Rising Star Dahlia Legault Of The Walking Dead On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Entertainment Industry
…I’d just go back to what was done in the 1960s and ask, can we please have some peace and love? Can we bring peace and love back, especially considering the state of the world right now? I’d say, can everyone just take a moment to breathe, look at your neighbor, find friends, and stop making enemies? I think that is extremely important, especially right now. Let’s find peace and love among us, so things can calm down a little…
I had the pleasure of talking with Dahlia Legault. Dahlia is a Canadian-American actress whose career spans regional theater, independent film, and network television. Best known to broader audiences for her recurring role as Francine on The Walking Dead, Legault’s work reflects a sustained engagement with both classical performance and contemporary screen acting. Her path, from a bilingual childhood in suburban Montreal to the ensemble sets of American television, has been marked by adaptability, craft discipline, and a steady interest in character-driven storytelling.
Born in Montreal, Quebec, Legault was raised in the western suburb of Kirkland by a French Canadian father and Puerto Rican mother. At home, English served as the primary language, though the household was multilingual: Spanish between her parents, English with the children, and French at school. This linguistic divide made early schooling in the French-language system of Quebec a challenge, and Legault has described feeling like an outsider during her early education. After her parents’ divorce, she moved with her mother and sisters to Florida, where she attended high school in an English-speaking environment and first began pursuing acting seriously.
Her commitment to performance was formalized during her time at the University of South Florida, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Theatre Performance in 2008. A pivotal moment came during a study-abroad program in Cambridge, England, which Legault has described as “life-changing” for her artistic development. She later deepened her classical training through a month-long intensive at The Lir Academy in Dublin. That program emphasized physicality and text analysis, an approach that would come to characterize her work on stage and screen alike.
Legault’s early professional years were rooted in the Tampa Bay regional theater circuit, where she became a fixture in companies such as Stageworks, Jobsite Theater, and Hat Trick Theatre. Her versatility across roles earned critical notice, and in 2010 she was named “Best Actress of the Bay” by Creative Loafing Tampa, citing her standout season of performances. Despite the challenges of working in a smaller market, Legault has often spoken of the vibrancy of Tampa’s theater community and its role in shaping her career.
Her transition to screen acting came with small roles in independent films and student productions, followed by a notable breakthrough in 2015 when she was cast as Francine on AMC’s The Walking Dead. Appearing in seven episodes across two seasons, Legault portrayed a pragmatic construction worker in the Alexandria storyline arc. Her character was known for a striking moment of defiance — a punch thrown in a tense scene — that fans frequently reference.
Subsequent work included guest appearances on CW’s Containment, VH1’s Daytime Divas, and FX’s Atlanta, as well as a leading role in the Florida-set family films Bernie the Dolphin (2018) and its 2019 sequel. In the latter, she played marine biologist Abby Ryan, anchoring the narrative alongside young co-stars and a CGI dolphin. Her earlier credits also include smaller-scale projects such as One Last Sunset Redux, an apocalyptic drama, and Actress Apocalypse, a micro-budget thriller where she also contributed behind the scenes as an associate producer.
In interviews, Legault frequently emphasizes preparation, physical transformation, and continuous education as key to her process. A self-described character actor, she gravitates toward roles that allow her to alter her voice, body, or emotional range significantly, sometimes drawing on the work of playwrights such as Marina Carr and Tennessee Williams. One of her most demanding roles, she has said, was playing Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a part she performed near the end of her theater career before turning her focus more fully to film and television. The experience of anchoring a full act of Tennessee Williams’ dialogue-heavy script left a lasting impression and contributed to her decision to step away from the stage.
Legault has remained active within fan communities and independent media circles, appearing on convention panels and podcasts, including Everything Geek Podcast, to discuss her work. She has also voiced support for classical theater education and often mentors younger actors, encouraging them to seek training beyond traditional degree programs.
