Danica McKellar

Our guest today is the star of Hallmark Movies and mysteries new series Matchmaker Mysteries. The new one is called The Art of the Kill. But the amount of stuff that she did before this most recent project is going to blow your mind. Was she America's sweetheart? Little show called The Wonder Years? Oh you know it? Wait, we played just like a little bit of Joe cock or just like get people like in the mood for what's

happening because we need to be transported back. Yeah, oh my god, seven pm on like a Thursday night in the early nineties. You're about to sit down and enjoy the Wonder years, Fred Savage is gonna be there, whenned Gooper is gonna be there? What do I do? Yes? It all started with The Wonder Years. But our guest today has done so much. She's been the mainstay on the Hallmark Channel doing a bunch of Christmas movies like Countdown to Christmas. She did one with Dolly Parton called

Christmas a Dollywood. What she's been in the industry forever. There's so much more to her story, like graduating Summa cum laudy at U c l A majoring in mathematics, what minoring in physics? Okay? Did she testify before Congress about the importance of women in math and science? Yeah? Was she named Person of the Week by ABC World News for tackling math education and simultaneously breaking the stereotype of the math nerd with her highly entertaining and illuminating books.

Has she written a bunch of New York Times best selling books for kids, specifically young women in math? Yeah? I mean literally, this woman has done everything, well, not everything. She hasn't been on the Wells Cast until today. So strapping guys, buckle down because this one is going to be a good one. Danika mckeller a k a. Winnie Cooper is going to be on the show. Seriously, don't go anywhere you don't want to miss it. Hello, Hello, can you hear me? Yes? Can you hear me? Yes?

Can I get a check from you? Really quickly? Three point one five nine two six, five three five eight nine seven nine Can you keep going with Pie? There is that where it ends, Well, I have a song, and so if I sing my song, I can get a little further. I wrote a PIE song to help people learn multiple Yeah, I really need to brush up on it. I feel like it's been coming up more and more lately to be like, oh, can you sing the song like I can sing the beginning of it?

Pie is equal to three point one four one five, nine, six, five, five eight nine seven nine three two three eight four six two six four three day eight three two seven, nine, five two eight four one nine seven one six nine three three seven five one uh five two zero nine. Anyway, Wow, I can go further with the song. But the song if the full song has a hundred and three nine digits and I don't know the full song anymore, but

I used to do. It's so funny. I've been interviewing people for a very long time, and it's so interesting when you interview someone who's very smart what they check with. I don't know if you remember. There's a band called the Old Bunny Sevens and the lead singer was this guy name Rhett Miller who has a big fan of their band still am and I was like setting up for interview, and I was like, hey, rahtt can I

get a check from you? And he reeled off the entire Gettysburg address and I was like, oh my god, Oh my god, that's awesome. That's awesome. Okay, great, you can add to your list of unique sound checks. Yeah, okay, are you ready? Are you ready to go with this? Very excited to have Well, I'll just be honest with you, childhood crush of mine on the show The One and Only. And I know this is probably annoying for you, but you have to understand, like you will always be Winnie

Cooper to me. But welcome to the show. Dannika mckeller, How are you doing? I'm doing great? How are you? I'm amazing? I was a huge murder, she wrote, fan like a big angela Landsbury guy, And are you like the new wage Angela Landsberry with these Matchmaker Mystery series. Yes, yes, myself and some others on Hallmark. So Hallmark Movies and Mysteries has a few different of these mystery franchises and these collections of movies, and I'm one of them and

I love it. Yes, we we all play these women who aren't professional detectives or anything, but somehow let's stumble upon murders more often than your average person, and then somehow are the ones to be able to figure out who did it? Who done it? And this yeah, I play Andrew Dubb professional Matchmaker, and I this is the third movie in which I stumble across a dead body and I helped the detective to solve the case in this one. This is called Matchmaker Mysteries The Art of

the Kill. So what happens in an art museum and it starts off My father in it, played by Bruce box Liner Tron of course, he is a retired cop and he actually is helping to solve some fests, investigates some effts that are happening at the museum. And I go to the museum to have lunch with him, and lo and behold resemble across a dead body as it happens in Angie Does Life and Yes, Angie is a nod to Angela lands Roy the fact that my character's

name is Angie and it's it's awesome. Detective Kyle Carter played by Victor Webster, he and I have a great chemistry throughout the three movies. There's been an evolution. In the first movie, he was very much like, who is this woman and why is she interfering in my investigation? You should go off and do your role matchmaking thing, honey, and let me handle the murder. But then by the end of that movie he realizes that I have something to offer in terms of clues because I am really

good at reading people. That's what I have to do as a matchmaker, and so that comes into handy. So in the second movie they start get a little closer, and in fact, there's a scene where the detective arrests my ex boyfriend for murderer he's a suspect while we're having dinner. So at the end of the movie he says, I still owe you desserts. And in this movie, the third one, he actually makes good on asking me out to dessert. But the question is because he makes it

clear that it's not a date. Is it a date? Though? Like? Is he asking me in a date? It's kind of a fun dynamic. It's that whole moonlighting thing where the two main characters, like are they ever actually gonna get together or just sort of flirt with the idea? Um? Do they really even like each other about much? It's hard to know. So it's a really really fun dynamic in this third movie, and the murder of Mystery itself

is awesome. The guy who's dead is actually a professor who is the one who does the providence for the statues at the museum. So he's the one who says, yes, this statue is worth five million because it really is three thousand years old. It's not a fake. So when he shows up dead, it starts to raise questions about

the providence of some of these statues. And then we find out that he was having affairs, um, and so there's all this intrigue, and of course me being a matchmaker Mystery being a matchmaker on the show, I'm I'm just the right person to figure out who was actually having the affairs and who actually had certain feelings for him and who didn't. All arrest of it. It's amazing. I can't imagine how many of my exes would love to see me get arrested during like a like a

get together. The Matchmaker character is based on a real person, right, yes, Patty Stanger, Millionaire Matchmaker. Well, I mean, gosh, years ago, I used to watch that show all the time, Millionaire Matchmaker. I don't know I was, I was addicted to it or something. There's something so fun and satisfying about watching her and tell everybody put them in their place. And she just had like really a good moral center and

she wouldn't let people get away with being disrespectful. She had very strict ideas about how you treat somebody on a date, and she had a lot of tough love. And much like Patti Stanger in real life, she is the first to admit that while she's great at getting other people up, she's not so much a master of her own love life. And so it's same with Angie dubbed this character, which is again inspired by her for sure.

