DanicaMcKellar 2008-09-02 19:44:59 2009-03-20 18:43:55 Biography % this is the default PlanetMath preamble. as your knowledge % of TeX increases, you will probably want to edit this, but % it should be fine as is for beginners. % almost certainly you want these \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{amsfonts} % used for TeXing text within eps files %\usepackage{psfrag} % need this for including graphics (\includegraphics) %\usepackage{graphicx} % for neatly defining theorems and propositions %\usepackage{amsthm} % making logically defined graphics %\usepackage{xypic} % there are many more packages, add them here as you need them % define commands here \PMlinkescapeword{child} \emph{Danica Mae McKellar} (1975 - ) American actress, mathematician and author. As a child, McKellar landed the important r\^ole of Winnie Cooper on the TV show {\it The Wonder Years}. After that, she studied mathematics at UCLA, where she coauthored a paper on the ``Percolation and Gibbs states multiplicity for ferromagnetic Ashkin-Teller models on $\mathbb{Z}^2$'' for the {\it Journal of Physics} with Prof. Lincoln Chayes and a classmate, earning McKellar \PMlinkname{Erd\H{o}s number}{ErdHosNumber} 4 through Chayes. After college, McKellar returned to television with a few recurring r\^oles on shows like {\it The West Wing}. As an actress, she is connected to Kevin Bacon through Marin Hinkle, who was with her in {\it The Year That Trembled} and with Bacon in {\it Rails \& Ties}. She has written two bestselling books, {\it Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail} and {\it Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who's Boss}. \begin{thebibliography}{2} \bibitem{kc} Kenneth Chang, ``Between Series, an Actress Became a Superstar in Math'' {\it New York Times}, July 19, 2005 \bibitem{abc} ABC News staff, ``Life After Child Stardom: Not by the Numbers'' {\it 20/20} November 24, 2006 \end{thebibliography}