Currently based in NYC, Legault has been developing a television project with collaborators, drawing on shared experiences in the service industry. Tentatively titled In Parentheses, I’m Not Lying, the series aims to depict the chaotic and often surreal world behind restaurant and bar work, territory Legault and her co-creators know firsthand. Describing the concept as “The Bear meets bar culture,” she has said the goal is to create an ensemble show that blends comedy, realism, and autobiographical vignettes.
Legault credits yoga and meditation with helping her manage anxiety and mental health, and urges others in the industry to pursue lifelong learning. “Even if you’ve been on a hit show,” she has said, “you never stop learning. There are always new things to discover.”
Yitzi: Dahlia, it’s so nice to meet you. Before we dive in deep, our readers would love to learn about your personal origin story. Can you share with us the story of your childhood and how you grew up?
Dahlia: Sure. Originally, I’m from Montreal. I grew up in the suburbs, in a town called Kirkland. My father is French Canadian and my mother is Puerto Rican.
Growing up there was a bit difficult because I was raised in an English-speaking household, but Quebec is very strict about maintaining French language and culture. I had a hard time in school because I went to a French-speaking school, and my mother didn’t speak French at all. My parents spoke Spanish to each other, which was interesting — I never really knew what they were talking about during my childhood. We spoke English at home, but I had to go to school in French.
Montreal is a beautiful place, and my father made sure I stayed connected to the culture there. But school was hard. I struggled with learning and had a tough time with other students. In the area where I grew up, anyone who wasn’t fully French was kind of seen as an outsider.
The neighborhood itself was great. I had my own group of friends and three sisters, so home life was good. But daily life at school was a real challenge. I only did one year of high school in Quebec before my parents divorced. My mom, who still had her American citizenship, moved my sisters and me to Florida.
That move — from Montreal to one of the southernmost parts of the U.S. — was a big culture shock. But things got a lot easier once we were in Florida. I was able to attend an English-speaking school and finally felt like I fit in. I excelled in high school there.
Even as a young child, I was always telling my family that I wanted to be a movie star. I didn’t even know the word “actor” yet, but that was always the dream. When I got to high school in Florida, I started doing theater. That’s when I really started pursuing it, even though my family wasn’t very supportive of the idea. They didn’t think it was practical. My dad, a pharmacist, used to say, “Just become a pharmacist like me. It’s easy, no trouble.”
But I stood my ground. I started doing theater like a lot of people do in high school, and I really excelled, even though it was a small town in Florida. And everything kind of took off from there.
Yitzi: You probably have some amazing stories from your experience in the entertainment industry. Can you share one or two that really stand out in your mind from your professional life?
Dahlia: I would say one, even though it’s on a smaller scale because it only happened in Tampa Bay — but Tampa Bay is a great city. I keep telling everybody that. When people ask me where I’m from, I get a little confused. I was born and raised in Canada, but I spent most of my time in Florida, on the west coast.
Tampa Bay is a wonderful place. The arts are extravagant there. Theater is huge. After high school, I ended up going to the University of South Florida. It’s a very small university. Their cancer program is amazing, but their arts department was very small. Still, I went there, and they have a program at USF called the Britt Program. Either a British director or actor comes to the school and works with the department and students on a British show or production of some kind.
One year, the director Tim Luscombe came in and decided to do the play Taming of the Shrew, which, if you know anything about theater — especially Shakespeare — you’ll know exactly what that is. At this point in time, I don’t think it’s the best thing to produce or stage, because it’s very misogynistic. It’s basically about a woman who can’t be tamed, and a man from out of town comes in and “tames” her to become a submissive wife.
Originally, the director, wanted to cast the entire play with women, kind of flipping the tradition. Back in Shakespeare’s time, all the roles, even the female ones, were played by men. So he wanted to reverse that. That idea didn’t fully work out with the department, but they did end up casting some traditionally male roles with women. And I had the opportunity to play Petruchio — the one who tames the shrew.
