The actress best known for her role as Winnie Cooper from "The Wonder Years," Danica McKellar, was the definition of the dream girl for much of the young audience in the 80s. Now, she is 45 years old and looks unrecognizable. Danica McKellar starred opposite to Fred Savage's Kevin Arnold as his love interest during the five year run of the show "The Wonder Years" from 1988 to 1993. Judging by the fact that Cooper graduated high school all the way back in 1971, it would be fair to assume that the character who played the role would be in her 60s by now. Thankfully, she is only 45 and looks just as pretty. McKeller's career after the comedy-drama was primarily assisted by the public goodwill that she accumulated over the course of the show, and she fell into the category of actors who parlayed the same goodwill to further in successful low-key careers. In McKeller's case, she went on to star in a number of made-for-basic-cable romantic comedies for the generation that still has very fond memories of the actress from their early life. Danica McKellar at the 2018 United States National Book Festival | Source: Wikimedia Commons "The Wonder Years" star's most recurring affiliation was with the Hallmark Channel movies, of which she told NBC's "Today" that, "They tell good stories about good people." LIFE ON-SCREENApparently, McKeller was very much into the Hallmark banner as she starred in eight of their movies so far, including: "Coming Home for Christmas," "My Christmas Dream," "Crown for Christmas," "Love at the Christmas Table," and "Perfect Match." As for her work in the "women in peril" genre, McKeller has worked with Lifetime on crime drama titles such as "The Wrong Woman" and "Mommy, I Didn't Do It." Although she has not appeared in any commercial movies on the big screen, she has made herself a nice little source of income and exposure in the world of TV cameos. Like many other young stars, McKeller took her time and lived a relaxed life growing up. Unlike what people expect from such a beautiful person, the "Perfect Match" star is a smart cookie. The talented actress attended UCLA and graduated with a degree in mathematics, a subject she is very passionate about. She also told the UCLA alumni association that the math building's graduate lounge was her absolute "favorite place to study." The mathematician-actress also has commendable work to compliment her degree as she has published an academic paper, a feat that requires intense scrutiny by established peers, exhaustive research, and meticulous composition. Her paper was titled "Percolation and Gibbs states multiplicity for ferromagnetic Ashkin-Teller models on Z2," which can also be credited to the establishment of the Chayes-McKellar-Winn Theorem.
Actress, author, education advocate and director Danica Mae McKellar (born January 3, 1975, La Jolla, California) is an American actress, academic, and education advocate. She is best known for her role as Winnie Cooper in the television show The Wonder Years, and later as author of the three The New York Times bestsellers, Math Doesn't Suck, Kiss My Math, and Hot X: Algebra Exposed, which encourage middle-school girls to have confidence and succeed in mathematics. She played the role of Abby in The Big Bang Theory. Along with Mayim Bialik, Danica was mentioned (though not by name) in the episode "The Bat Jar Conjecture", before either actress actually appeared on the show. Early lifeBorn in La Jolla, California, McKellar moved with her family to Los Angeles when she was eight. Her mother Mahalia is a homemaker; her father Christopher is a real estate developer. Her family is "a big mix of Western Europe": Her mother's ancestry is Portuguese (via the Azores and Madeira islands); her father's ancestry is Scottish, Irish, French, German and Dutch. McKellar and her sister Crystal McKellar (who is loosely named after their dad) both maintained professional acting careers as children, but with a strong emphasis on education as a priority. As a result, Crystal became a corporate lawyer (her family nicknamed her "Legally Blonde" because of her hair color), while Danica majored in mathematics. Danica and Crystal also have two half-brothers, Chris Junior and Connor McKellar. Acting careerThe Wonder Years and early acting career McKellar had a leading role in The Wonder Years, an American television comedy-drama that ran for six seasons on the ABC network, from 1988 to 1993. McKellar played Gwendolyn "Winnie" Cooper the main love interest of Kevin Arnold (played by Fred Savage) on the show. In an episode entitled "The Accident" and in the final episode, it is stated that every important event in Kevin's life somehow involved Winnie. She lives on the same block as Kevin. Their first kiss plays an important part of the pilot episode, as does her older brother's death while serving as a soldier in the Vietnam War. In one episode, her parents decide to get separated because of their grief over the death of their son. According to the epilogue in the final episode, Winnie studies art history in Paris. Kevin and Winnie write one letter to each other every week for eight years until her return. Despite their life-long romance, they never marry. McKellar's first kiss was with Fred Savage in an episode of The Wonder Years. She later said, "My first kiss was a pretty nerve-wracking experience! But we never kissed off screen, and pretty quickly our feelings turned into brother/sister, and stayed that way." McKellar also had a role in the film Sidekicks, directed by Aaron Norris. Adult roles McKellar has admitted the transition from "child actor to adult actor was a little bumpy." Since leaving The Wonder Years, McKellar has had several guest roles in television series (including one with former co-star Fred Savage on Working), and has written and directed two short films. She played Kristin Guthrie in a 1994 Lifetime TV movie, Moment of Truth: Cradle of Conspiracy. In 1996, she played the character Annie Mills Carman in the Lifetime Moment of Truth movie Justice For Annie. She briefly returned to regular television with a recurring role in the 2002–03 season of The West Wing, portraying Elsie Snuffin, the stepsister and assistant of Deputy White House Communications Director Will Bailey. McKellar appeared in lingerie in the July 2005 edition of Stuff magazine after readers voted her the 90's star they would most like to see in lingerie. McKellar explained that she agreed to the shoot in part to obtain "grittier roles". In June 2006, Lifetime Television announced that McKellar would star in a Lifetime movie and web-based