For 40 years, stunt performers have been fighting for a seat at the Academy Awards table. Finally, the Academy announced that the industry will debut a new competitive Oscar category for Achievement in Stunt Design, starting with the 100th Academy Awards in 2028. They’ll finally be acknowledging what stunt drivers, coordinators, and performers have always known: they are not background noise.
Dee Bryant knows that fight intimately. HOLA! Experienced Hollywood stunt driving firsthand behind the wheel of the Ford Mustang Dark Horse, with Bryant teaching me how to do a 90 and 180-degree drift. While we were in the car, I interviewed Bryant about her journey and the new category at the Oscars. “Oh my God, finally,” she tells me when I ask what it felt like to hear the news.
“We’ve always been the redheaded stepkid of the industry. Always told to hide our faces. Actors say they do their own stunts, and we have to hide and agree with them,” she shares.
Despite many claiming to do their own stunts, she reveals, “There’s not one actor that does all their own stuff. Except Jackie Chan back in the day. And even later in his career, it took four stunt doubles to do what he used to do alone.”
© ProvidedFor decades, stunt performers risked “life and limb,” as Dee puts it, while watching other departments take home Oscars. “Not taking anything away from hair, makeup, wardrobe,” she says. “But we’re almost dying. Some of us literally. Just performing our job.”
She’s also lost people in the industry. When I ask if she knows anyone who has died doing stunts, she answers quietly: “Oh yeah.”
© ProvidedDee has been doing stunts for 28 years, and one of her first films was Miss Congeniality with Sandra Bullock. Born and raised in L.A. to a Mexican mother, she didn’t grow up dreaming about Hollywood glory.
“I didn’t aspire to do it. It was kind of thrown in my lap,” she says. “A stunt coordinator saw me riding a motorcycle and was like, ‘There’s no one that looks like you that can ride a motorcycle like that.’ I was literally recruited.”
As an Afro-Latina, with her look, shes doubled for A-list names like Regina King, Kerry Washington, Angela Bassett, Gabrielle Union, Janelle Monáe, and Keke Palmer. She has an impressive IMDb with over 150 credits as a stunt performer.
© ProvidedMotorcycles were her first love, and she started riding when she was 11. In high school, she chose a bike over a car. Later, working as a heavy equipment operator, she learned to drive massive earth movers, skills that would translate seamlessly to cars, buses, and even big rigs.
“I can drive anything with an engine,” she says. “Boats, buses, big rigs, everything except a helicopter and an airplane. Ironically, I’m a licensed skydiver. I jump out of them – I just don’t fly them.”
© ProvidedRecently, Dee doubled Washington in Shadow Force, filming a month-long boat chase in Cartagena, Colombia. The performance earned her nominations for Best Stunt Performed by a Woman and Best Stunt Ensemble at the Taurus World Stunt Awards – the stunt performers created themselves because the Oscars wouldn’t recognize them.
“I also got nominated by the NAACP Image Awards for the same film,” she says. “So yeah. It’s been a good year.”
But even with the Oscars finally adding a category, the hustle isn’t easy. The 2023 strikes slowed everything down. Productions moved overseas. And now AI looms over the industry. “Yes, absolutely, it’s scary,” she says about AI. “We already had to fight CGI. Now AI is like CGI on crack. There’s already less work. And now that little bit of work we have left is being threatened.”
Still, she trains and has been a stunt coordinator for several projects, including a $30-million Nike commercial starring top athletes like Serena Williams, LeBron James, and Megan Rapinoe. She’s also a mentor. And she tells newcomers the truth. “I tell everyone I mentor to have a second job to fall back on,” she says. “Train, train, train. And never accept a job above your ability. With vehicles, if you do that, someone can get hurt.”
As the experience continues, I see why Bryant is such a good mentor. My confidence is up, I’m going faster, and she’s encouraging me every step of the way, coaching me through the drift maneuvers, yelling, “Snatch it! Don’t pull it gradual – snatch it!” as rubber burns and the car whips around cones simulating a 90-degree slide into a parking spot. “A 90 is harder than a 180,” she laughs. “Some stunt drivers can’t even do a 90.”
When I nail one, she grins: “That was dope. You might have to change careers.”
The Oscars will take place Sunday, March 15, 2026, live from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles.
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