All 8 Black Canary actresses ranked from worst to best

6. Rachel Skarsten

Appeared In: Birds of Prey

That brings us to Birds of Prey‘s official attempt at the Black Canary character. Meet Dinah Redmond: The daughter of the original Black Canary who had been given to a foster family for her own protection. However, when she began to manifest unusual abilities, that foster family became abusive – forcing the young metahuman to run away to New Gotham and track down Barbara Gordon and Huntress.

Rachel Skarsten proved to be incredibly compelling in the role, making us all fall in love with a character that could have fallen apart due to how much she deviated from the comics. A teenage runaway is quite the departure from the revered Justice League member that we were accustomed to – but Skarsten did a great job as her endearing performance stood out in a show that often fell victim to its overly-dramatic tone.

Was it the best interpretation of the Dinah Lance character? No. There was certainly promise there, but some of the character aspects didn’t work – like the new telepathic abilities. That said, Skarsten was undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with – something she continues to prove through her work as Alice on The CW’s Batwoman.