Has Dana Workman ever had a real encounter with a ghost?
—Kevin Childers, Lincoln, Neb.
After two seasons on Syfy’s “Haunted Highway,” Workman does believe there is something out there, but nothing you can bottle up in a jar and say, “Here it is.”
“I had something happen when I was little, but I didn’t think about it, know to look into it, or believe in it necessarily until more recently,” the Los Angeles native says. “I think people wipe it out of their minds and are not really sure what happened. My grandfather passed away recently. I feel like now, if something were to happen, I would definitely be aware of it and take note.”
From that incident as a child, Workman’s interest in the paranormal flourished, influenced by her father, who actually went to Scotland in 1972 to search for Nessie, the legendary (and legendarily elusive) Loch Ness monster.
“My dad used to take us to a ghost town on the way to Mammoth every summer called Bodie,” she says. “So I always had an interest in that area, and when I started the show, it evolved even more.”
Workman, who is partnered with Jack Osbourne on “Haunted Highways,” says she enjoys the travel involved in the search for their quarry, she just wishes it wouldn’t be such a chilling experience, because even when they went to the Dry Tortugas, it was the coldest week on the island all year.
But as someone who prefers hosting to acting—her acting credits include “8 Simple Rules,” “Malcolm in the Middle” and “Complete Savages”—so she can be her funny self, she loves meeting people along the way.
“Now, people open up to me and tell me the craziest stories,” Workman, 28, says. “Things you would think they wouldn’t really talk about. I have this girlfriend, who is really proper, and she opened up and said, ‘I have never really told anybody this story but…’ and she told me this crazy story about her house in Manhattan Beach, where she used to live.”
