“IT WAS ALWAYS YOU”

Actor Danica McKellar’s Light-Switch Moment of New-Found Faith

by Amy Kerr

IT’S

FUN TO CATCH UP with an old friend, especially if you haven’t seen each other in a while. There’s something special about spending time with people you knew when you were younger, a lifetime ago when you had different interests and fewer (much fewer) responsibilities. You remember so clearly who you were back then. You can’t help but compare the memories of who you were to the grown people you are now.

In this case, that “friend” you’re meeting up with? It’s Danica McKellar.

You don’t know each other, not really. But you feel like you know her, because like so many in the late‘80s and early-‘90s who watched Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years, you feel like you grew up together.

And she really does seem like an old friend. She’s warm and kind, just like you thought she would be. But there’s a hint of something you weren’t quite expecting, something that makes a smile spread across your face as you listen to her.

Danica McKellar is incandescently happy. Joyful, even.

And it makes you joyful too.

“I have this connection to true peace, no matter what’s going on in the world” she says. “I am so excited about this newfound relationship and connection I have with Jesus. I’m just so grateful.” backdrop of the turbulent 1960s and ‘70s. Danica instantly won viewers in her portrayal of Winnie Cooper, Kevin’s intelligent, good-natured girlfriend. After only six episodes, the show won the 1988 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, along with a Peabody Award for “pushing the boundaries of the sitcom format and using new modes of storytelling.” Popular with Baby Boomers who vividly remember their own “Wonder Years” of the ‘60s and ‘70s, along with Gen-Xers and Millennials who watched the series when they were adolescents along with the characters, The Wonder Years became, and remains, a cultural phenomenon.

Good for you, Danica, you think. Just as you would for a friend.

In her early years, Danica and her younger sister Crystal grew up near San Diego, California, with dad Christopher, a real estate developer, and mom Mahaila, who owned a dance studio. When Danica was eight, Mahaila enrolled the girls at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in Los Angeles (Sally Field, Barbra Streisand, Chris Evans, and Jon Leguizamo are just a few notable alums). A year later, an agent saw Danica and Crystal perform and offered to sign them, and soon after, the girls began auditioning.

And in 1987, Danica landed a role on a new, genre-bending television series: ABC’s The Wonder Years. The show tells the coming-of-age story of middle schooler Kevin Arnold, set against the

I credit my parents for keeping me so grounded.

Going from a normal twelve-year-old to a critical darling could’ve sent Danica down a darker path of some child stars before her. But the actress walked through her new season a bit differently.

“I credit my parents for keeping me so grounded,” says Danica. “The priorities were clear: health, family, education. I never went to Hollywood parties. I didn’t even take jobs in the summer; we would go on family vacations. Acting was just this fun hobby.”

When the show ended in 1993, eighteen-year-old Danica enrolled at UCLA, eager to begin the next phase of her life and establish who she was outside of her iconic role. “In some ways, math saved me, because I wound up with this whole other identity,” she said in a 2017 conversation with The Wall Street Journal

And find it, she did. On her way to earning a summa cum laude degree in mathematics from UCLA in 1998, Danica co-authored a groundbreaking mathematical physics theory, which is named in part for her: the Chayes-McKellar-Winn Theorem.

“Little girls are told, ‘You’re so cute, you’re so pretty, look at that pretty dress.’ They’re not usually told, ‘Look how smart you are.’ You can have both. You can be smart, play with fashion, be a glam girl— there’s no contradiction,” she said to Forbes in 2016.

Over and over, Danica proved she could have both. And throughout the next decade, she began to advocate for more women and girls to participate in STEM activities. In 2000, Congress invited Danica to speak on the importance of women in math and science. She wrote a series of math books for middle and high school girls, turning the social conditioning of “girls can’t do math” right on its head. All the while, she steadily worked in television, starring in recurring roles on The West Wing and How I Met Your Mother along with dozens of guest spots on other series. She even made time for family, welcoming son Draco in 2010. Still she wrote. Still she took acting jobs.