In fact, she is an executive prester on this movie. Um, you know, and she does not know how to handle her own love life. So when when Detective Kyle Carter asks her on a non date date. She like, and it's for that night. She's like, well not tonight, And you can just see the wheels turning it for Angie's like, we don't ask somebody. You never accept the date if they ask you for the same night because then you're too available. And of the things she does not know

how to handle being asked on a date. It's hilarious. Yeah, that's like the old adage like the worst therapy patient is a psychologist for the worst. That the thing that there's speciality is Oh my gosh, that's funny. That's really funny. Actually, so Matchmaker Mysteries, the Art of the Kill some Hallmark movies and mysteries. Is it going to go forever? Like is this something that I can continue to perpetuate upon itself?

It could right now we just have these three movies, but could definitely come back from more and I'm hoping that it will. But that also is a mystery. Who I feel like you've kind of found this like really nice pocket of doing a lot of like Hallmark channel stuff. I've been seeing You've been doing a lot of Christmas movies and stuff. Is being a part of like the Hallmark family. It seems like it would be such a

warm and cozy place. It is, it really is. I feel so lucky to be part of the Hallmark family, both on the Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies and mysteries. It's just so nice to be a part of channels that make movies that make people feel good, you know, especially these days. I feel like it's a nice escape. Hallmark Land is a nice escape because everybody, I mean, nothing ever gets too dark, even in the Murder Mysteries.

It's the Hallmark version of Murder Mysteries. So you know that anybody can watch it and you're going to feel happy and satisfied. By the end of the movie. Things are going to work out the way you want them to. And this just a nice comforting feeling. And when when you look around and the world seems to be changing and shifting so much, watching a Hallmark movie, you know that you're going to feel that stability that you crave.

So what I love and I will say I really feel like in some ways these characters that I'm playing on Hallmark or like a continuation of the Wonder Years, because it's the same wholesome kind of um quality entertainment and the same type of like good person you. Winnie Cooper was a good person. She was strong, and she she had stuff she went through and her parents got divorced and all sorts of stuff. But she was strong and and and kept pulling herself up by our bootstraps.

And she was kind to people. And that's how these characters are. And I really I love putting good stuff into the world because, you know, I get offered other things. I could offered stuff and I just read the scripts and I just say, I just don't want to put that out in the world. I know that as an actress, you know, I'm supposed to like do all different kinds of roles, but I don't know. At this point in my life, I know what I want to be doing. I'm I'm a mom, you know. I school my son.

I write my math books to help other kids in math, and I do my Hallmark movies, and I have my wonderful husband. I'm very very happy doing these and I am really grateful that I get to keep doing them. I think it's smart in terms of what Hallmark is doing, because yes, granted, I am a manly, red blooded American who likes football and baseball. But when the colonies come around, I do like to like make some hot coco and

sit and watch some holiday movies. You know, the high pallored business woman that comes back to the small town and falls in love with the jilted baker and everyone falls in love. You know. It's like it's like a part of it's a part of the season. And so it's smart that they're making this evergreen, right, Like you can now experience that, but you can experience it all year round with these Matchmaker mysteries, which is cool, that's true.

And then of course they also have Christmas in July, and then these days, ever since the pandemic, sir, they show Christmas movies here and there throughout the year. And I'm pretty sure every Thursday you can find a Christmas movie on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries, and I think every Friday you can find a Christmas movie on Hallmark channel. So you can get your little dos at Christmas, because again, what's more comforting than Christmas Like Christmas movies. It's the best,

you said a second ago. I get a lot of stuff sent to me, and you know, turned down some things because I want to do these kind of positive films. But I don't know in what world you'd ever get to work with Dolly Parton other than like this world. I suppose whatever you're doing, you're doing it right, because getting to work with Dolly Parton seems like the rattus gig in all of Hollywood. I agree, Yes, doing Christmas at Dollywood in was the best. It was some sort

of just magical opportunity. And it's interesting because I the reason that movie happened because of my math books. So if you had told me, like five years ago your math books or they're gonna be the reason why you

work with all A Parton and be like what. So she has this incredible organization called the Imagination Library, and so they've donated I think a hundred million books worldwide now to kids who normally might not be able to afford books, and they chose a few years ago, they chose one of my books to be part of their program,

good Night Numbers. So that book, good Night Numbers, is now in the hands of like one point three million kids who normally wouldn't be able to have a book let alone, one that might help them learn math while they're you know, just learn to count to ten. I mean, it's a really sweet little book. Because the book was brought into their Imagination Library, the organization has been in touch with me and they asked me to be the

narrator for the documentary about the charity. And so I did that back in April of like, I think, um, I can beginning of the dates wrong, but anyway, my so the programming executive at Hallmark said, hey, we're looking to come up with some cool locations for Christmas movies this year. Do you have any ideas for years? And I had just gotten back from Washington, d C. At

that point. This is I spoke. I had a chance to read good Night Numbers in front of the Library of Congress UH for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library event, and I was like, well, and so Dolly Partners is on my mind. And I hadn't gotten to meet her yet. Okay, so I hadn't narrated the documentary yet because I got to meet her then too, I hadn't met her yet.

