Donna began acting at age 8 while attending a private Catholic school in Georgia. That year, she was cast as the leading role of the Virgin Mary in the children's theatrical performance of the Nativity. She went on to study drama under Stephen Anderson in Los Angeles beginning in 1995. Donna took an improv class at The Groundlings (she and Masi Oka were in the same Groundlings improv class). Then beginning in 2005, Donna began studying drama under Tom Todoroff, based in New York.