Danica McKellar | |
---|---|
Born | Danica Mae McKellar January 3, 1975 La Jolla, California, U.S. |
Alma mater | University of California, Los Angeles (BS) |
Occupation(s) | Actress, mathematics writer, education advocate |
Years active | 1985–present |
Spouses | Michael "Mike" Verta (m. 2009;div. 2012)Scott Sveslosky (m. 2014) |
Children | 1 |
Danica Mae McKellar (born January 3, 1975) [1] is an American actress, mathematics writer, and education advocate. She is best known for playing Winnie Cooper in the television series The Wonder Years.
McKellar has appeared in various television films for the Hallmark Channel. She has also done voice acting, including Frieda Goren in Static Shock, Miss Martian in Young Justice, and Killer Frost in DC Super Hero Girls. In 2015, McKellar joined part of the main cast in the Netflix original series Project Mc2 .
In addition to her acting work, McKellar later wrote seven non-fiction books, all dealing with mathematics: Math Doesn't Suck, Kiss My Math, Hot X: Algebra Exposed, Girls Get Curves: Geometry Takes Shape, which encourage middle-school and high-school girls to have confidence and succeed in mathematics, Goodnight, Numbers, and Do Not Open This Math Book. [2] [3] [4]
McKellar was born in La Jolla, California. [5] She moved with her family to Los Angeles when she was eight. Her mother Mahaila McKellar (née Tello) was a homemaker; her father Christopher McKellar is a real estate developer; her younger sister Crystal (b. 1976) is a lawyer. [6] She is of paternal Scottish, French, German, Spanish, and Dutch descent and her mother is of Portuguese origin via the Azores and Madeira islands. [7]
McKellar studied at the University of California, Los Angeles where she was a member of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority [8] and earned a Bachelor of Science degree summa cum laude in Mathematics in 1998. [9] As an undergraduate, she coauthored a scientific paper with Professor Lincoln Chayes and fellow student Brandy Winn titled "Percolation and Gibbs states multiplicity for ferromagnetic Ashkin–Teller models on ." [10] Their results are termed the "Chayes–McKellar–Winn theorem". [11] [12] Later, when Chayes was asked to comment about the mathematical abilities of his student coauthors, he was quoted in The New York Times , "I thought that the two were really, really first-rate." [13] For her past collaborative work on research papers, McKellar is currently assigned the Erdős number four, and her Erdős–Bacon number is six. [14]
At age seven, McKellar enrolled in weekend acting classes for children at the Lee Strasberg Institute in Los Angeles. [15] In her teens, she landed a prominent role in The Wonder Years , an American television comedy-drama that ran for six seasons on ABC, from 1988 to 1993. She played Gwendolyn "Winnie" Cooper, the main love interest of Kevin Arnold (played by Fred Savage) on the show. Her first kiss was with Fred Savage in an episode of The Wonder Years. [16] [17] 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." [18]
This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification .(September 2020) |
McKellar has said that she found it "difficult" to move from being a child actress to an adult actress. [18] 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 appeared in two Lifetime films in the Moment of Truth series, playing Kristin Guthrie in 1994's Cradle of Conspiracy and Annie Mills Carman in 1996's 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 half-sister and assistant of Deputy White House Communications Director Will Bailey.
McKellar was featured in the video for Debbie Gibson's eighth single from the Electric Youth album, "No More Rhyme", which was released in 1989. She plays the cello in the beginning of the video. [19]
McKellar appeared in lingerie in the July 2005 edition of Stuff magazine [20] after readers voted her the 1990s star they would most like to see in lingerie. McKellar explained that she agreed to the shoot in part to obtain "grittier roles". [18]
In 2006, McKellar starred in a Lifetime film and web-based series titled Inspector Mom about a mother who solves mysteries. [21] [22]
On the August 1, 2007, edition of the Don and Mike Show , a WJFK-FM radio program out of Washington, D.C., McKellar announced 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" and again in early 2007 in "Third Wheel"). She also made an appearance on the show The Big Bang Theory , in the episode "The Psychic Vortex". [23]
In 2008, she starred in Heatstroke, a Sci-Fi Channel film about searching for alien life on Earth and in 2009 she was one of the stars commenting on the occurrences of the new millennium in VH1's I Love the New Millennium and was the math correspondent for Brink, a program by the Science Channel about technology. In 2013, she played Ellen Plainview in Lifetime's reimagining of the 1956 Alfred Hitchcock film The Wrong Man.
