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Information about Danica Mckellar

Danica McKellar

Danica McKellar at a book signing, October, 2007
Birth nameDanica Mae McKellar
BornJanuary 3 1975 (1975--) (age 32)
La Jolla, California, United States
Died
Official site[1]
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."

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 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.

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 (she guest-starred on the show in late 2005). She appeared in the October 8th episode titled "Third Wheel."

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. 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 encourages girls in middle school to enjoy and succeed at mathematics.[2] 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." <ref name="comedy" />

McKellar appeared in lingerie for a pictorial for the July 2005 edition of Stuff Magazine [3]. The magazine asked readers which '90s 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." <ref name="comedy" />

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

References

1. ^ [4]
2. ^ Winnie Cooper Goes Digital:McKellar to star in movies, webisodes for Lifetime (English). Zap2it (June 12, 2006). Retrieved on 2007-07-26.
3. ^ [5]
4. ^ Chayes, L., McKellar, D. & Winn, B. (1998) Percolation and Gibbs states multiplicity for ferromagnetic Ashkin-Teller models on . 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. [6]
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. ^

Smith, Tara (July 24, 2007). Aetiology:Danica McKellar's "Math Doesn't Suck". Aetiology. Scienceblogs. Retrieved on 2007-07-26.
9. ^ Smith, Tara (July 25, 2007). Interview with math whiz, author, and actress Danica McKellar. Aetiology. Scienceblogs. Retrieved on 2007-07-26.
10. ^

ABC News: Person of the Week: Danica McKellar. Retrieved on 2007-08-10.

External links

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January 3 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

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actor, actress, or player (see terminology) is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity.
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mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and research is the field of mathematics.

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Some people incorrectly believe that mathematics has been fully understood, but the publication of new discoveries in mathematics continues at an immense
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Television (often abbreviated to TV, T.V., or more recently, tv; sometimes called telly, the tube, boob tube, or idiot box in British English) is a widely used telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures
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The Wonder Years is an Emmy Award-winning American television dramedy created by Carol Black and Neal Marlens. It ran for six seasons on ABC, from 1988 through 1993. The pilot aired on January 31, 1988 after ABC's coverage of Super Bowl XXII.
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La Jolla (pronunciation IPA: /ləˈhɔɪə/, i.e. “lah-HOY-yah”) is a seaside resort community of 42,808[1] residents within the city of San Diego, California.
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Crystal Dawn Scripps McKellar (b. August 16 1976) is an American attorney and former child actress.

Crystal McKellar

Birth name Crystal Dawn Scripps McKellar
Born July 16 1976 (1976--)
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The Wonder Years is an Emmy Award-winning American television dramedy created by Carol Black and Neal Marlens. It ran for six seasons on ABC, from 1988 through 1993. The pilot aired on January 31, 1988 after ABC's coverage of Super Bowl XXII.
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Emmy Award

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Awarded for Excellence in television
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Country  United States
First awarded 1949
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Comedy-drama, also called "dramedy", is a style of television and movies in which there is an equal, or nearly equal balance of humor and serious content.

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Carol Black is a TV writer and producer whose credits include Growing Pains and The Wonder Years, which she co-created with Neal Marlens. She also wrote the feature 1986 film Soul Man.

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Neal Marlens created the 1980's television sitcoms Growing Pains and The Wonder Years (with fellow Growing Pains writer Carol Black).

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Fred Savage, circa 1989
Birth name Frederick Aaron Savage
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Working is a situation comedy praised by fans in its first season, but lost momentum after a massive cast change for the second season. It starred Fred Savage as an office employee.
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The West Wing is an American television serial drama created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast from 1999 to 2006. It was produced/written by Sorkin (for the first four seasons) and also produced by Thomas Schlamme. After season four it was produced by John Wells.
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