role of Leah in White Girl, for which she received great critical praise. The film was written and directed by Elizabeth Wood and premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.

Saylor acted alongside Nick Robinson and Common in director Rob Reiner's film Being Charlie. The film premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival in September of that year.

In 2017, Saylor was back at Sundance to premiere the film Novitiate, in which she plays a young nun opposite Melissa Leo, Margaret Qualley and Diana Agron. Later that year she starred in "Anywhere With You" (formerly titled "We The Coyotes") directed by Hanna Ladoul and Marco La Via. The film premiered the following year in the ACID section of 2018 Cannes Film Festival.

Saylor's next starring role came in Blow the Man Down, which premiered in 2019 at Tribeca Film Festival and was released by Amazon Studios on March 20, 2020. This film was shot on location in Harpswell, Maine.

Morgan starred opposite Ben Rosenfield in the independent film You Mean Everything to Me, written and directed by Bryan Wizemann, released in cinemas in the US December 2021.

Personal life Saylor lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Filmography

Film Year Title Role Notes 2009 Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant Annie 2010 Father of Invention Young Claire 2011 The Greening of Whitney Brown Annie 2014 Jamie Marks Is Dead Gracie Highsmith 2015 McFarland, USA Julie White 2015 Being Charlie Eva 2016 White Girl Leah 2017 Novitiate Sister Evelyn 2018 We the Coyotes Amanda 2019 Blow the Man Down Mary Beth Connolly 2021 You Mean Everything to Me Cassandra 2022 Spoonful of Sugar Millicent 2024 Au fil des saisons Charlie

Television Year Title Role Notes 2006 The Sopranos Young Meadow 2 episodes ("Join the Club" and "Mayham"), uncredited 2007 K-Ville Lana Roberts 1 episode ("AKA") 2011–2013 Homeland Dana Brody 36 episodes

Theatre Year Title Role Notes 2014 When We Were Young and Unafraid Penny Manhattan Theatre Club

Awards and nominations Year Ceremony Category Work Result Ref. 2013 Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series Homeland 2014 Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series Homeland