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'Danica Mae McKellar' (born January 3, 1975), is an American actress and mathematician. She is best known for her role as Winnie Cooper in the television show ''The Wonder Years'' and for the "Chayes-McKellar-Winn Theorem."

Contents

Early life

''The Wonder Years''

Adult acting roles

College and mathematics advocacy

Trivia

Acting credits

References

External links

Early life

Born in La Jolla, California, McKellar moved with her family to Los Angeles when she was eight. McKellar and sister Crystal McKellar have maintained a friendly competition to see who gets more acting jobs. Indeed, when the actress who would play Winnie had to be chosen, the last two actresses under consideration for the role were the McKellar sisters.

''The Wonder Years''

McKellar had a leading role in ''The Wonder Years'', an Emmy Award winning American television dramedy created by Carol Black and Neal Marlens that ran for six seasons on ABC, from 1988 to 1993. The pilot aired on January 31st, 1988 after ABC's coverage of Super Bowl XXII.
McKellar played Gwendolyn "Winnie" Cooper, Fred Savage's main love interest 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 and her older brother's death while serving as a soldier in the Vietnam War, play an important part of the pilot episode. In one episode her parents decide to get separated out 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.

Adult acting roles

McKellar has admitted the transition from "child actor to adult actor was a little bumpy." ^[1] 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 briefly returned to regular television with a recurring role in the 2002–03 season of ''The West Wing'' portraying Elsie Snuffin the sister and assistant of deputy White House Communications Director Will Bailey.
In June 2006 Lifetime Television announced that McKellar will star in a Lifetime movie and web-based series titled Inspector Mom about a mother who solves mysteries.^[2] 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.^[3]
On the August 1, 2007 Don and Mike Show, a radio program out of Washington D.C. on WJFK-FM, McKellar announced plans that the producers of How I Met Your Mother were planning to bring her back for a recurring role.

College and mathematics advocacy

McKellar studied at UCLA, majoring in mathematics. She graduated ''summa cum laude'' in 1998. As an undergraduate, she coauthored a scientific paper^[4] with Professor Lincoln Chayes and fellow student Brandy Winn. The paper proves a theorem in mathematical physics that could be called the "Chayes-McKellar-Winn Theorem,"^[5]
[6] although this appellation is not in widespread use. This paper makes her one of the very few people, with a finite Erdős-Bacon number (Natalie Portman being another notable example). Referring to the mathematical abilities of his coauthor students, Chayes was quoted in the ''New York Times''^[7] as saying, "I thought that the two were really, really first-rate." McKellar also provides free online math tutoring for her fans at her official internet website. While a student at UCLA, she was a sister in the Alpha Delta Pi sorority.
McKellar is the author of the book ''Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail'' (ISBN 1594630399), which encouraging girls in middle school to enjoy and succeed at mathematics.. The book has been favorably reviewed by Tara C. Smith, the founder of Iowa Citizens for Science and a professor of epidemiology at the University of Iowa.^[8] 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"^[9]
McKellar was named ''Person of the Week''^[10] on ABC World News with Charles Gibson for the week ending 10-Aug-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.

Trivia

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." ¹
McKellar appeared in lingerie for a pictorial for the July 2005 edition of ''Stuff Magazine'' [2]. The magazine asked readers which 90's star they would most like to see in lingerie and McKellar was the reader's choice. "I'm guessing most people are going to be like, 'Oh, look, it's Winnie Cooper!" Danica said at the time, "Maybe after [these pictures] come out, people will start giving me grittier roles." ¹
An Australian Hip-Hop act, The Winnie Coopers, named themselves after her well known character from ''The Wonder Years''.
McKellar has lent her voice to the character Jubilee for the video game ''X-Men Legends'' and Invisible Woman for the video game ''.''

Acting credits

★ ''The Twilight Zone'' (as ''Debbie Dobs'') 1985-1986

★ Volkswagen commercial, 1986

★ ''Wide World Of Kids'', (as herself), 1987-1990

★ ''The Wonder Years'', 1988-1993

★ ''The Super Mario Bros. Super Show'', (as ''Patty the Sad-Eyed Orphan''), 1989

★ ''No More Rhyme'' (Deborah Gibson video) 1989

★ ''Camp Cucamonga'' (Television movie, as ''Lindsey Scott'') 1990

★ ''Captain Planet and the Planeteers'' (animated, voice only) 1992

★ ''Sidekicks'' (feature movie, as ''Lauren'') 1993

★ ''Babylon 5'' (in "The War Prayer" as ''Aria Tensus'') 1994

★ ''Walker, Texas Ranger'' (played ''Lori'' in one episode) 1994

★ ''Cradle Of Conspiracy'' (Television movie, she also played ''Lori'') 1994

★ ''Sirens'', 1994

★ ''Justice For Annie'' (Television movie, as ''Annie'') 1995

★ ''Working'' (''Jolie'' in two episodes) 1997

★ '' (played a nun in one episode) 1997

★ ''Happy Hour'' (as herself) 1999

★ ''Grease (musical)'' (as ''Rizzo'') 1999

★ ''Static Shock'' (as ''Frieda'') 2000-2004

★ ''The West Wing'' 2002-2003

★ ''Path of Destruction'' 2005

★ ''NCIS (Witnesses a sailor being strangled in episode 'Witness') 2005

★ ''How I Met Your Mother (Season One Episode 10) 2005

References

1. http://www.paramountcomedy.com/comedy/watn/article.aspx?id=39
2. Winnie Cooper Goes Digital:McKellar to star in movies, webisodes for Lifetime
3. http://www.tvguide.com/News-Views/Interviews-Features/Article/default.aspx?posting={6FEBC8A0-03D7-4E70-9226-6AC38B8D3DC2}
4. Chayes, L., McKellar, D. & Winn, B. (1998) Percolation and Gibbs states multiplicity for ferromagnetic Ashkin-Teller models on $mathbb\{Z\}^2$. ''Journal of Physics A: Mathematics and General'', 31, 9055-9063. Full text as PDF
5. USNews.com. USNews.com: America's Best Colleges 2006: College Flashback: Danica McKellar. 2006. [1]
6. Blog post by mathematician Terence Tao (a former instructor of Danica McKellar) complimenting Danica's book and explaining the theorem.
7. Kenneth Chang, "Between Series, an Actress Became a Superstar (in Math)," ''New York Times,'' July 19, 2005.
8.
Aetiology:Danica McKellar's "Math Doesn't Suck"
9. Interview with math whiz, author, and actress Danica McKellar
10.
ABC News: Person of the Week: Danica McKellar

External links

★ Official website

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★ NPR interview with McKellar about her theorem [3]

★ February 2006 Proof and Prejudice: Women in Mathematics Conference, at which McKellar was a speaker

★ Official website of her book, ''Math Doesn't Suck''