Kagan grew up in Beverly Hills. She is a 1981 graduate of Beverly Hills High School and a 1985 graduate of Stanford University.

After graduating from Stanford, Kagan sent out hundreds of demo tapes. Kagan was hired for an on-air job at a Santa Barbara television station, KEYT-TV. Kagan's next move was to a general assignment reporting position at KTVK in Phoenix. Wanting to do something other than report typical local news stories, she took on the additional role of weekend sports anchor, reporting sports news each weekend Read more...

Kagan's post-CNN projects have been honored with awards that include the 2008 Gracie Award for Outstanding Documentary for her 2007 film Breaking the Cursethat aired on PBS, , as well as the 2007 Interactive Media Award for DarynKagan.com which serves as the base of her media company.