As Chief Operating and Marketing Officer of the iconic entertainment media brand Variety, Dea oversees implementing the company’s strategy and managing the day-to-day operations of the business. She is responsible for facilitating growth through product development, pricing and the advertising and promotion of those products. All global brand marketing initiatives including creative, communications, PR, media partnerships, the live media and virtual events business, video development, and custom content are under her leadership.

She has served as executive producer for several TV specials with A&E Networks and in December 2023 she won a Daytime Emmy as Executive Producer of A&E's "Power of Women Changemakers" television special. Also, in December of 2023 she launched a new podcast for Variety, "Variety Confidential, Sex, Money, Murder in Hollywood," which she conceptualized and executive produced.

In 2017 she launched the Variety Content Studio developing storytelling for brands. She led the pivot to a virtual events strategy during the pandemic with the creation of the Variety Streaming Room, overhauled Variety’s live event business with custom events and partnerships, including new ventures such as The Business of Broadway, Hollywood & Antisemitism, festival parties with the Golden Globes, events at Cannes Lions, and many others.

She is a transformational leader with a sustained, successful track record of building and leading sales and marketing teams. Her area of expertise includes SaaS platforms, ad serving, programmatic video, media, dynamic creative strategies, data targeting, ad network and publisher direct sales across video, mobile, tablet and desktop.
A frequent contributor to industry trades and conferences, her speaking appearances include CMO Assembly, Women in Media, Social Media Week, World Forum Disrupt, BizBash, Publishing Insider Summit, the NewFronts West, and many more.

As an actress she starred off-Broadway, in regional theatres and toured a Broadway show. Dea has also starred in several indie features, guest-starred, appeared in commercials and print work. For several years she created and performed in a two-person political sketch comedy show, “White House Chicks” with Saratoga Ballantine. That partnership led to the production of the documentary film, Troupers about actors over 80 in Hollywood. You can watch Troupers on Amazon Prime, Google Play and Tubi.

Dea is on the Board of Directors of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, the advisory board of Exceptional Minds, a professional animation and visual effects training school for young adults with autism, and a board member of Hollywood in Pixels, dedicated to the preservation of digital ad campaigns in the entertainment industry.
She holds a BFA in Drama from The Catholic University of America.