Hi, I’m Daniella!
I’m a multimedia journalist with a passion for storytelling. I started my journey in media at 15 with my podcast, Life Told By a Stranger and since then, I’ve explored storytelling across multiple platforms—writing for outlets like Rolling Stone and Fast Company, creating social media content, and reporting for broadcast. My work has been featured on ABC7 News and Spectrum News. I currently attend USC for my Master’s in Journalism and attended UC Berkeley for my Bachelor’s in Media Studies.
As graduation nears, student creates a ‘time capsule’ of her Berkeley experience
Daniella Lake, who's graduating with a degree in media studies this May, is interviewing the friends she met in college — through Black Lives at Cal, during a study abroad in Rome, at Cal at the Capital — for a new season of her podcast.
By Anne Brice
This first-person narrative was written from an interview with Daniella Lake, who will graduate this May with a degree in media studies.
I was born in Los Angeles. I’m the first person in my family who was born in the U.S. My family’s originally from Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Africa. My parents spent a lot of time moving during the 1990s because there was a civil war in Sierra Leone and my dad worked for the United Nations, so my brother and sister spent time growing up in other African countries — Eritrea, Ghana and Gambia. I had a very different childhood experience.
When I was 9 or 10, I started doing a lot of public speaking in Catholic school and in my own church, a Methodist church. At school, we’d have mass on Fridays, and at my own church, a service on Sunday. At both, I would read scripture, or during Black History Month, I would give a speech or read poetry by Black poets.
That’s when I really fell in love with the spoken word.
At 15, I picked up podcasting because I love storytelling. My podcast is called Life Told By A Stranger. I’ve produced three seasons of it, but took a break from it when I got to UC Berkeley. One of my favorite questions to ask is, “If you were to write an autobiography, what is one story you’d have to include?” It’s really cool to hear what story my guests choose because it shows how they define themselves. It’s a key part of who they are.
GRoW @ Annenberg scholar has an appetite for storytelling
By Dawn Megli
Master’s student Daniella Lake isn’t coming to USC Annenberg just to be heard. She wants to be seen.
Lake is a veteran podcaster whose show, “Life Told By a Stranger,” spanned both her high school and college careers. Since 2018, she has interviewed subjects from a diverse array of backgrounds by asking them the same four questions about their lives, including what stories they would include in their autobiographies.
But when she hits campus this fall, Lake will be focused on making the jump to broadcast. The GRoW @ Annenberg scholar has set her sights on the anchor’s desk. She took an on-air training course over the summer and plans to join Annenberg TV News. After four years at University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in media studies, Lake said she’s now ready to cover her hometown as a journalist.
“I really do want to be here in Los Angeles, and get to know my community better by sharing their stories,” the So Cal native said.
Growing up, Lake fell in love with the spoken word by reading scripture to the congregation in the Methodist church her family belonged to, as well as at the Catholic school she attended. On special occasions, she would read works by Black poets and give speeches for Black History Month. The soundtrack of her childhood included episodes of “This American Life” and “The Moth Radio Hour” playing on her older brother’s car radio as he drove her to school.