Somewhere along the way, when Danica was in her twenties, her father Christopher found a new identity, too: as a Christian.

“He suddenly had this amazing relationship with Jesus, and he would try to tell me about it. He gave me a cross to wear. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s great!’ I was so happy for him, because it was something that was making him so happy. But it didn’t really connect with me at the time.”

The change was profound, especially since religion wasn’t a big part of her household growing up. “My parents are very moral people, but I didn’t grow up with religion. I didn’t have Jesus in my life. I always knew there was something else out there; I had a sense of spirituality or God of some sort, but we didn’t even call it ‘God.’”

During the pandemic, like so many, Danica found herself scrolling through social media. One day she happened upon a pastor and author in Nashville named Carlos Whittaker. In that summer of unrest, Whittaker spoke passionately to his audience about what was going on in the world. A man of mixedrace heritage—he’s Black and Mexican—Whittaker implored his followers to try and create unity among themselves and the people they encountered in their communities. It’s a message that resonated deeply with Danica and her husband Scott. They reached out and became fast friends with Carlos and his wife Heather.

Fast forward a couple years. Danica had been friends with fellow child actress Candace Cameron Bure of Full House for decades—the two came to fame about the same time in the late-‘80s. Danica spotted an Instagram post from Candace, who was talking about God’s concept of forgiveness. Danica found herself curious, and had a few questions for her friend, trying to make sense of this message that seemed so hopeful. “It seems like you can do anything you want, but then you just get forgiven if you confess your sins. And then you can just do it again and get forgiven again,” Danica wrote to her friend. “I’m honestly not trying to be judgmental. I’m just really curious how that works?”

Candace replied, “Can I send you a Bible?” (“She sent me the Bible, and honestly, I didn’t even open it for a few months,” the actress confessed.) Candace gently persisted. For Easter 2022, she invited Danica and her family to watch the Passion play at her church.

And nothing for Danica has been the same since.

“I went, and . . . I know everyone’s story is different, but mine is the Holy Spirit came to me, and suddenly I was filled. It was like, Jesus is something I’ve wanted my whole life—or had my whole life— and I just didn't realize it. It was like a light switch flipped for me.”

Danica’s still discovering the different textures of her newfound faith. She’s reading the Bible, she’s going to church. While her feelings of excitement are still palpable, she’s also discovering how faith can hold her up during the moments that don’t feel so glowing.

“For me, the Bible has been a process of discovery. I love reading through the Gospels and getting to know Jesus as He was when He was here. I love opening to a random page and finding something helpful. Same with Jesus Calling. I will open that book if I need guidance, if I need help, if I just need a word. And it always is something I needed to hear in that moment.

“When I first found my faith, I was on cloud nine. I had lunch with Candace, and she said, ‘You know, life will still happen.’ And it’s true. Things do still happen. I still have feelings that aren't pure bliss. But the difference now is that I can experience those things, but they don't have to stay with me. I have a place to go. I have a sanctuary in my relationship with Jesus where I can say, ‘Oh, wait. I can give this over to You. I can find that peace that surpasses understanding.’ That brings peace and joy to my heart, and to those around me as well.”

These days, Danica’s peace spills into her life and work. She’s starring and executive producing inspirational films for the Great American Family network. She moved cross-country for the first time, settling about an hour outside of Nashville. She’s enjoying life with Draco, now twelve, and husband Scott. And she’s living happily in her faith.

“I told Candace, it’s almost like these romantic comedies we do, where the woman looks at the man and says, ‘It's you. It’s always been you.’ That’s how I feel about Jesus. ‘It’s You. It’s always been You.”

To keep up with Danica, follow her on social media @danicamckellar. And find her line of math books for kids of all ages at mckellarmath.com.

Adapted for print from the Jesus Calling Podcast. Put your phone in Camera mode and hover over this code to hear more of Danica's story!

We like to be living examples of what we speak about in our music.