Danica McKellar Biography

Danica Mae McKellar (born January 3, 1975) is an American actress, film director, academic, book author and education advocate. She is best known for her role as Winnie Cooper in the television show The Wonder Years, and later as the New York Times bestselling author of four popular non-fiction books: Math Doesn't Suck, Kiss My Math, Hot X: Algebra Exposed and Girls Get Curves: Geometry Takes Shape, which encourage middle-school and high-school girls to have confidence and succeed in mathematics.

Early life

Born 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 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, while Danica majored in mathematics. Danica and Crystal also have two half-brothers, Chris Junior and Connor McKellar.

Acting career

The 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 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.

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." Late-night talk show host Jimmy Fallon has said that the character of Winnie Cooper "is the coolest girl in any TV show ever."

Later career

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 appeared in two Lifetime TV movies 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 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 1990s 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.

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" 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".

In 2008, she starred in Heatstroke, a Sci-Fi Channel original movie 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.

McKellar has also found work as a voice actress. She is the voice of Miss Martian in Young Justice. She has also 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).

Mathematics

McKellar studied mathematics at UCLA, graduating summa cum laude in 1998.

As an undergraduate, she coauthored a scientific paper with Professor Lincoln Chayes and fellow student Brandy Winn entitled "Percolation and Gibbs states multiplicity for ferromagnetic Ashkin-Teller models on <math>\mathbb{Z}^2</math>." Their results are termed the 'Chayes"McKellar"Winn theorem'.

Referring to the mathematical abilities of his student coauthors, Chayes was quoted in The New York Times as saying, "I thought that the two were really, really first-rate." McKellar's Erd"?s number is four. She is one of the few people with an Erd"?s"Bacon number, which combines an Erd"?s number with a Bacon Number (as in the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon) since she also has a Bacon number of 2, making her Erdos-Bacon number a 6.

Books

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, 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. 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." 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".

McKellar's second book, Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who's Boss, 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! covers algebra topics, while the previous two titles were intended as "algebra-readiness books." Hot X was published on August 3, 2010. Her fourth book, Girls Get Curves - Geometry Takes Shape, focuses on the subject of geometry, and attempts to make the subject more accessible.

Three of McKellar's books were listed in The New York Times children's bestseller list.

Awards and honors

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.

Personal life

She married composer Mike Verta on March 22, 2009, in La Jolla, California; the couple had dated since 2001. They had their first child in 2010, a boy. McKellar filed for divorce from Verta in June 2012, with the dissolution becoming final in February 2013.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Sidekicks	Lauren
2001	Good Neighbor	Molly Wright
2001	XCU: Extreme Close Up	Sarah
2001	Speechless...	Dana Woodman	Short film
2002	Sex and the Teenage Mind	Debbie
2002	Black Hole	Rachael
2002	Reality School	Sexy Sally	Short film
2002	Jane White Is Sick & Twisted	Tiffany
2002	'	Pam Hatch
2002	Hip, Edgy, Sexy, Cool	Sissie
2004	Raising Genius	Lacy Baldwin
2004	Intermission	Sleepwalker	Short film
2004	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)	Video
2010	DC Showcase Original Shorts Collection	Sally (voice)	Video
2012	Flatland 2: Sphereland	Aero	Video
2012	Mancation	Rebecca

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	'	Nola (age 10)	Episode: "Her Pilgrim Soul"
1987	'	Deidre Dobbs	Episode: "Shelter Skelter"
1988-1993	'	Winnie Cooper	Main role (98 episodes)
1989	'	Patty	Episode: "Day of the Orphan/King Mario of Cramalot"
1990	Camp Cucamonga	Lindsey Scott	TV film
1992	Captain Planet and the Planeteers	Lisa (voice)	Episode: "A Formula for Hate"
1994	Babylon 5	Aria Tensus	Episode: "The War Prayer"
1994	Moment of Truth: Cradle of Conspiracy	Kristin Guthrie	TV film
1994	Walker, Texas Ranger	Laurie Maston	Episode: "Stolen Lullaby"
1994	Sirens	Alison Trent	Episode: "Victims"
1996	Justice for Annie: A Moment of Truth Movie	Annie Mills Carman	TV film
1998	Love Boat: The Next Wave	Mary Dutton	Episode: "How Long Has This Been Going On?"
1998	Working	Jolie	Episode: "As Bad As It Gets"
1999	Working	Jolie	Episode: "She Loves Me Yeah, Yeah, Yeah"
1999	Random Play	Daughter	Episode: "1.4"
2000-2004	Static Shock	Freida Goren (voice)	Recurring role (14 episodes)
2001	'	Wendy	Episode: "Don't Ask"
2001	Even Stevens	Sandrine	Episode: "Sibling Rivalry"
2002	Justice League	Sapphire Stagg (voice)	Episodes: "Metamorphosis: Parts 1 & 2"
2002-2003	'	Elsie Snuffin	(8 episodes)
2004	King of the Hill	Sharona / Misty (voice)	Episodes: "My Hair Lady", "Cheer Factor"
2004	Game Over	Elsa / Renee	TV series
2004	Century City	Sally	Episode: "Without a Tracer"
2004	Eve	Claudia	Episode: "Friend or Foe?"
2005	NCIS	Erin Kendall	Episode: "Witness"
2005	Jack & Bobby	Keirsten	Episode: "And Justice for All"
2005	NYPD Blue	Rosemary	Episode: "Moving Day"
2005	Strong Medicine	Natalie Pascal	Episode: "Feeling No Pain"
2005	Path of Destruction	Katherine Stern	TV film
2005	How I Met Your Mother	Trudy	Episode: "The Pineapple Incident"
2006	Inspector Mom	Maddie Monroe	TV film
2006	Cyberchase	Wanda (voice)	Episode: "Designing Mr. Perfect"
2006-2007	Inspector Mom	Maddie Monroe	Regular role (10 episodes)
2007	Random! Cartoons	Katerina 'Kat' Metropoulos (voice)	Episode: "Girls on the Go!"
2007	How I Met Your Mother	Trudy	Episode: "Third Wheel"
2010	'	Abby	Episode: "The Psychic Vortex"
2010	Generator Rex	Claire (voice)	Epiosdes: "Hermanos", "Operation: Wingman"
2010-2013	Young Justice	M'gann M'orzz / Miss Martian (voice)	Regular role (40 episodes)
2011	Generator Rex	Claire (voice)	Episode: "Haunted"
2011	G.I. Joe: Renegades	Sister Leia / Woman (voice)	Episode: "Brothers of Light"
2012	'		TV film
2012	Love at the Christmas Table	Kat	TV film
2013	Tasmanian Devils	Alex	TV film
2013	'	Danica McKellar	Episode: "Interference"
2013	Nerdist: Course of the Force	Bounty Hunter	Episode: "Michael Rooker & CM Punk: Lighstaber Hunt"

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	X-Men Legends	Jubilee
2004	EverQuest II	Lolla Cotgrove / Pona
2006	Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams	Additional Voices
2006	Marvel: Ultimate Alliance	Invisible Woman
2009	Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2	Invisible Woman
2013	Young Justice: Legacy	M'gann M'orzz / Miss Martian

Music Videos

On 20th August 2013, Canadian singer Avril Lavigne released her music video for new single Rock N Roll from her upcoming self titled fifth album, which features McKellar as 'Winnie Cooper'. The video is described to be "a weird but funny video" with scenes including a bearshark, lobster and one which shows Lavigne & McKellar kiss after a car crash. The single became available to buy off iTunes on 27th August 2013.