That might be hard to grasp for people who aren’t into theater or Shakespeare, but I’m very much a character actor. Being able to transform myself in that kind of way — to become something I’m entirely not and entertain people physically to that extent — was incredibly fun for me. It’s something I’d love to do for the rest of my life. I like playing characters. I’m not really a method actor, but if a role requires that approach, I can do it. Still, I gravitate toward roles that are very physical, that change my body, my voice — everything. That was definitely one of the greater experiences.
Yitzi: It’s been said that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Do you have a story about a humorous mistake you made when you were first starting out, and the lesson you learned from it?
Dahlia: Gosh, there are many.
I wouldn’t say there’s one particular moment, but I will say that after I got out of university in Tampa Bay, I got involved in the local theater scene. I ended up winning — this must have been around 2010 — Best Actress of the Bay from a magazine called Creative Loafing.
And just like it happens in movies, when someone wins an award, suddenly all these offers come in. Sometimes actors just go on a roll and accept everything that’s thrown at them — not just for fame, but also for momentum and money. After I won Best Actress, I started getting tons of role offers in the area, and I basically accepted all of them, or as many as I could.
Looking back, it’s not that the productions themselves were bad, but they just weren’t right for me. Some of them even have video footage, and when I rewatch those performances, I think, “I had no idea what I was doing.”
Maybe the direction wasn’t great in some cases, but honestly, I think I was just in this mindset of, “If work is being offered to me, why say no?” I had this belief that turning anything down was a kind of failure. I was self-conscious about it, worried that if I said no once, I might not get another offer from those people again.
So I went on this kind of binge, doing everything I could. But in hindsight, that probably distorted my sense of where I actually wanted to go — where I truly wanted to be headed.
Yitzi: That’s great. What has been the most challenging role or project you’ve taken on, and why?
Dahlia: I would say it was probably when I played Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which was pretty much toward the end of my theater career. I ended up stopping theater for a very specific reason and moving into TV and film, as I’m sure you know. Maggie was one of the last roles I played on stage. And very simply, it was because of how much that woman speaks.
In that play, during the first act, people come in and talk to her at certain points, but the character of Maggie opens the show and talks a mile a minute for the entire first hour.
It really feels like a one-woman show in the beginning. I don’t think you realize that unless you’ve watched the movie a bunch of times. Liz Taylor plays her. But if you ever watch it again, pay attention — she speaks nonstop for the entire first act.
It was after that role that I realized, even though I wasn’t too old — I was only in my early 30s — I just didn’t think I could do live stage anymore.
Yitzi: That’s great. So, Dahlia, you have so much impressive work. Can you share with our readers the exciting things you’re working on now and what you hope to be working on in the near future?
Dahlia: Yes, of course. I’m sure the things regular people might know me from are my roles on The Walking Dead — I was on that for a little bit — and an episode of Atlanta.
It’s too bad the other shows I was on didn’t continue. One was called Containment, and there was another one… I can’t remember the name right now. But yeah, Containment didn’t move forward.
Right now, some friends and I are trying to write our own TV show, or really a streaming series. We’re basing it on working in the service industry, because what does an actor do when they’re not working? Most of them work in bars or restaurants. So, a few of us got together and started talking about our experiences — things we went through while working in those environments — and we’re trying to compile them.
Right now, we just have an outline, but hopefully we can build it into something. Of course, we’d start with a pilot, but we’re aiming for something like seven or eight episodes, just to have one full season to show people. We’re tossing around a few titles, but I think we’re close to calling the show In Parentheses, I’m Not Lying, because the vast majority of what’s in the show will be things that actually happened to us or things we’ve actually seen.
You know, late nights around 2 AM, trying to close up a bar, seeing people do absolutely insane things — or having insane things happen to us or our co-workers. These are the things people don’t see when they’re out eating at a restaurant or when they’re at a bar and maybe a little too inebriated to notice what’s going on behind the scenes.
So it’s kind of like The Bear, which focuses on what happens in the kitchen, but ours would be more about what goes on in the bar industry — dealing with people’s inebriation and all the chaos that can come with that.
Yitzi: That sounds fascinating. Sounds like a great idea. I’m sorry you have to deal with all that.