McKellar has also worked as a voice actress, having provided the voice of Jubilee in the video game X-Men Legends (2004), and Invisible Woman in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (2006) and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 (2009). She provided the voice of Miss Martian in the TV series Young Justice .
In 2012, she starred in the Lifetime film Love at the Christmas Table with Dustin Milligan.
In January 2013, she starred in the Syfy film Tasmanian Devils with Apolo Ohno.
On August 20, 2013, Canadian singer Avril Lavigne released the music video for her single "Rock N Roll" from her self-titled fifth album, which features McKellar as "Winnie Cooper". [24]
On March 4, 2014, she was announced to be competing on season 18 of Dancing with the Stars . She paired with Valentin Chmerkovskiy. [25] McKellar and Chmerkovskiy were eliminated on Week 8, finishing in 6th place.
She had a guest appearance in the Impractical Jokers season four episode six titled "The Blunder Years". She made another guest appearance in the season seven episode ten titled "Speech Impediment".
In 2015, she starred in the Netflix original series Project Mc2 as The Quail.
She has starred in several Hallmark Channel films, including Crown for Christmas, My Christmas Dream, Campfire Kiss, Love and Sunshine, Christmas at Dollywood, and You, Me & the Christmas Trees as well as the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries series The Matchmaker Mysteries .
McKellar is a judge on Fox’s Domino Masters [26] which premiered on March 9, 2022. [27]
McKellar has authored several mathematics-related books primarily targeting adolescent readers interested in succeeding at the study of mathematics:
Her first book, Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle School Math without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail, was a New York Times bestseller, [2] and was favorably reviewed by Tara C. Smith, the founder of Iowa Citizens for Science and a professor of epidemiology at the University of Iowa. [28] The book also received a review from Anthony Jones, writing for the School Librarian journal, who described the book as "a trouble-shooting guide to help girls overcome their biggest maths challenges," noting what he described as "real-world examples of great mathematics in action." [29] In an interview with Smith, McKellar said that she wrote the book "to show girls that math is accessible and relevant, and even a little glamorous" and to counteract "damaging social messages telling young girls that math and science aren't for them". [30]
McKellar's second book, Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who's Boss, [31] was released on August 5, 2008. The book's target audience is girls in the 7th through 9th grades. Her third book, Hot X: Algebra Exposed! [32] covers algebra topics, while the previous two titles were intended as "algebra-readiness books." [33] Hot X was published on August 3, 2010. Her fourth book, Girls Get Curves – Geometry Takes Shape, [34] focuses on the subject of geometry, and attempts to make the subject more accessible. [35]
Three of McKellar's books were listed in The New York Times children's bestseller list. [36] [37] She received Mathical Honors for Goodnight, Numbers. [38]
Chayes, L; McKellar, D; Winn, B (1998). "Percolation and Gibbs states multiplicity for ferromagnetic Ashkin–Teller models on " (PDF). Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General . 31 (45): 9055–9063. Bibcode:1998JPhA...31.9055C. doi:10.1088/0305-4470/31/45/005.
McKellar was named Person of the Week on World News with Charles Gibson for the week ending August 10, 2007. The news segment highlighted her book Math Doesn't Suck and her efforts to help girls develop an interest in mathematics, especially during the middle school years. [39] In January 2014, she received the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics (JPBM) Communications Award. The citation credited her books, blog, and public appearances for encouraging "countless middle and high school students, especially girls, to be more interested in mathematics." [40]
McKellar married composer Mike Verta on March 22, 2009, in La Jolla, California; the couple had dated since 2001. [41] They had their first child, a son, in 2010. [42] [43] McKellar filed for divorce from Verta in June 2012. [44]
On July 16, 2014, she became engaged to her boyfriend Scott Sveslosky, a partner in the Los Angeles legal firm Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton. On November 15, 2014, they married in Kauai, Hawaii. [45]
