Who Plays Young Daya on ‘Orange Is the New Black’? Everything You Need to Know About Dasany Kristal Gonzalez!

When it comes to casting, the team at Orange Is the New Black is so good, it’s almost criminal!

Every season, when we learn the backstory of some of our favorite inmates, the casting department almost always manages to shock us with how they’re able to find young actresses or actors with an uncanny resemblance to the inmates and guards they’re representing.

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And the new season of OITNB is no exception! During eighth episode of season 5, titled “Tied to the Tracks,” we were introduced to more of Dayanara Diaz’s history. While we’ve already seen a bit about Daya’s childhood, and her life before prison, this episode introduced us to not only Daya’s home life as a preteen, but also a new actress, named Dasany Kristal Gonzalez, to depict her at that age.

The resemblance between the teen who played Daya and Dascha Polanco, who plays her as an adult was seriously uncanny — and that’s because young Daya is played by Dascha’s teenage daughter!

Check out everything you need to know about Dascha and her 16-year-old daughter, Dasany!

Dascha had her daughter when she was only 18

Dascha had her daughter when she was only 18 — and it was particularly emotional, as Dasany was born prematurely.

“She’s a blessing, a miracle baby,” Dash gushed to Latina, adding that she wouldn’t encourage others to have kids at such a young age. “Nothing’s wrong with it, it just makes it a little bit more challenging.”

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Dasany’s the oldest of 3

Dascha is fiercely protective over her kids — she went on to have two younger ones after becoming a teen mom — and doesn’t give much information when it comes to her little ones. She’s also happily engaged, to someone she described as “good-hearted man.”

This isn’t the first time a relative has been used in a flashback

When they told the history of Sophia Burset — played by Laverne Cox — the gorgeous actress’ identical twin brother, M. Lamar, played Sophia pre-transition. Talk about perfect casting!