Dahlia: It comes with its ups and downs. You do find a love for it after a while, but yeah, it can definitely be a lot sometimes.
Yitzi: You mentioned The Walking Dead. As you know, it’s one of the most popular shows of all time. What do you think it was that captured people’s hearts and minds about the series?
Dahlia: I think you fall in love with the people. It’s less about the zombies and more about what happens to the people.
When I was watching the show before I got on it — and even being on the show — I realized you could set the storyline in a different context. Maybe it’s not zombies, maybe it’s a war, maybe it’s aliens. It doesn’t matter. You fall in love with the characters.
Now there’s The Last of Us, which is similar in context. It’s not as accessible since it’s on a pay channel, but it’s the same idea. You don’t want to see people die, but people are constantly going to die. That tension — the constant question of what’s going to happen, who it’s going to be — is what keeps you hooked.
You’re hoping it’s not your favorite character, or maybe you’re hoping it is a certain character because you can’t stand them. It’s about character development, and how you connect to the actor and the role. You evolve with the people.
That’s really what it is — you fall in love with the people.
Yitzi: How do you compare and contrast your personal character, Dahlia, with Francine, the character you play? How are you similar? How are you different?
Dahlia: I think they’re kind of similar, honestly. When I first got the script, even just to audition — you don’t get much when you audition, especially for that show — it really hit me. It’s kind of funny, but the little punch-in-the-face moment really got me. I’ve never gotten into a fight in real life, but bringing it back to bar situations — how many times have I gotten into it with someone at a bar? Wanted to punch them in the face? Or had to drag someone out? It’s that whole “don’t mess with me” energy. If you’re gonna mess with me, then you’re gonna find out. I don’t want to swear, but it’s the whole F.A.F.O. thing.
You know, I don’t even think that term existed when I was on the show, but yeah — F.A.F.O. — and that’s what really clicked for me with Francine. She’s not someone you mess around with. Who did she punch in the face? Not Abraham — sorry, I got confused — but yeah, she punched a man in the face. She does not care. That’s what really made me connect with her. I’m very much the same way. If you want to mess with me, you’re going to find out what comes with that.
Yitzi: Can you share with our readers the self-care routines that you do to help your body, mind, and heart to thrive?
Dahlia: Physically, yoga. I live by it. Yoga does something to your body, your mind, and your heart — all together. I’m not into the whole big gym workout scene. I prefer something calmer, so yoga definitely works for me.
Meditation is difficult, but there are classes out there that are more accessible. Once you figure out how to meditate and really get your mind into a certain place, it can heal so much. I’ve suffered from anxiety, and I used to be on pharmaceuticals for it years ago. I ended up getting off them because meditation helped me that much. It’s truly powerful.
And I’d say, like I mentioned earlier, maybe not necessarily formal classes, but just always keep learning. Coming from someone who already has a bachelor’s in theater, who’s won awards and been on one of the biggest shows — I still don’t claim to know everything. There are always new things coming up. Always keep learning. There are avenues out there that can keep you growing and functioning.
Yitzi: This is our final aspirational question. Dahlia, because of your great work and the platform you’ve built, you’re a person of enormous influence. If you could put out an idea, spread an idea, or inspire a movement that would bring the most good to the most people, what would that be?
Dahlia: I would say, I’d just go back to what was done in the 1960s and ask, can we please have some peace and love? Can we bring peace and love back, especially considering the state of the world right now? I’d say, can everyone just take a moment to breathe, look at your neighbor, find friends, and stop making enemies?
I think that is extremely important, especially right now. Let’s find peace and love among us, so things can calm down a little.
Yitzi: That’s amazing. How can our readers continue to follow your work?
Dahlia: I have someone reconfiguring my website. It should be up and running within the next few weeks. It’ll just be my name, Daliathego.com, but it’s under construction right now.
Yitzi: Dahlia, it’s so nice to meet you. Thank you so much for this wonderful interview. I wish you continued success and good health.
Dahlia: Absolutely. Thank you so much.
Rising Star Dahlia Legault Of The Walking Dead On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.