I done this event with Dolly Partoner was a big cardboard cut out of Dolly there at the event, but no Dolly, and so I said, well, you know what, what what about Christmas at Dollywood and and and the executive said, we love it. Let's I said, well, should I go get like a producer and a writer and put together a pitch. She said yes, and so we did. And next thing, you know, the next Christmas, we got Christmas of Dollywood and I got to work with DOLLI Parting.

It was amazing. She is electric. For anybody who's ever met Dolly Parton, you just she walks into a room and she instantly knows how to make everybody feel great. I don't know how she does it. It doesn't even matter how big or small one room is. She'll make you feel important and she'll make you feel good. And that's her gift is well, one of her many many gifts. I could fan girl about her for the rest of our interview if you don't stop me. In terms of philanthropy,

second to none. Oh, I know, she is just can't speak higher of anyone in this world. So I think that's just like super cool. That's like getting to meet Elvis or so I don't I don't even know. I don't even know if I can make up. No, I know, I know And when when my so when good night numbers was first brought into the Imagination Library. There was I got sent a letter or they sent a letter to my publisher who sent it to me, and she

signed it. But they put it in one of those puffy envelopes that didn't have any backing, so it was wrinkled, and I was like, this is wrinkled, Like how could they sit? And I like try to press it. I haven't a frame. Even though it's wrinkled. It's like, oh my gosh, Dolly Parton signed something for me. And if I had known, like a couple years later, I was going to get to actually worked with her, I would have painted. But she's I'm I'm so grateful that somebody

like Dolly Parton exists. That's kind of in summary. I'm just glad that she's part of the sun it and she can never ever die. So if we somehow get the potion for living forever, we have to all agree to give it to Dolly Parton, and I think everybody would agree. Actually, Dolly Parton is the personification of Hallmark, Like she's just good and positive, and yes, I agree, I agree. I hope we get to do another one

with her. So you touched on it, you know, it was the catalyst that got you to work with the one and only Dolly. You graduated with a sumacom reality from u c l A. You're a super super smart person. Was your major math and then your minor physics. Yes, exactly, that's hard. It was hard, you know what. Honestly, part of the reason why I did it is because I like a good challenge, to be honest, I mean the math. I've always loved a good challenge. I and I and

I math and I get along. I mean, I'm not like, I'm not a savant, and it's not super easy. I always had a study physics for some reason was always more challenging. Fact, it was like it was sort of needle me how difficult it was for me. So I decided to face that fear and go ahead and minor

in it. I was in like freshman or sophomore physics and in the meantime and graduate was like as a senior, as a senior in college, like in sophomore physics and and taking gradual level courses in math, and I was in. I spent all my time in the physics tutoring center at hours like trying to grab my head around these things, um just because I like a good challenge. So that explains a lot about me. I'm kind of all those people where if you say, I bet you can't do that,

it becomes a little irresistible. I mean, as I've gotten older, that's tempered a little, but it's still in there. I might not act on it, but I still feel that way. This at the time when you you face your fears and you figure out what you're made of. And part of what I like about math is that you can't get away with like not actually understanding it. You've got to actually understand it to succeed. And there's a right

and there's a wrong answer. You have to push yourself and you have to you have to face those fears and face those challenges. And when you do that, by the way, you get something from it. You teach yourself You've got more fortitude than you thought because you know you're you're facing a math problem and you feel so you can't do it, and uh and then and which you stay with it, You stick with it, and you

keep pushing and then you do solve it. I mean, I remember, thinking of this is like a math high. You get to a new place and it gives you confidence that I believe extends far beyond mathematics. And this is what I tell my readers because I've got I've written math books now and they're all super fun and entertaining with cartoons and a little fun stories for ages zero through sixteen all the way up through high school geometry.

And my whole point is to make it fun and accessible, but also to explain to my readers, hey, you don't want math to be super easy. You wanted to be to struggle. You want to be challenging, because that's how you get stronger. If you went to the gym, it's like going to the gym for your brain. If you went to the gym and you lifted lightweights all day long, you wouldn't get anywhere. It's when you struggle through and then you succeed and you build and each time you

can do a little more and a little more. That's what builds your brain and build your confidence. And then in life, because life is gonna throw a lot of ostables your way. It always does, is just how life is.

You will have prepared yourself in a way that not only are you a good problem solver, because that problem solving logic does extend to other parts of life as well, but just the exercise of facing obstacles and saying, wait, I've been in a situation before where I thought I could do something and I stuck with it and then I did figure it out. Maybe this is one of

those situations too, like that actually really is valuable. And so I say to you, I mean college, you know it's it's good to do what you're interested in, but especially when you have to be in a math class. I always encourage kids, you know, run into this head first.

You get those tutoring hours, get resources to help you if you need it, like my books or other things online, whatever, um, and stick with it and and strengthen yourself because that's something that as a gift only you can give yourself and nobody else can take it away. You're a New York Times best selling author with these math books. I guess my first question was, is that a tough pitch to publishers to be like, all right, stick with me math? Actually?