McKellar is a Christian and regularly attends church services. [46] She cites Candace Cameron Bure as being a major influence in her life after Bure gave her a copy of the Bible. [46]
McKellar's notoriety for Hallmark mystery films was spoofed in the 2019 film Knives Out , complete with the parody title Deadly By Surprise. [47]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1992 | Sidekicks | Lauren | |
2001 | Good Neighbor | Molly Wright | |
XCU: Extreme Close Up | Sarah | ||
Speechless... | Dana Woodman | Short film | |
2002 | Sex and the Teenage Mind | Debbie | |
Black Hole | Rachael | ||
Reality School | Sexy Sally | Short film | |
Jane White Is Sick & Twisted | Tiffany | ||
The Year That Trembled | Pam Hatch | ||
Hip, Edgy, Sexy, Cool | Sissie | ||
2004 | Raising Genius | Lacy Baldwin | |
Intermission | Sleepwalker | Short film | |
Quiet Kill | Pet Shop Girl | ||
2007 | Hack! | Emily | |
2008 | Heatstroke | Caroline | |
2009 | 21 and a Wake-Up | Jenny Valentine | |
2010 | Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo | Madelyn Dinkley | Voice, direct-to-video [48] |
Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam | Sally | Voice, direct-to-video [48] | |
2012 | Flatland 2: Sphereland | Aero | Direct-to-video |
Mancation | Rebecca | ||
2014 | Where Hope Grows | Susan Malcolm | |
2017 | The Jetsons & WWE: Robo-WrestleMania! | Judy Jetson | Voice, direct-to-video [48] |
2018 | The Fiddling Horse | Leslie Heart | |
2018 | Lego DC Super Hero Girls: Super-Villain High | Frost | Voice, direct-to-video [48] |
2018 | DC Super Hero Girls: Legends of Atlantis | Frost | Voice, direct-to-video [48] |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1985–1987 | The Twilight Zone | Nola (age 10), Deidre Dobbs | 2 episodes |
1988–1993 | The Wonder Years | Winnie Cooper | Main role (Seasons 1-6) |
1989 | The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! | Patty | Voice, 2 episodes |
1990 | Camp Cucamonga | Lindsey Scott | Television film (NBC) |
1992 | Captain Planet and the Planeteers | Lisa | Voice, episode: "A Formula for Hate" |
1994 | Babylon 5 | Aria Tensus | Episode: "The War Prayer" |
Moment of Truth: Cradle of Conspiracy | Kristin Guthrie | Television film (NBC) | |
Walker, Texas Ranger | Laurie Maston | Episode: "Stolen Lullaby" | |
Sirens | Alison Trent | Episode: "Victims" | |
1996 | Justice for Annie: A Moment of Truth Movie | Annie Mills Carman | Television film (NBC) |
1998 | Love Boat: The Next Wave | Mary Dutton | Episode: "How Long Has This Been Going On?" |
Working | Jolie | 2 episodes | |
1999 | Random Play | Daughter | Episode: "1.4" |
2000–2004 | Static Shock | Frieda Goren | Voice, recurring role (15 episodes) [48] |
2001 | The Division | Wendy | Episode: "Don't Ask" |
Even Stevens | Sandrine | Episode: "Sibling Rivalry" | |
The Weakest Link | Herself | TV Child Stars Special Edition | |
2002 | Justice League | Sapphire Stagg | Voice, episode: "Metamorphosis" [48] |
2002–2003 | The West Wing | Elsie Snuffin | Recurring role (season 4) |
2004 | King of the Hill | Misty | Voice, 1 episode |
Game Over | Elsa, Renee | Voice, recurring role (season 1) [48] | |
Century City | Sally | Episode: "Without a Tracer" | |
Eve | Claudia | Episode: "Friend or Foe?" | |
2005 | NCIS | Erin Kendall | Episode: "Witness" |
Jack & Bobby | Keirsten | Episode: "And Justice for All" | |
NYPD Blue | Rosemary | Episode: "Moving Day" | |
Strong Medicine | Natalie Pascal | Episode: "Feeling No Pain" | |
Path of Destruction | Katherine Stern | Television film (Syfy) | |
How I Met Your Mother | Trudy | Episode: "The Pineapple Incident" | |
2006 | Inspector Mom | Maddie Monroe | Television film (Lifetime) |
Cyberchase | Wanda | Voice, episode: "Designing Mr. Perfect" | |
2006–2007 | Inspector Mom | Maddie Monroe | Recurring role (Season 1) |
2007 | Random! Cartoons | Katerina "Kat" Metropoulos | Voice, episode: "Girls on the Go: The First Date" [48] |
How I Met Your Mother | Trudy | Episode: "Third Wheel" | |
2010 | The Big Bang Theory | Abby | Episode: "The Psychic Vortex" |
2010–2013, 2019–2022 | Young Justice | Miss Martian, Marie Logan, Tuppence Terror, Angel O'Day, Moira Malone, Reach Commercial Singer | Voice, main role [48] |
2010-2013 | Generator Rex | Claire | Voice, 3 episodes [48] |
2010 | G.I. Joe: Renegades | Sister Leia | Voice, episode: "Brothers of Light" [48] |
2012 | The Nerdist: Tribute to Science | Herself | Talk show |
