The Wonder Years
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“I recognize that I have a unique position to be a role model to young girls because I am doing something that they consider to be glamorous, which is acting, and yet I took time to really get my education and study mathematics, and I think math is the cat’s meow.” A child actor who rose to fame playing Winnie Cooper on the beloved family sitcom The Wonder Years (1988-1993), Danica McKellar is far more than a Hollywood success story. As passionate about education as she is about acting, she holds the unique distinction of being both an award-winning performer and a mathematical genius that has authored three non-fiction New York Times bestselling books.
Today, the 44-year old McKellar continues to enchant audiences both in front of and behind the camera. In addition to guest starring on a string of hit shows and TV movies, she also voices characters on a number of renowned animated series. All that on top of her tireless efforts as an education advocate on a mission to encourage middle and high school students to love math. How does this beautiful mind balance her passion for art and academia? Let’s find out!
A Southern California Girl at Heart
The oldest child of Mahaila, a homemaker, and Christopher, a real estate developer, Danica McKellar was born on January 3, 1975, in La Jolla, California, an affluent and picturesque suburb of San Diego. Eight years later, she and her family moved to Los Angeles where she and her younger sister, Crystal, were quickly bitten by the acting bug. Although her parents emphasized the importance of education and enrolled McKellar at the prestigious Harvard-Westlake school, they allowed her to take weekend acting classes for children at the Lee Strasberg Institute.
While her extraordinary intellect was apparent from an early age, acting quickly became her passion. Within a few years, she was cast in The Twilight Zone (1985), a remake of the classic Rod Serling series. Not long after she landed the role of Gwendolyn “Winnie” Cooper on the coming-of-age dramedy The Wonder Years (1988-1993). It was a part that catapulted her to fame and changed the trajectory of her career. Yet when the show ended its six-year run, McKellar feared her star would never shine as brightly again and chose to focus on her education.
She enrolled at UCLA intent on majoring in film. Math was nowhere on her radar. “In high school, a teacher once suggested that I be a math major in college. I thought, 'Me? You've got to be joking!' I mean, in junior high, I used to come home and cry because I was so afraid of my math homework. Seriously, I was terrified of math.” But when she took a calculus to satisfy a core requirement and finished at the top of her class, McKellar was hooked. Briefly considering a double major, she ultimately decided to dedicate her time at UCLA to math with absolutely no idea whatsoever of the extraordinary accomplishments that lay ahead for her in this field.
From Teen Idol to Mathematical Superstar
Despite her growing prowess in the mathematics department, she found it difficult to shed her association with the role that made her famous. Classmates and faculty regularly referred to her as Winnie Cooper. That all changed when she proved a theorem in a paper she co-authored with her Professor, Lincoln Chayes, and fellow student, Brady Winn. Their results became known as the “Chayes-McKellar-Winn Theorem” and were published in the prestigious Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General. Having accomplished this feat while still an undergraduate, it’s not hard to believe she graduated summa cum laude in 1998 with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics.
With more than a few offers to join the scientific community, McKellar instead opted to return to her first love of performing. She first worked with friend and former co-star, Fred Savage, on an episode of his show, Working (1998-1999). From there, McKellar regularly guest starred on a number of successful shows such as The West Wing, How I Met Your Mother, NCIS and Babylon 5. In addition, she put her considerable vocal talents to good use by voicing characters on Phineas and Ferb, Young Justice, Transformers: Rescue Bots and King of the Hill. But it would seem her work writing two short, independent films as well as the TV movie Inspector Mom (2006) ignited an entirely different creative spark that prompted her to combine her two greatest passions.
To McKellar, math wasn’t merely fun, it was cool. Hoping to encourage adolescents to succeed in the subject, she published Math Doesn’t Suck: How to Survive Middle School Math without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail. “My main concern with the condition of mathematics in high school is that there's a lot of fear involved! Math is not, generally speaking, presented in a fun way. The concepts, as I see them, are fun, and that's the way I'd like to convey them myself.”
What particularly appealed to McKellar was the idea of inspiring young girls to embrace their intelligence. “There is an epidemic right now of girls dumbing themselves down… in middle school because they think it makes them attractive.” She followed that up with Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who’s Boss (2008), Hot X, Algebra Exposed (2010) and Girls Get Curves: Geometry Take Shape (2012). The first three were listed on the New York Times children’s bestseller list, while the fourth received top marks from critics and educators alike.
As if that weren’t impressive enough, she created and produced the digital series Math Bites (2014) in which she practices what she preaches by showing viewers the cool way to solve complex math problems.
Personal Life
In March of 2009, McKellar married her longtime boyfriend, composer Mike Verta. A year later, they welcomed their son, Draco. Unfortunately, the couple separated in 2012 and finalized their divorce in 2013. Shortly after she met Scott Sveslosky, a partner at the Los Angeles law firm Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, and both swear it was love at first sight. They married in 2014 and currently live in Los Angeles where they are actively involved in several charities.
What’s next for this devoted mother, accomplished actress, brilliant mathematician and bestselling author? Only time will tell, but it’s bound to impress us all!
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