You know, girls in math has been a hot topic for a long time, and when my first book came out in two thousand seven, the pitch was I didn't have so the title ended up being a Math Doesn't Suck um. At the time, I didn't I wasn't sure of the title, but it was like the intelligent glamour girl. Like my whole thing was breaking stereotypes. Okay, I just got a degree in mathematics. I'm like, I'm gonna make

math fun and yes, girly, because I want to. I want to to dispel this myth that you have to choose between being the fun, popular girl and the brainy, nerdy girl who doesn't have any friends, Like what how? And when girls are aspiring to be glamorous, I wanted them to not just look at these magazines to see, oh,

I want to be one of one of those models. No, the kind of glamorous you want to aspire to be is like the woman in her designer student forrange heels walking on Wall Street, which to a really important job that glamour like that that's powerful, um. And so that was really my goal, and that was that was the pitch, was like, Hey, we're gonna get girls to embrace their smarts. And so the whole thing of Math Doesn't Suck is the cover I look all kind of cute and fun

and like, hey, it's just a math you know. Um, and I tell stories in it. Uh that can be kind of grilly and silly, but yet also legitimately teach them math concepts. So that's been kind of that was my thing from middle school in high school, and then when I went younger and did elementary school stuff. That's more they're more coed, they're they're more about cartoons and silliness and and in in a more code kind of style. But the older kid books were definitely geared more girls.

Not the boys don't use them. I've had lots of boys say they learn math and get some insight into how girls think. But they are you know, if you look at them like, oh, these are books for girls. Are their plans to write more New York Times best selling math books, Yes, there are. Uh yeah, I've got one coming out in February of next year, but I were not do We haven't done a title reveal yet or a cover reveal yet. That will probably the summer. That one will be another picture book. So my most

popular picture book right now is Ten Magic Butterflies. Came out a few years ago and it's the story of ten flowers that one by one get turned into butterflies by this ferry overnight and because they all want to, they wish they could fly. What it does it teaches you different ways of making ten. So first there's ten flowers, then it's nine flowers in one butterfly. Then there's eight

flowers and two butterflies. Then it goes through and by the end they all realize that they missed being flowers. And then it's a lesson about, you know, let's be grateful for who you are and embrace who you are and not trying to change. So that book, it's a picture book with like a little math snuck in as kind of like how it to think about it? And this next one that comes out in February will also have that same kind of model. What would you say you're not good at? I'm not good at taking time

for myself to just relax and do nothing. I'm terrible a that. I if I don't feel productive, in fact, if I'm not doing two things and once, I'm not doing two things that once right now, but mostly if I'm not doing two things that wants Actually I'm stretching right now. I've got my leg ups to getting a nice stretchment. I feel weird if I'm not doing two things I want, I have our time with it. In fact, I get like this thrill of excited when I realize

I'm gonna be able to multitask. Oh god, that's my issue. That's the insight I got. Your downfall is being too productive. But then sometimes I'm just like crash and I got I just to like sleep for a weekend because I'm just exhausted. I hope my husband's always like, you got to relax more, and he's good. So we went to Joshua Treet this weekend and just like hung out. But like I'd be lying if I didn't say I was, you know, trying. I was like, oh wait, this is

a good for social media. You know. It's like my fans would love this. This This is so cute. Oh we turned around, me get the picture. Is that really truly relaxing? Then, I don't know. I love it. You are a very high functioning human being. It's really really interesting to talk to folks like you because at the end of the day, like the idea of this show is origin stories. It's like how people that are successful became successful, and then how people and how like my listeners could use those

lessons as a blueprint who then also become successful. It's very obvious as to why you are successful. I think, just like that first fifteen minutes of chatting with you, Um, before I pivot over to my portion the show, I want to put a bow on all the stuff you're doing. So, I mean, obviously the Matchmaker series is first and foremost that we're trying to promote. So tell everyone kind of like where they can watch that, and how they can

watch that and what then you look for. So Matchmaker Mysteries The Art of the Kill that premieres this Sunday, April eighteenth, at eight o'clock seven o'clock Central on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries, and I will be live tweeting for it and you can find me at Danniki mckeller on Twitter for that. I'm also on Instagram, um and I've

got on Instagram. I've also got Matchmaker Mysteries account. For this movie, you'll see altorts, behind the scenes picturers, and you can see pictures and videos from past movies as well if you want to catch up on that. Um. So that's one way to uh to interact with the movie and me is to live tweet with me. I will be doing some pictures, some photos, signed photos giveaway

for the movie. So just take a picture of yourself watching the movie with your TV in the background and that it to me and I'll pick a few winners for signed pictures. Yeah. So that's that's Maker Mysteries. That's this Sunday. Do you have a couple of minutes to talk about how you got to this point? Sure? All right, quick break when we come back on the Wells Cast, the very high functioning Dannaa mckeller stick around, all right,

welcome back to the Wells Cast. Very excited to have the star of the Matchmaker Mysteries on Hallmark Movies, Danika McKellar on the show. It was really funny, like during the break, you and I were chatting. I was like, man, you're doing a lot, and then you were saying no. See. The problem is that I was listening to myself talk and I was thinking I should be doing so much more. And I think that that is bonkers because there are only twenty four hours in the day, Danica, And well,

it wasn't so much that I thought it anymore. Is that when you said is there anything else you want? To talk about. I thought, oh my gosh, am I supposed to have more to talk about. I was like, something, maybe I should be doing more. That's normally I do feel like I'm doing a lot, but then it doesn't

take much for my a paranoid moment. I think the reason why I asked that question is because you've got so much on the resume that I feel like I probably didn't like rip through everything that I needed to. I truly appreciate having a journalist ask you if there's anything else you want to talk about. Is a gift and I love it and I appreciate it. I was just thought you'd think it was funny, so I went

ahead and sure it was actually going on in my head. Well, everyone needs to watch The Matchmaker Mysteries The Arts of the Kill. This is the third installments of this story. Correct, Yes, Matchmaker Mysteries, the third movie. This is the murder of that happens in the music. And so it's the latest Who've done it? And I will be live tweeting and I want people to tell me if they can figure out who've done it before? Andree Dove does so. I don't know if anyone told you, but I'm just obsessed

with origin stories and how people who are successful became successful. Um, your story is going to be a little bit different than most people that we have on the show because so much of your life was in the spotlight as a as a young person. But then there were a big chunk of years where I think you kind of took a step back and you really focused on your studies and education and stuff. And then you're definitely now very much in the forefront again. So um, let's go

back to the beginning. You are from where I'm from San Diego originally, and were you always an entertaining look at me, mom and dad, I need to be in show business kid? How did this all come about? Embarrassingly? Yes, my mom says that I was five years old when she saw me staring at myself in the mirror and

