What's Happened to Dayna Kathan After Vanderpump Rules?
The SURver left the show but not the friend group after her stint on Season 8... and filmed for Season 11.
Dayna Kathan was only a cast member on Vanderpump Rules for one season, but she had already made quite the impression on the cast by the time she arrived.
“We’ve got Dayna, who’s this great worker. So good, in fact, that Lisa’s poaching her to work at SUR,” shared Tom Schwartz in Season 8, Episode 1 while introducing the TomTom employee and soon-to-be SURver to the masses.
During Episode 2, the cast showed up to support Dayna at a comedy show during which she performed.
“I think I love stand-up comedy because I don’t have to f-cking censor myself for one minute. I took the job at TomTom and now SUR so I can hopefully leave my day job in healthcare sales and focus on my real passion, which is comedy," shared Dayna in a confessional.
So, did she do it? And are these really the best days of her life?
Who is Dayna Kathan from Vanderpump Rules?
A native of Washington state, according to IMDb, the Vanderpump Rules alumna had been working in medical sales when she started filming the show.
On an episode of Scheana Shay's Scheananigans podcast in July 2023, she said she'd since gone back to her corporate career.
"I was working in healthcare sales which is what I’m still doing now," she said. "I had no intentions on being on television.”
Dayna accepted an offer to appear on the show because she was working in stand-up at the time, but she didn't enjoy being on reality TV.
However, she says she's much happier now.
"Over the last few years I've really ticked off many of the things that were lifelong dreams and things that I wanted to do. Last year I got scuba certified," she told Scheana. (The two had an infamously bad relationship during Season 8, but reconnected at an Emo Nite event in April 2023 and then attended Coachella together.)
Until 2021, Dayna had her own podcast, Unf--withable, but called it quits.
Katie Maloney and Dayna Kathan
Dayna currently hosts a podcast, "DISRESPECTFULLY," with Katie Maloney on which the two discuss the pitfalls of dating.
After she and Katie announced their podcast in January 2024, the two women's former coworkers and current friends raced to the Instagram post's comments section to congratulate them.
"Will be listening so hard I’ll need new headphones," commented Ariana Madix, who is also a close friend (the women have traveled the world together). "Yes congrats you two can’t wait to hear it!!" added Ally Lewber.
Katie and Dayne also spend a lot of time hanging out together, often with Ariana in tow.
What is Dayna Kathan's age?
Dayna turned 33 in 2023, according to her Instagram.
"The last year threw me some serious curve balls but more than anything showed me how far I’ve come and how lucky I feel to be on the ride," she wrote.
She is a Leo.
She infamously celebrated her 30th birthday in 2020 with a shark cake.
Why did Dayna Kathan leave Vanderpump Rules?
Dayna announced she wouldn't be returning to the show for Season 9 in April 2021.
"I'm not returning but excited to see next szn!" she shared in an Instagram comment.
While discussing her reality television turn on the aforementioned Scheananigans interview, Dayna made it clear that being on a show was never her dream.
"I did not come to Los Angeles being like 'I wanna be on a reality TV show.' That was not it," she said. "It truly found me and so I ended up going with it though cause I was doing stand-up comedy at the time and I had been doing this really serious health care sales career my whole adult life."
She also noted that the COVID-19 pandemic allowed her to slow down for once in her life and take stock of her wellbeing. With that, she realized reality TV wasn't her jam.
"That version of myself, it's hard for me to watch. I haven't watched it since it aired," she noted, clarifying that while she was authentic on the show, she's certainly grown since. "It's not a fair representation of who I am. I've had like five software updates since I was on."
Is Dayna Kathan coming back to Vanderpump Rules?
While Dayna has no plans to return to the Bravoverse in a full-time capacity, she did do some filming for Season 11.
“I filmed a tiny bit,” Dayna said while on The Viall Files podcast in January 2024. “This year I did think about coming back. I filmed and immediately I was like, ‘I can’t do this.’ So, I don’t know if what I filmed will make it.”
She added that she called her friend Katie the following day for emotional support.
"I had a full-blown screaming, crying panic attack and I didn’t realize,” she told host Nick Viall.
