Zena Dare was an actress born in London on the 4th of February 1887; she was the elder sister of Phyllis Dare (real name: Phyllis Haddie Dones, b. 15 August 1890, London) who was also an actress. They made they first stage appearances as children. Zena's father was a divorce court clerk; she was a pupil at the Maida Vale High School and was also briefly educated in Brussels.

   Her first stage appearance was in Babes in the Wood in 1899 at the Coronet Theatre where she understudied the part of the Boy Babe (whilst nine-year-old Phyllis played the part of the Girl Babe). She was later in Scotland appearing in pantomime before she went on tour with Seymour Hicks playing the parts of Daisy Maitland in An English Daisy in 1902, and Cinderella at the Shakespeare Theatre, Liverpool in 1903. After she had finished touring in 1904 she returned to London to play at the Strand and then the Prince of Wales's Theatres for Frank Curzon. Curzon however let her go in the September of 1904 in order to play in Seymour Hick's The Catch of the Season (a retelling of the Cinderella fable) the part of Angela Crystal (Cinderella) at the Vaudeville Theatre. This was her first adult role, Hicks had originally created the part for his wife Ellaline Terriss but she became pregnant, so the part was given to Zena. Hicks said of her: "She was remarkably intelligent, worked hard and had a beautiful face, and on my recommendation she was given the task of playing this exceptionally big part opposite me in our new production... She had stuck to her work at rehearsals like a Briton, and her performance was a charming one, which not only helped us out of our extremely difficult position but spelt her name in golden letters of success which she has made brighter each year by the whole-heartedness and sincerity of all she undertakes."

   During the run of The Catch of the Season in 1905, Zena was replaced by her sister Phyllis, as she was committed to play at Bristol in The Sleeping Beauty. The Catch of the Season ran for a total of 621 performances.

   In the following year she joined George Edwardes at the Prince of Wales's Theatre to play the part of Lady Madcap in the musical comedy Lady Madcap, the part of Lady Elizabeth Congress in The Little Cherub, and then the Girl in The Girl on Stage.

   Next, in 1906 she joined up again with Seymour Hicks to play at the Aldwych Theatre in The Beauty of Bath, the part of Betty Silverthorne. She then in the autumn of the same year toured playing her original part of Angela Crystal in The Catch of the Season, and then at Christmas in Manchester she played Peter Pan in Peter Pan.

   In 1907 again at the Aldwych she played the part of Victoria Siddons in The Gay Gordons, going on from here to do a matinee tour of one-act plays with Seymour Hicks.

   In the first part of 1909 she toured with The Gay Gordons and also Sweet and Twenty. Then in the March of the same year she was at the Coliseum with Seymour Hicks in Papa's Wife, going on then in November to the Hippodrome to play the part of Princess Amaranth in Mitislaw or The Love Match.

   In 1910 she was on tour playing the part of the Duc de Richelieu in The Dashing Little Duke. Then in August of that year at the Hippodrome opened in The Model and the Man.

   She was by now an enormous success, and a huge celebrity who was at the height of her career. This however did not get in the way of her marriage to the Hon. Maurice Brett, the second son of the second Viscount Esher. She subsequently retired from the theatre to raise a family.

   It wasn't until 1926 that Zena Dare returned to the stage touring as Mrs Cheyney in The Last of Mrs Cheyney. After this in January 1928 at the Playhouse she played in S. N. Behrman's The Second Man with Noel Coward. She also in this year toured South Africa with her own company in The Trial of Mary Dugan, Other Men's Wives, The High Road and The Squeaker.

   Having now returned from her South African tour she took over the Haymarket Theatre in the December of 1929 playing in The First Mrs Fraser, the part of Mrs Fraser. She then took this on tour as well as Other Men's Wives and Cynara in which she played the part of Clemency Warlock.

   For two consecutive Christmases in 1931 and 1932 she was in Peter Pan at the Palladium, where she played the part of Mrs Darling, as well as during the interim period playing the part of Leslie in Counsel's Opinion on tour.

   She then worked with Ivor Novello playing at the Globe Theatre in June 1933 the part of his mother in Proscenium. In 1934 she played Mrs Sherry the murderers mother in Murder in Mayfair. This was also the year in which her husband died.

   From the 11th of September 1936 she was at Drury Lane playing the part of Phyllida Frame the beauty parlour manageress in Novello's musical Careless Rapture, it ran of 295 performances. The Times stated that the parts she played with Novello "were exactly suited to her years and to her bent for mild caricature which allowed her to mix frivolity with the romantic sentiment of Novello's work and so made the latter more palatable to his increasingly large public."

   In the May of 1938 having parted company with Novello she went to the Ambassadors' to play the part of Tiny Fox-Coller in the Irish comedy Spring Meeting, later touring with the part in 1939.

   It was in 1940 after a period of over four decades that Zena and her sister Phyllis once again shared the stage, it was whilst touring in a revival of Novello's Full House. Zena played the part of Frynne Rodney.

   In January 1941 at the Globe she played the part of Lady Caroline in a revival of Dear Brutus, and also at the Christmas of the same year she was once again playing the part of Mrs Darling in Peter Pan. She played Fanny Farrelly in The Watch on the Rhine on tour in 1943. She was then, in December 1943 the Red Queen in Alice Through the Looking Glass at the Scala. Then in December 1944 at the Phoenix played the part of Elsie in Another Love Story. She then joined up with Novello again, taking over from Margaret Rutherford in November 1945, to play the part of Charlotte Fayre in Perchance to Dream for which she received great acclaim. This stage musical had opened at the London Hippodrome on the 21st of April 1945.

   In September 1949 at the Palace Theatre both Zena and Phyllis played in Novello's musical Kings Rhapsody, Zena played Novello's mother. This incidentally continued to run for many months after the death of Novello in 1951.

   In August 1954 still at the Palace Theatre she played the part of Julia Ward Mckinlock in Sabrina Fair. Then in the November of 1956 at the Savoy she played Edith Billingsley in Double Image, and in November at the Globe took over the part of Isobel Sorodin from Joyce Carey in Nude with Violin by Noel Coward.

   Her last ever stage appearance was at Drury Lane's Theatre Royal playing the part of Mrs Higgins, Rex Harrison's mother in My Fair Lady. It opened in the April of 1958 and ran for five and a half years. She retired in 1965.

   Zena Dare died on the 11th of March 1975 at the age of 88. Her sister Phyllis died just six weeks later (on 27 April 1975 in Brighton, East Sussex).