I making faces at myself and wouldn't stop. And then if you see we had like an old cam quarter back, we're you know, we're talking about the eighties now, okay, um, And just to go ahead and date myself and if you look at, uh, you know, the cam quarter footage, you'll see that like, like I look like a serene, regular kid. And then I noticed the camera's on. I become a hand. I'm like, hey, I'm making all his

face what so. And remember when my cousin and my sister and I would get together at family and family reunions and things at my grandmother's house, we would put on plates like that was the whole thing. By the end, like we're all together for a few days. The last night, we're gonna put on a show, and so we we whatever.

We'd usually hijnk something like Cinderella and put it together with some other story Batman or whatever, and we'd like put together a thing and and and then we get tips at the end, and just it was like, yeah, I guess I've always liked entertaining and making silly jokes, making people smile and making people laugh, and so yes, the answer is yes, I think I always wanted to do this. What was your we break into the entertainment industry. My mom was friends with Leslie and warrened through her

boyfriend at the time. I think Leslie and Warren's boyfriends. And this was back when we just moved to Los Angeles, and she suggested that we go to Lee Strasbourg Institute for Acting and we my mom was like, well, if you want, it's like an all day thing. Are you sure you wanted? Yeah, let's try it. And we loved it,

and it was the Saturday program. It was like five hours, and we my sister and I did that for a while and they did a play and we were in a play and then an agent saw that and they're like, oh, where these two little girls. They seemed fun and started doing commercials. But we had a rule. My mom had a rule for the family that acting was just a hobby, was not going to become a lifestyle. So we weren't allowed to audition for series regulars or any movies or

anything that would take us out of town. And The Wonder Years was only supposed to the winning Cooper role was just supposed to be a guest role on the pilot episode. It wasn't supposed to be a regular roller. I never would have auditioned for it. So my auditioned for that and got the job, and then four days into it, they offered me a serious contract and my mom was like, I don't know, but she said, look because the other moms on set were so down to earth.

She'd been on a lot of sets already and seen a lot of women who like get your stage mom pushing their kids on the camera. Um seeing kids who were like sick and their mom was pretending that they weren't sick, or like oh they're fine, they're fine. But my mom was very different. If we even had a sniffle, she was like, nope, you're saying how m like production would have to stop. She's like, well, I don't care that,

that's what it is. So she was very much an advocate for her kids being kids first and protecting us. And she noticed that the other moms on the Wonder Years were the same way. So she says, you know what this, if we were going to do something like this, this would probably be the the ideal situation. I was like, please let me, please, let please, And she said all right.

So she got this great lawyer who created some sort of loophole because when you sign a contract, you're locked in for six seven years if they want to keep renewing it. So she like did a thing where there was some loophole. She's like, anytime you want to get out, you just let me know. That's how it started. Okay, so how old are you when you book wonder years. Well, what is your sister think because she like, damn it, well she yeah, she and I both auditioned actually for

the role of Winnie Cooper. But it wasn't like that. I mean they actually liked her so much that they put her in nine episodes as Becky's later And but she's not. She was never quite as into entertainment as I was. Like today, for example, she is a lawyer and um, now she's runs the adventure capitalist company and investing in science and like like crazy awesome technology that's helping the world. Uh so you know, she's got a different focus and she always did. But she was great.

I mean, she was great as Becky Slater the mackel or sister. Sir. She went to oh my gosh, rag about her for a second. She went to Yale and then took a year just for fun to you know, go to Oxford and then came back and um, and then got her law degree at Harvard, so you know, and that was right around the time of Legally Blonde. And she's blonde. So awol, you're the real legally Blond, You're the real deal. So at twelve, you you booked the pilot. When did you understand that it was a

cultural phenomenon. It's probably about twenty. You have no when you're a kid, everything you do you think is normal, Like it didn't. I mean, if fact that The Wonder Years premiered following the super Bowl, like the very first episode. I I mean, I would hear people say, oh, that's a made that's a really good time slot. But it didn't like occurred to me. It just didn't. It didn't resonate. I didn't get it, and I didn't get the whole

America Sweetheart thing. And for someone telling me that I was America Sweetheart who was actually on set, and I was like what, I was busy going to school on the days that I wasn't working and I wasn't I didn't go to Hollywood parties. I did not have that perspective. I really didn't. I really truly did not get it. And that's actually perfectly fine. It's perfectly fine. Yeah, I think I assume that's the right mentality to have about something. But now it's an adult. I mean, I grew up

on the Wonder Years. Like do you look back, do you ever watch those shows? Or is it that's a different lifetime. I mean, it's a different lifetime. But my son is ten, so I kind of figured when he turned twelve, i'd start showing him the show. And Seep likes it. I mean, he's People are funny. People say, oh, you look exactly the same. But if you show my son a picture of me on the Wonder Yers, he'll be like, who's that? He doesn't see it, which is

kind of funny. It's also really cute because he's starting to look like he's tense. It's almost the age that I was when I did the show. And I see like he's got my eyes completely and my cheeks, and so I see it. I see that. It's like he also looks a lot like Fred Savage, because I mean, to be honest, Fred and I kind of look like especially back then, and people will say, your son looks like Fred sawag why did your sound Fred? Trust me,

