She went from being every '90s teenage boy's crush to absolutely crushing it in the world
of mathematics. Yes, Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years is the definition of "brains
and beauty." Here's what happened to actress Danica McKellar after the series ended.
Basic cable beauty
There are quite a few actors who have parlayed the general goodwill the public has for them
thanks to '90s TV into successful if low-key careers in fun and formulaic made-for-basic-cable
movies, mostly romantic comedies. And where goes Candace Cameron Bure and Dean Cain, so
goes Danica McKellar. While promoting a Hallmark movie called Love in Design, McKellar told
the Today show,
"They're just so good natured. They tell good stories about good people."
McKellar must enjoy making Hallmark movies, because she's starred in eight so far, including
four Christmas-themed flicks. Over on Lifetime, where they trade more in the "women in peril"
genre, McKellar has also starred in the crime dramas The Wrong Woman and Mommy, I Didn't
Do It.
Cameo queen
The Wonder Years was a really popular show. And Winnie Cooper was worshipped by so many
kids and teens that actress Danica McKellar is iconic to those now-grown viewers. As such,
she's made a nice little source of income and exposure for herself in the world of TV
cameos. She can pop up on a show for an episode or two, either as herself, or as a character,
and the studio audience will go absolutely wild.
McKellar showed up on How I Met Your Mother as one of Ted's brief love interests; on The
Big Bang Theory as one of Raj's brief love interests; and appeared on prime-time procedurals
such as NCIS, in addition to the educational Netflix tween show Project Mc².
McKellar has also popped up in music videos and on reality shows, including Dancing With
the Stars and Impractical Jokers, where she interviewed an oiled-up Joker in a Speedo.
"Aw wow! Childhood dreams do come true!"
Math genius
After The Wonder Years wrapped up, Danica McKellar attended UCLA, and graduated in 1998
with a degree in mathematics. As she told the UCLA alumni association, her "favorite
place to study" was in the math building's graduate lounge, which she "somehow" got a
key for, even though she was an undergrad.
That "somehow" alludes to how McKellar was something special as an undergrad, a true
prodigy. She co-wrote and published an academic paper, which is almost exclusively the domain
of doctorate students and full-fledged professors. As a result of that study, McKellar even has
a theorem named after her!
McKellar later penned Math Doesn't Suck, an instructional guide geared toward helping
middle-schoolers, specifically female middle-schoolers, understand the suddenly rather difficult math
concepts thrown at them at that time, including percentages and pre-algebra.
"I teach math with like, comics and cartoons, because I believe math can be super fun."
Math Doesn't Suck became a New York Times bestseller, so McKellar kept filling the demand
for heroically demystifying math books with fun titles, including like Kiss My Math and
Hot X: Algebra Exposed. She's sold more than 500,000 math books, which have helped countless
students and made her one of the most popular math writers ever.
Behind the camera
Danica McKellar made her name as an actress at an early age; The Wonder Years premiered
a couple weeks after she turned 13. She's since racked up around 100 acting credits,
as the making of this video, acquiring enough on-the-job experience to give making movies
and TV shows a try.
She's helmed two short films that she also wrote, and, in 2006 and 2007, McKellar starred
in and co-wrote two Inspector Mom movies and a 10-episode TV series as Maddie Monroe, a
suburban mom who solves mysteries. And in 2014, she combined her Hollywood know-how
with her world-class math skills to co-create and host the educational web show Math Bites.
Personal life
McKellar turned 44 years old in 2019, and she's had some ups and downs in her personal
life. She's been married twice, and, sorry Kevin-and-Winnie-forever-in-real-life shippers,
neither one was to her TV boyfriend, Fred Savage.
Back in 2001, McKellar started up a relationship with film and television composer Mike Verta.
After eight years of dating, they married at a church by the ocean in California. Verta
even wrote original music for the wedding, but alas, it wasn't meant to be, McKellar
filed for divorce in 2012 after just under three years of marriage. McKellar and Verta
had a son together named Draco. TV's Winnie Cooper found love again a couple years later.
In a November 2014 ceremony at dawn, she got hitched to a lawyer named Scott Sveslosky.
Still plenty of 'Wonder'
Winnie Cooper didn't end up with Kevin Arnold, and Danica McKellar didn't end up with Fred
Savage. But The Wonder Years was such a special and formative experience for McKellar that
more than 25 years after the series went off the air in 1993, she's still very much in
touch with her co-stars. Dan Lauria and Allie Mills attended her first wedding in 2009,
and on the FAQ section of her website, McKellar likens Lauria to, quote, "a second dad."
She reunited with Savage on a couple of episodes of his late '90s sitcom Working, and as they're
both big players on the voice actor circuit, their paths have crossed a few times in that
world. It would be understandable if that iconic pop culture relationship cast a shadow
on the actors' real-life relationships. That was the assumption behind the lack of McKellar
at Savage's 2004 wedding; rumors spread that Savage's wife, Jenny Stone, actually forbade
the former Winnie Cooper from attending. McKellar told TV Guide that the rumors were baseless,
and she was simply out of town.
Not everybody stays in touch with the person who gave them their first kiss. That's right:
Winnie and Kevin's first kiss also happened to be McKellar's first kiss. Not bad for a
first smooch, The Wonder Years is widely considered one of the best TV shows of all time, and
McKellar is a big part of that legacy.
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