series titled Inspector Mom about a mother who solves mysteries. In an interview in the November 17, 2006 issue of TV Guide, McKellar said that two TV movies and ten webisodes of Inspector Mom were being produced. McKellar has provided the voices for two characters in three video games: Jubilee in X-Men Legends (2004), and Invisible Woman in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (2006) and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 (2009). On the August 1, 2007, edition of the Don and Mike Show, a WJFK-FM radio program out of Washington, D.C., McKellar announced plans that the producers of How I Met Your Mother were planning to bring her back for a recurring role (she guest-starred on the show in late 2005 in "The Pineapple Incident"). She appeared in the October 8, 2007, episode titled "Third Wheel", as well as an appearance on the show The Big Bang Theory. In 2008, she starred in Heatstroke (television series), a SyFy Channel original movie about searching for alien life on Earth. McKellar, as of June 23, 2008, is one of the stars commenting on the occurrences of the new millennium in VH1's I Love the New Millennium, and as of 2009 is the math correspondent for Brink, a program by the Science Channel about upcoming technology. In 2014, appearing on "Dancing with the Stars". McKellar has also become a very experienced voice actress Voicing The Character of Miss Martian in CN's Young Justice. MathematicsMcKellar studied mathematics at UCLA, graduating with highest honors (summa cum laude) in 1998. As an undergraduate, she coauthored a scientific paper with Professor Lincoln Chayes and fellow student Brandy Winn. Their results are termed the 'Chayes–McKellar–Winn theorem'. External Links
Danica McKellar, who played the adorable Winnie Cooper on television’s The Wonder Years (1988-1993), is now all grown up and married with a child of her own, Draco. At nine, he is about the same age as McKellar was in her hit series. Courtesy of Penguin/Random House McKellar, 45, still acts but is also a serious mathematician who has written 10 children’s math books (the latest is The Times Machine) - and who has a math theorem (Chayes-McKellar-Winn) named after her. If that’s not enough nerdiness, the UCLA graduate has written a song about the number pi. McKellar also has appeared on Dancing With The Stars, though she didn’t win, and in a dozen Hallmark Channel TV productions. Our last interview was in 2007, when her first book, Math Doesn’t Suck, was released. Since then, she’s done a lot. Following are edited excerpts from a recent phone conversation. Jim Clash: Let's start with The Wonder Years. What do you remember about your first on-screen kiss with Fred Savage [Kevin Arnold]? Danica McKellar: It was so long ago, like over 30 years. But it was my first kiss in real life. We did six takes, and the way I know they used the sixth was that it's the one where Kevin strokes my hair at the end. It was very, very sweet. Being a kid and having your first kiss is nerve-racking enough, but imagine you're surrounded by a film crew of 50 or 100 people watching you. thetimesmachine.com Clash: Do you think Savage deliberately pushed it out to six takes because he enjoyed kissing you? McKellar: We were so little. I think we had a crush on each other back then, but I have no idea [laughs]. Clash: How does The Wonder Years fit into your portfolio of work as an actress? McKellar: It's foundational, because I feel that everything has grown from that. Some people ask if it bothers me when they bring up Winnie [Cooper]. No! I did go through a phase as a teenager where I was kind of over it. Lucky for me, I don't feel that way anymore. I don't have a choice [laughs], but I realize just how beloved the show has been to so many people. I mean, the kids who watched it are all my age now. We were growing up together, and now we've continued the journey. A lot of those same people watch my Hallmark Channel TV movies and are buying my children's math books. They're also reaching out to me on Instagram and Twitter, saying that now I'm legitimately helping their kids with math. Clash: Do you remember your favorite episode of The Wonder Years? McKellar: I honestly don't remember, it was so long ago, Jim. I will probably remember more stuff when I start showing the series to my son, Draco. I haven't yet. He's nine, almost the right age. Clash: You were also on Dancing With The Stars. What was that experience like? McKellar: That was incredible. It was the most crazy, challenging thing physically I've ever done, aside from childbirth [laughs]. It's like training to be an Olympic athlete, but you're thrown into it. It was five or six hours a day, seven days a week. Your butt - I'd come home and not be able to walk up the stairs. I learned the technique of using my arm strength to pull my way up steps holding onto the banister. But it was fantastic. The moments were filled with adrenaline. It was one of the most thrilling things I've ever done, like being on a roller coaster where you are terrified but at the same time having so much fun. Your brain can't quite reconcile the two things. Clash: Do people recognize you more from DWTS, the Hallmark Channel or The Wonder Years? McKellar: People will bring up DWTS sometimes, especially when the show was airing. But these days, it's more the Hallmark Channel because I've been on so many times. That's what they bring up first. Then they say, "And, by the way, we loved you on The Wonder Years." If the conversation keeps going, I might hear, "You were also great on DWTS." People tend to remember whatever's happening at the time. Clash: You once posed in lingerie for what, Maxim Magazine? Why did you do it? Weren’t you afraid it might tarnish your wholesome image? McKellar: I did Maxim 15 years ago when I was 30, Stuff Magazine when I was 35. At 30, I was going to show the world that you don't have to be in your 20’s to look great. But, as I got older, my past ages seemed younger and younger [laughs]. Do you know what I mean? When you're 18, 30 is old. But when you're 30, it's not really. When you're 40, it's, "Yeah, I was young at 30." My original plan was to pose every five years, but then I lost interest. Now there's Instagram. I can just post a workout video if people want to see if I'm fit at 45. It's a lot easier than setting up a frickin' photo shoot! To answer your question, I did the shoots to empower women to embrace their bodies and not to think that they're over the hill, or whatever. That was really my goal. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. |