it's not He's not the father. Okay, it's not time Kevin WHENI fantasy come true, I promise, But he does look an awful lot like Kevin Arnold. It's a odd that's hilarious. I don't want to focus too much on the Wonder Years, even though I fought like we could do an entire episode just on that show. But I do know that Fred is now directing kind of like a new iteration of The Wonder Years, but it's vastly

different in terms of the family they're choosing. Yeah, yeah, it's not a reboot, and I've caught myself calling it a reboot and it's really not. It's it's inspired by I like the idea of a different iteration because it's a different family. It's also nine, but it's a black family in Atlanta, and it's also a boy. It's also a boy told the narrator of the Boy when he's older, so that parts the same. He's got his family and his friends at school, and he's got his struggles, and

he's got his unrequited love interest, you know. But her name is not Winnie and his name's not Kevin, so they're different people. But but I read part of the script and it looks I really need to finish reading it, because every time I do an interview, I'm like, I

read part. It's really really cute, it's really uh, really really well done, and the people involved are incredibly talented, so I know it's going to be great and probably a very timely time for that show to come out right now as well, it'll be a good story to hear. The Wonder Years was always a very timeless show, and I really feel that this one is going to be as well. Um In a lot of ways, it's it's just it's examining a time in history and what were

people going through. But really, when a twelve year old boys going through um uh. There are a lot of universal themes and I'm hoping that this will feel universal to audiences as well, because I think that's what made the show so successful, is that everyone could relate. So the Wonder Years ends, What does Danaka do next? Dannaka went doing private presidents. Danika goes to college, and it goes to college, and then the rest of the episode

only a third person. Please. I went to college, and I think you talked in the presence, but I'm talking a past test, right, So I went. I went to college and I did act for the first year of college. I did what I do. I did a TV movie for NBC. They were still doing TV movies back then, and I did an episode at Bablon five, and I did a couple other things, and then I realized this is not working because when you're in high school and you're acting at the same time, you know, the teachers

were understanding and they give you your assignments. But in college they're like, um, you weren't here for the final exam, Like I know, I know, Um, I can make it up. On these different days of that worst feel like, no, we're failing you. I'm like, oh, we're gonna be given incomplete. You didn't, I'm like, but I know, right. So, and I thought, why am I working so hard trying to juggle two things at once. I mean, the state doesn't mandate that I go to college like it does that

I have to go to high school. And I'm not under a serious contract anymore. This is a job to job, so I don't have to do this. Uh. And I decided to take a break from acting for the rest of my college career and just focus on my studies. And then it was shortly after that that I decided I wanted to get a degree in mathematics. And that was That's his whole own story. I was always really good at math al it was a challenge, but I

was good at it all through high school. But I thought somehow that college math would be really hard, like harder and unattainable somehow, and so that was. But it's just in my head because I'd gotten I'd taken the ap Calculus BC exam and I gotten a five on it in high school. So I don't know who I thought these other college math people were. But if I'm really honest with myself, I didn't look the part. I just didn't look like what I thought a college math

student would look like. And because I like a good challenge, I'm Michael Heck, I'm just gonna try this anyway, I went ahead and signed up for multipable Calculus, and I studied all my calculus notes from high school. I mean I studied. I knew everything, I knew every triggered metric in a girl formula, everything. And I took this first midterm exam in the class and I remember thinking, oh my gosh, I failed. I failed. I got a twenty two out of forty. But as it turns out, this

was some sort of a weirder test. Because the reason I know this is because the professor greated he'd like put you great on the grades, but he took on the chalkboard and created a graph of the grades. Nobody's name was on it. But in a class of a hundred and sixty people, one person got twenty two out of forty. That was me. Two people got two people got fifteen, and then it was nine and below the rest of the class. So he grasped this distribution on

the chalkboard. I am looking at my test and wait, I'm a twenty two looking around at all these people, all these people who looked like math students to me, and I didn't feel like I belonged the space, that I was not the majority of being female, even um

and and uh. I was blown away. And that was and that was a turning point, both because of just realizing that I had a gift, like I was actually good at this and the next day, and remember this was right after the Wonder Years ended, So every day on the campus, people like I stoually that girl, I shoually like girls on TV are should that girls played winning people. The day after the mid terms of in handed back, somebody tapped me on the shoulder and said,

excuse me, why should that girl? And I figured they're gonna say from the Wonder Years, said girl who got the twenty two and I was like, oh, I was. I was like, it's like, wow, wait a minute. And I felt the sense of identity that comes from something other than my childhood TV show. And trust me, a lot of child actors, a lot of the issue is that they're wondering what their value is now now that shows over and I found that and it was it

was gold. It was gold for me. And so that was really what kicked off my whole math career, deciding to just focus on math and say, you know what, I was gonna be a film majors like I'll do a film later, I'm gonna be a math major now and and make that my focus. And I loved it. I loved it. I loved getting up and putting a ratty T shirt on, the jeans and no makeup and just going to class and just like, just to me, that was glamorous. It sounds really silly, but it's the truth.

I really felt like, kicks, I'm trying to think of what I think, um, math major looks like did you ever see the movie Real Genius with Val Kiler. That's what I'm thinking you're talking about right now? Well, certainly male, you know, and then Asian male I mean, right, this is stereotype and I love breaking stereotypes. Now. That's why when I wrote Math Doesn't Suck, It's that was the

first book. I wrote. It for middle school girls. I mean boys use the books too, but it's really focusing on girls and being like, hey, you don't have to You can be whoever you want to be. You can be glamorous and fun and we're makeup and do your hair, and be awesome at math and have a really sharp brain and do the rest of it. It's it's whatever you want to be, don't be don't be limited by by stereotypes. Once you graduated and got your degree, what

happened next for you? Like, all right, I'm gonna go start writing math books for kids, or I'm gonna get back into acting. Like what was the next step of the process. I mean, it's it's a little messy. It starts, you know. At first, I was doing some like independent films that weren't very good, and I people in the business that assumed that I had I was a has been And I remember going to some auditions and they're like, oh,

so how have you been. We hadn't seen you in a while, And I was like, yeah, I know, I went to college. And they're like, oh, well that hey, that's great, that's great, that's so great that they're a little relieve you know, that's so so did you what major in theater? And I was just love that moment.