Love at the Christmas Table | Katherine "Kat" Patton | Television film (Lifetime) | |
2013 | Tasmanian Devils | Alex | Television film (Syfy) |
The Secret Life of the American Teenager | Herself | Episode: "Interference" | |
Nerdist: Course of the Force | Bounty Hunter | Episode: "Michael Rooker & CM Punk: Lighstaber Hunt" | |
The Wrong Woman | Ellen Plainview | Television film (Lifetime) | |
2014 | Transformers: Rescue Bots | Hayley | Voice, 2 episodes [48] |
Dancing with the Stars | Herself | Contestant on season 18; finished in sixth place | |
Phineas and Ferb | Becky | Voice, episode: "Doof 101/Father's Day" | |
2015 | King of the Nerds | Herself | Judge |
2015, 2017–2018 | Impractical Jokers | Herself | 3 episodes |
2015 | Perfect Match (aka A Perfect Wedding) | Jessica Summers | Television film (Hallmark) |
Miss America 2016 | Herself | Judge | |
Crown for Christmas | Allie Evans | Television film (Hallmark) | |
2015–2017 | Project Mc2 | The Quail | Main role (Seasons 1–2,4–5) Netflix original series |
2015–2018 | DC Super Hero Girls | Frost | Voice, recurring role (Seasons 1-5) [48] |
2016 | My Christmas Dream | Christina | Television film (Hallmark) |
Wedding Bells | Molly | Television film (Hallmark) | |
2016–2018 | Shimmer and Shine | Layla, Generic Female Genie | Voice, 3 episodes [48] |
2017 | Mommy, I Didn't Do It | Ellen Plainview | Television film (Lifetime) |
Campfire Kiss | Dana | Television film (Hallmark) | |
Coming Home for Christmas | Lizzie | Television film (Hallmark) | |
2018 | Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | Taylor Martin | Voice, episode: "Hypno! Part Deux!" [48] |
Very, Very, Valentine | Helen | Television film (Hallmark) | |
Love in Design | Hannah | Television film (Hallmark) | |
Christmas at Grand Valley | Kelly | Television film (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries) | |
2019 | Love and Sunshine | Ally Craig | Television film (Hallmark) |
The Matchmaker Mysteries: A Killer Engagement | Angie Dove | Television film (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries) | |
Christmas at Dollywood | Rachel | Television film (Hallmark) | |
2020 | Matchmaker Mysteries: A Fatal Romance | Angie Dove | Television film (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries) |
Christmas She Wrote | Kayleigh King | Television film (Hallmark) | |
2021 | Matchmaker Mysteries: The Art of the Kill | Angie Dove | Television film (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries) |
2021–2022 | Home Economics | Allison | 2 episodes |
2021 | You, Me & the Christmas Trees | Olivia Arden | Television film (Hallmark) |
2022 | The Winter Palace | Emily Miller | Television film (GAC Family) |
Domino Masters | Herself | Judge [26] | |
The Wonder Years | Winnie Cooper | Episode: "Love & War" | |
Christmas at the Drive-In | Sadie Walker | Television film (GAC Family) | |
2023 | Swing into Romance | Christine Sims | Television film (GAC Family) |
Year | Title | Role | Artist |
---|---|---|---|
1989 | "No More Rhyme" | Girl Playing Cello | Debbie Gibson |
2013 | "Rock n Roll" | Winnie Cooper | Avril Lavigne |
Year | Title | Role |
---|---|---|
2004 | X-Men Legends | Jubilee [48] |
EverQuest II | Lolla Cotgrove / Pona | |
2006 | Marvel: Ultimate Alliance | Invisible Woman [48] |
2009 | Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 | Invisible Woman |
2013 | Young Justice: Legacy | Miss Martian, Batgirl [48] |
The Erdős number describes the "collaborative distance" between mathematician Paul Erdős and another person, as measured by authorship of mathematical papers. The same principle has been applied in other fields where a particular individual has collaborated with a large and broad number of peers.
Anne Lamott is an American novelist and nonfiction writer.
The Wonder Years is an American coming-of-age comedy television series created by Neal Marlens and Carol Black. It ran on ABC from January 31, 1988, until May 12, 1993. The series premiered immediately after ABC's coverage of Super Bowl XXII. The series stars Fred Savage as Kevin Arnold, a teenager growing up in a suburban middle class family in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It co-stars Dan Lauria as his father Jack, Alley Mills as his mother Norma, Jason Hervey as his brother Wayne, Olivia d'Abo as his sister Karen, Josh Saviano as his best friend Paul Pfeiffer, and Danica McKellar as his girlfriend Winnie Cooper, with narration by Daniel Stern as an adult version of Kevin.
