What You Never Knew About Hallmark's Danica McKellar

Danica McKellar was the quintessential teen celebrity crush in the '80s. The actor's foray into stardom was at 13 years old when she was cast as Winnie Cooper in "The Wonder Years." She was America's sweetheart for six seasons from 1988 to 1993, but then she disappeared from television. McKellar said she needed to discover who she was off-screen and off-script. "I mean, it's a blessing to be on a show that's that popular, but it was very limiting," she revealed on the "Hey Dude... The '90s Called!" podcast in 2025. "Everywhere I went, it was, 'hey, aren't you that girl, you know, who played Winnie, that girl from TV, that girl... ' It's like constantly you're trying to figure out who you are as a teenager, and everyone else is telling you who you are, and it's like a thing that doesn't exist anymore."

McKellar found new meaning in her life beyond Hollywood when she veered her focus to her academic passion: mathematics. Her hiatus from the spotlight was filled with scholarly achievements, including graduating summa cum laude from UCLA, co-authoring a scientific paper, and becoming an advocate for education. The actor eventually found herself in front of the camera again, this time as a Hallmark star. While the complete list of McKellar's Hallmark movies is extensive, she notably led the network's "Matchmaker Mysteries" movie series — though McKellar eventually ditched Hallmark for Great American Family. However, her back-and-forth from acting to academia, back to acting again, doesn't come close to summing up all of the incredible details you may have never known about McKellar. 

Danica McKellar is synonymous with "The Wonder Years," so much so that the '90s TV legend said she was often referred to as "Winnie" in public. However, the hit coming-of-age series wasn't her acting debut. McKellar first graced America's TVs in commercials at the age of 9 — she once even filmed an adorable TV ad for Care Bears. She got her foot in the industry door after snagging a guest-starring role in two episodes of "The Twilight Zone" in 1985, when she was 10. While McKellar is most associated with her "Wonder Years" years, she almost missed out on the starring role.

"The Winnie Cooper [character] was supposed to just be a guest role on the first episode," McKellar revealed on an episode of the "Boy Meets World" podcast, "Pod Meets World."  When the producers approached McKellar's mom about her daughter's character becoming a series regular, she was hesitant. "My mom said, 'Listen, they're offering for this to be a series regular. We have to think about this. This could really change your life and acting is supposed to just be a hobby,'" McKellar recalled to ABC News, adding that she pleaded with her mom to let her continue. "...She's like, 'OK, but I'm putting a loophole in the contract, we're getting a really good lawyer, and if you ever want to get out you can.'"

Theater or business would have been an obvious choice for the young star to pursue as a major in college, but Danica McKellar wanted to challenge herself. McKellar concluded her college career with a B.S. in mathematics from UCLA. Tapping into her analytical side, she found her self-worth beyond the small screen. "It was just me. It had nothing to do with the superficiality of Hollywood or all the great writers and the sound design and all the things that make a show," she said on "Hey Dude...The '90s Called!" "It was like, 'oh, this was just me and my brain who did this.'" 

She stumbled upon the subject accidentally. McKellar was originally going to study film, but taking a general education course in calculus unlocked a new passion. "I was floored at how well I was doing and couldn't believe that I thought I wouldn't be able to do it — and was at the top of my class from the first test," she recalled to The Columbus Dispatch. Her mathematical prowess was taken to new heights when she collaborated on a scientific paper — published in the Journal of Physics — during her undergrad years. Her professor appointed McKellar and another student to aid in the research of "percolation and Gibbs states multiplicity for ferromagnetic Ashkin-Teller models two dimensions," a proof now dubbed the Chayes-McKellar-Winn Theorem — something she says only PhD students are elected to do. 

McKellar went on to write math books for all ages, including guides — e.g., "Math Doesn't Suck," "Kiss My Math," and "Hot X: Algebra Exposed" — for adults who are interested in refreshing their high school and college math skills. 

Not only is Danica McKellar one of the few who have written a mathematical theorem without a PhD, but she also falls into a niche category that references both her academic and theatrical connections. McKellar holds the rare achievement of a low Erdős-Bacon number. The concept explains the degree of separation between a person and Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős, and the degree of separation between a person and movie star Kevin Bacon. Simply put, a low number on a six-scale ranking system means one is close to the respective figures in a collaborative network of people — someone with an Erdős number of one has worked with him, and the same is said for the Bacon number. 

Because she has worked in both fields, McKellar boasts a distinctly low number — something she has in common with celebrities like Stephen Hawking, Colin Firth, and Natalie Portman. The actor's Bacon number is two because she worked with Margaret Easley on the 2002 film, "Hip, Edgy, Sexy, Cool"; Easley acted with Bacon in 2000's "We Married Margo." Her Erdős number is four because her professor published work with Erdős. That makes the sum of her Erdős-Bacon number six. "If I work with Kevin Bacon, then I can bring my number down to five, and I would like to do that," she said on SiriusXM's "The Bill Carter Interview." Perhaps Bacon is open to co-starring in McKellar's next Hallmark "Matchmaker Mysteries" movie. 

The Pythagorean Theorem might have been a simple feat for Danica McKellar, but her "Dancing with the Stars" appearance? Not as easy a task. McKellar competed in Season 18 of the series with professional ballroom dancer Val Chmerkovskiy. "That kind of intense training I had never had before, nothing even close to that," she revealed 10 years later on a 2024 episode of the "Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans" podcast. McKellar and Chmerkovskiy were eliminated in the eighth week, coming in sixth place, but not before the "Grounded in Love" star nearly collapsed under the weight of wanting to win. "I put an enormous amount of pressure on myself to try to fulfill it, and it broke me," McKellar said. "I was in tears because I didn't know how to handle that kind of pressure."

Her sanity wasn't the only thing that snapped. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, McKellar wrote: "So... I broke a rib in yesterday's #DWTS rehearsal. Trying my best to pull thru and could use your prayers!! #wanttokeepdancing." Though the competition was a physical and mental toll, she hasn't let her ballroom skills fade. 

In a May 2025 Instagram Reel, Danica McKellar put her "DWTS" muscle memory to good use, as she danced the samba with her mini-me son, Draco. "Mother-son #whisk dance challenge! Ages 50 & 14," she wrote in the caption. As skilled a dancer as McKellar still was, it was clear that her son had her beat in the hip-shaking department. 

In fact, Draco — whom McKellar shares with her ex-husband, Mike Verta — is adept at many creative subjects, including music. In 2024, the mom posted a video on Threads that showed off her son's ragtime piano-playing skills. "Draco plays beautifully and effortlessly! Talented like Mom for sure!" one person commented, asking if McKellar was a pianist herself, but the actor hinted that the musical genes came from Draco's music composer dad.

McKellar has only had wonderful things to say about motherhood. "You tap into this love that you didn't even know was possible," she told People in 2013. "I thought I knew what love was, but it's crazy ... I love Draco with everything that I am — there's no question about it." Draco — named after a constellation, not the "Harry Potter" character — is homeschooled, which McKellar said, in an essay for Romper, made the transition to learning during the COVID-19 pandemic easy. And with a math prodigy as your teacher (and mom), we can assume Draco is an A+ student!