I'd be like mathematics and just like their faces like I would just relish that moment and I'm like, how dare you assume that I'm like off, you know, doing drugs or shoplifting or whatever, you know, all the stuff they I was like, you know, it was very very satisfying anyway, So I kind of stumbled back into acting, but it was a rough It was a rough entry. And it was actually because Aaron Sorkin was a huge fan of mine and I read for The West Wing and it was just a again, it was a small part.

They've got bigger, um. It was like one scene. I remember my agents saying, do you want to audition for this? Only once? And like, yes, the West Winning. I love the West Wing, Yes, yes, yes, So I auditioned for it. And this was two thousand two, and that was it. That was the audition that took me back into more mainstream TV again. And and in the meantime, I had started a website and I was getting I was like answering people's math questions because I was sort of miss math.

So I was sort of straddling both worlds, not really committing. And then and then, um, it was two thousand five when I had an article written about a math page. So I wrote, I helped to prove a new theorem when I was at college. For whatever reason, sometimes things will dropped out of the sky. The science writing for the New York Times wanted to write an article about me, and they put me on the front cover of of

the Science section of the New York Times. And the article was in between series, so meaning the one years in the West wing at just become superstar on math. And that article got me so much attention, and I had a couple of different book agents call me and say, do you want to like write a math book of

some sort. And now I had spoken in front of Congress a few years before that, shortly after I graduated about the importance of mathematics, and I studied the issue a lot and read about how middle schools the time when girls start to shy away from math, not because they can't do it, but because they feel like they don't belong and they feel like if they studied too much or if they too got a math 're not going to be accepted um and and they start looking

around and going, well, who am ill I don't want to be a math NERD. So I'm going to dunbe myself down and really studying this issue and wanting to break that stereotype. So when this one book agent in particular, she and I just clicked on the phone and I was like, actually, I know exactly what I want to write about and who I want to write for middle school girls and math. I want them to to embrace it.

And that was that was thousand and five that that phone call happened, and the book came out two thousand seven, and that was the beginning of McKellar Math. And my tenth book came out this past summer, called The Times Machine for a third and fourth graders teaching Multiplication Division. So I wrote like middle school in high school. And then I came back and started young again with good

Night Numbers. That was the Dolly Parton ended up in her program and then making my way up through elementary school, and then this summer it was interesting that I would finish the Times Machine and it would come out, because now that filled in the last gaps, and I got books for all ages from zero to sixteen, and just

in time for the pandemic. Is probably great for a lot of moms who are now having to be teachers as well, though, exactly because the math looks different now, you know, for first for through fourth grade, it looks different. It's all. I've got this new math translation to guide for grown ups in the back of both do not open this math book which is first and second grade, and the Times Machine, which is third and fourth grade. Oh that's so smart. Both my sisters called me in there, like,

did you know they changed math? It's like, I don't know. I didn't know they could do that. But no, that's interesting, Yeah they did. They did in two eleven is when it started, and then it became more and more common throughout the following years. And I couldn't believe that nobody had written a resource for parents in during that time. That's crazy, dude. I'm running out of time with you, which bumps me out. But I need to know about

testifying before Congress. First of all, how did that come about? After so after I graduate. After I graduated with my degree in math, I the very first job I do was actually an episode of a show called Working that Fred Savage was doing. That got me all this pressed like Winnie Cooper's the math with so that's that's that's out in the world and everyone's talking about that, and was like, why would you do math? Blah blah um. There was a commission that was in Congress that was

trying to get more money. It was for college grants I think it was, or anyways, scholarship. I think it's something like that for college. Basically, they wanted more money for for women in college, and so they wanted me to speak to the importance of this. They have to understand, I was just graduate. I just graduated with a degree in math. I'm a literal person anyway, and I'm very I don't read between the lines very well at all.

It's just who I am. And so I was asked to speak about the importance and what I what I thought about this. I was not thinking about the fact that they probably just wanted me to help them get money for their thing. I was like, oh my gosh, it is time for me to testify in front of Congress about the importance and woman and what the real

issue is. And I studied they made this hundred page report, and I'm like, there's no way that everyone on this committee, the Subcommittee of Technologies Science, there's no way they read all this. I've studied the whole thing. I mean, I studied it, and then I read the executive report that they probably read it. They right, it's very and all the really important stuff was in the actual reports and

documents and studies. The little report, the little executive summary they created for the members of Congress didn't show how important middle school is. They don't want to talk about college, and like, you guys, I was like, such, you guys, it's not in the executive summary, but here's the real deal in the people who flew me out there public.