Crystal Dawn Scripps McKellar is an American attorney and former child actress. She is the sister of actress Danica McKellar.
Fan-Rong King Chung Graham, known professionally as Fan Chung, is a Taiwanese-born American mathematician who works mainly in the areas of spectral graph theory, extremal graph theory and random graphs, in particular in generalizing the Erdős–Rényi model for graphs with general degree distribution.
"The War Prayer" is the seventh episode of the first season of the science fiction television series, Babylon 5. It first aired on 9 March 1994.
A person's Erdős–Bacon number is the sum of one's Erdős number—which measures the "collaborative distance" in authoring academic papers between that person and Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős—and one's Bacon number—which represents the number of links, through roles in films, by which the person is separated from American actor Kevin Bacon. The lower the number, the closer a person is to Erdős and Bacon, which reflects a small world phenomenon in academia and entertainment.
Killer Frost is a name used by several female supervillains and superheroes appearing in comic books published by DC Comics: Crystal Frost, Louise Lincoln, and Caitlin Snow. All three usually have some connection to the superhero Firestorm.
Raising Genius is a 2004 American comedy film written by Linda Voorhees and co-directed by her with Bess Wiley. The film stars Justin Long, Wendie Malick, Ed Begley, Jr., Stephen Root, Danica McKellar, Mark DeCarlo, Tippi Hedren, Shirley Jones, Clint Howard, and Sam Huntington. It was a selection of the Paris Film Festival in Paris, France, in 2005, and also played at the Waterfront Film Festival in South Haven, Michigan in 2005.
Danica is a Slavic feminine given name. The name means "morning star" and originates from the personification of the morning star (Venus) in Slavic mythology.
Flatland: The Movie is a short animated film which was released to video in 2007. The cast includes the voices of actors Martin Sheen, Kristen Bell and Tony Hale. The story is based on the 1884 science fiction novella Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions written by Edwin A. Abbott.
Jordan Stuart Ellenberg is an American mathematician who is a professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research involves arithmetic geometry. He is also an author of both fiction and non-fiction writing.
Jennifer Tour Chayes is dean of the college of computing, data science, and society at the University of California, Berkeley. Before joining Berkeley, she was a technical fellow and managing director of Microsoft Research New England in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which she founded in 2008, and Microsoft Research New York City, which she founded in 2012.
Edward Vladimirovich Frenkel is a Russian-American mathematician working in representation theory, algebraic geometry, and mathematical physics. He is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley.
"Rock n Roll" is a song by Canadian recording artist Avril Lavigne. It was released as the second single from her self-titled fifth studio album by Sony Music Entertainment on August 23, 2013. The song was written by Lavigne, David Hodges, Chad Kroeger, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, Rickard B. Göransson and Peter Svensson and was produced by Peter Svensson.
Tasmanian Devils is a 2013 television film directed by Zach Lipovsky and starring Danica McKellar and Apolo Ohno. The film was first released onto the Syfy channel on January 19, 2013 and revolves around a group of friends who get attacked by extremely large tasmanian devils. Radio Times rated the film poorly, giving it two out of 5 stars.
Barbara Ann Oakley is an American professor of engineering at Oakland University and McMaster University whose online courses on learning are some of the most popular massive open online course (MOOC) classes in the world. She is involved in multiple areas of research, ranging from STEM education, to learning practices.
DC Super Hero Girls: Hero of the Year is an American animated superhero film based on the DC Super Hero Girls franchise, produced by Warner Bros. Animation. The film premiered at San Diego Comic-Con on July 24, 2016, and was released on Digital HD on August 9 and on DVD on August 23. It is the first film in the DC Super Hero Girls franchise.
Lynette Long, a former university professor, has published more than thirty books and dozens of articles in trade and professional journals. A math education expert, she is particularly interested in the math achievement of young girls. Long coined the phrase "latchkey children" with her husband Thomas Long and wrote Handbook for Latchkey Children and Their Working Parents. She is president and Founder of the not-for-profit Equal Visibility Everywhere. Her primary work is increasing the visibility of women in our nation's symbols and icons. During the 2016 Democratic Presidential Primary, Long served as the Volunteer Florida State Organizer for Hillary Clinton. She was an At-Large Delegate to the Democratic National Convention. Long is a feminist and contributor to the feminist movement in the United States.
actor Danica McKellar in 1975 (age 44)