Danica McKellar
Danica McKellar
Danica Mae McKellaris an American actress, author, mathematician, and education advocate. She played Kevin Arnold's on-off girlfriend Winnie Cooper in the television series The Wonder Years, and later wrote four 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...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTV Actress
Date of Birth3 January 1975
CitySan Diego, CA
CountryUnited States of America
It's such a diversion to be constantly thinking of better ways I can teach people math that my hunger is for that really, for new ways of translating the beauty of it.
I just love math and most people don't.
People talk about 'getting rid of the old image', and I guess there's some merit in that. But the truth is that people loved 'The Wonder Years' - I can't turn my back on it.
The fun little proofs that you can do with algebra - they are sort of like crowd pleasers in a way. Like, the .9 repeating equaling one. It doesn't take a lot of algebra to prove that, and it's really fun. It kind of wows people. It's like they're watching magic happen right before their eyes.
I've done a lot of surveys and interacted with a lot of students, and I was shocked to see that at 12 years old, girls are already talking about dumbing themselves down.
I've always been really cautious about guys who have a Winnie Cooper fantasy, and I'm so glad about that. I mean, I can count on one hand the guys I've been with. It was really challenging, but I never gave it up too soon, if you know what I mean.
When girls are asking themselves 'Who am I?' for the first time and they hear all this bad PR about math, they think, 'Well, whoever I am, I'm not somebody who likes math.'
Acting is my first love, and that's my main career, it really is.
I am definitely a serial monogamist. I can count on one hand the number of guys I've been with.
I exercise at home - light cardio and yoga.
I learned my French through school. I was lucky in that the tutor on 'The Wonder Years' set spoke fluent French.
I played Winnie Cooper on 'The Wonder Years' from ages 12-18, and did a few other movies during some of the summers.
I was born in San Diego, and we moved to Los Angeles when I was seven. A couple of years later, I started acting!
I'll admit that I do quite like drinks that come in coconut shells. So there's always that.