Oh my gosh. And I didn't even this is not occurating to me until years later because I still have in front of Concress and said, so, I'm not sure if you guys had shipped my dad was in the rhythm. This is the last about it goes. You told Congress that they probably didn't have a chance to read the whole thing. But as that was and said in that person. You're finding a chance to red the whole thing. It's

not in the executive summary, but here's the deal. It's really starts in middle school, and that's where we need more money, is for teachers in middle school and anyway. So that was that experience, and I pledged to them, I said, and I said, a major problem is that math has bad. PR said, you know, girls, and it happens in middle school. And I pledged to you to use my know, my my public platform to get math

the best PR possible. We need to math to be explained and more fun terms for kids, and we need there to be in general feeling society that Matt does not make you a nerd, it makes you more powerful. So this is my impassionate speech. I only had four minutes. I delivered everything in formaist to them, and uh, I never heard from those people who invited me again. And uh, but I you know, I I just swear in front

of Congress that you're gonna tell the truth. I mean, this is a big this is a huge deal for me. So then I decided to and I've been fulfilling that

promise ever since of getting math better. PR and helping math to be more fun for kids because it's the way it's presented and may solve the difference that was that was in two thousand seven doing it for twenty one years now, Well, I think that's so cool and so rad and I mean, you've done a lot of stuff, but to me, that seems like such an amazing accomplishment

to get to go do so congratulated. Yeah, my dad tells it that after I said, you probably didn't get a chance to read it, but it's really important stuff in the actual court that the guy goes, well, why don't you tell us what's in there? Glasses? All right, young lady, why don't you go ahead and tell us? Then why don't you educate us? I'm like, okay, so here's us in there's. First of all, the speed in which your brain works is really really fun energy to

be around. But it makes a whole lot of sense for me, and I would assume everyone listening of why you are so successful? Well, one question I do ask a lot of my guests is what's the one creedo that you live by, our one rule that you have that you think has helped you continue to be successful in life and in business and everything in between. Well,

I will break that down into two things. Most important is that you have to be living in your integrity whatever it is, and ask yourself, does it ring that truth bell or you're ignoring a red flag? Like you've got to know if the choices that you're that you're about to make, is that something that you're gonna that you'd be proud to tell anybody that you decided to do. And if you can't, you're not proud to tell everybody

that you made that choice. Don't make that choice. It's as simple as that, because you'll regret it later, you'll feel bad about it later at some point. So there's that. But in terms of what I think has helped me to be successful, because look, let's visit, you can be successful and not living your integrity and just feel horrible about yourself and yet you're successful. Right, So that's that side of it, because you want to let be able to look yourself in the mirror for real, because it'll

haunt you and on your death. But you're not going to care about the money you made. You're going to care about how you felt and how you made other people feel. But in terms of being successful, to me, the biggest trick that I've learned, and this helps me with everything that I'm feeling apprehensive about doing or there's

a daunting task. Something my dad taught me is he learned from a Dale Carnegie lesson, and that is because one little phrase do you tell yourself, and that is let me add him, Let me add And you have got to say to yourself. With just just commitment, let me at him. You can even tense up your stomach a little bit to get rid of the butterflies. Let

me at him. So this can be before a job interview, this can be before a difficult conversation you have with somebody and your personal life, whatever it is that you're feeling out rands, so that it can be before you start. You know, you've been wanting to write a book for years and you've never started anything like that, anything at all. Let me at him, Let me at him, and just

keep saying that to yourself. You'd be amazed at how changing your internal dialogue actually changes, like your body chemistry and the feelings that you're having about whatever it is. Write it down on a post and note everybody's listening. There's a reason you're listening to this. This message is meant for you. Write it down, stick it up there um and you'd be amazed at where it will come in handy, I love it. Before I let you go,

Do you have some time for some rapid fire questions? Sure? Alright? Rapid fire questions with Dana mckeller. Would you rather be rich and sad or poor and happy? Happy? Night in or night out? Night in? What's your hidden talent? Picking things up with my toes? Early bird or night owl? O coffee order? No coffee for me? Favorite beat the topic? Who was your first kiss? Well? That was with Fred Savage on the Wonder Years Crazy First Concert, Everyone Too

Thriller by Michael Jackson. Wow? Really yep? That's a good one that might actually win for best answer for that question. I watched him, you know, moonwalk Fast behind John Ritter. First job your head? It was a Volkswagen Club commercial. Who would you call to get you out of jail? I guess my husband. Do you have a celebrity crush? Not currently? But when I was little it was Michael J. Blacks.

That's a good one. And last one, what is something that you haven't done in your career that you'd like to going forward and let's you work with Dolly Pardon. Oh wait, I already got to. Uh, you know what you know if I love I just think you super talented? Is Robert Downy Jr. I think it'd be a lot of fun to be in a scene with him in something very cool. Dannika McKellar, you've been absolutely amazing to chat with everyone out there. Do not miss Matchmaker Mysteries

The Art of the Kill. It's coming up this Sunday on Hallmark Correct this Sunday on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries Channel, and that's at eight o'clock, seven o'clock Central, where people will follow you. They can follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and that's all at Danica mckeller with an a R at the end. If you're not sure how to spell my name, just type in Winnie Cooper and Danika

and you'll find it. And then also Matchmaker Mysteries on Instagram if you want to get behind the scenes pictures and videos of the movies. You know, through the pandemic and all the rest of it, I've become much more concerned with trying to help kids in particular, and so I have a whole bunch of children's charities that I donate to. Uh if you book a personalized video with me at Cameo so it's Cameo dot Com forward slash Danika mccallary. You can also find the link in my

Instagram bio. UM. I donate all of my proceeds to children's charities. So it's places like child Help, um, my Stuff Badge. These people help abused kids and foster kids, and then also some charities that help to fight child trafficking. So not the weird conspiracy theory sides of it, but the actual real side that's happening online right now, like

every day in every neighborhood. So um, there's some really great, great charities that are helping kids a lot, and I really appreciate it, and I would love to do a personalized video for any of you guys birthday's anniversaries you name it Mother's Day. Thank you so much for being on the show. You are like truly very inspirational to listen to, and your story is bonkers, So I appreciate a lot. If you ever want to come back on and finished telling the story, because I feel like there's

a lot more you're always welcoming this show. Okay, thank you so much. Maybe I'll be in touch in February when my next book comes out Perfect. Have a great day and see you soon. Thanks, bye bye. Subscribe to Wealthcast on I Heart Radio, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you get your podcasts. It's the Internet line.