Danica McKellar is the star of Hallmark's Christmas as Grand Valley, playing a burned-out artist who heads to her favorite picturesque small town for Christmas, hoping to rediscover her creative passion. When she meets an overachieving businessman (Brennan Elliot) who's also an out-of-towner, she unexpectedly finds new inspiration.
In real life, both Danica's career and relationship are bustling. Here's everything to know about the 43-year-old actress's love life on and off the screen:
She had her first TV romance as a teenager.
If you remember The Wonder Years, then Danica will definitely look familiar. She got her breakout role on the long-running sitcom when she was just 12 years old, and played the main on-off love interest of Fred Savage's character, Kevin.
"I auditioned, like everyone else," Danica has said of getting the role. "They had read lots of girls but hadn't found their "Winnie" yet, and I was thrilled to be chosen. I didn't get to read the whole script until after I had gotten the job, and when I read it I was excited and nervous because I saw that I would be having my first kiss soon!"
She experienced "love at first sight" in real life.
Danica was previously married to composer Michael Verta from 2009 until 2012. They share son, Draco, 8. According to E! News, the couple cited "irreconcilable differences" as the reason for their split.
She quickly found love again, though, in Los Angeles-based attorney Scott Sveslosky, who she tied the knot with in 2014. She recently opened up to Country Living about their romantic first meeting, and it's practically a real-life fairytale.
"I met Scott through friends, like people used to meet people—not online or anything. The parents of someone my son goes to school with were friends with him and said ‘We want him to meet somebody nice. He’s a great dad to his son and just got out of a two-year relationship and we just want him to meet somebody nice. He’s such a nice guy,'" she says. "I thought, ‘Okay, well, a nice guy—that’s really what I want. He doesn’t have to be a model or anything.’ But turns out, he did used to be a model. He’s everything. He’s the sweetest guy ever."
When she and Scott finally met in person, having talked on the phone several times first, she couldn't believe her luck. "I sat down across from him for coffee and started giggling and couldn’t stop. I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t believe this is who I was sitting across [from]," she recalls. "We’d been talking on the phone for a little bit and my favorite book is The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra, and he’d brought it with him and underlined his favorite parts. I just already loved him and was smitten from the moment I sat down."
Now that she and Scott have been together for five years, Danica says she's figured out the secret to their success as a couple. "It’s not always easy, it’s not totally perfect, and my secret to a happy marriage is: Keep working on it," she suggests. "Keep doing stuff. Keep making your partner feel special. Keep going, and don’t stop. And when you do stop, then double your efforts because you let your side down for a minute. And just be grateful. Don’t take it for granted, because it could be gone."
She adds that the experience of going through a divorce helped to clarify her relationship priorities. "Life is funny. Part of the reason why I’m so good at being able to appreciate [Scott] is because I have been divorced," she says. "I did go through that thing where you think it’s forever and you think you made the right choice and you think everything’s great and then it really isn’t and you were really wrong. I don’t want to be wrong again.”
She's a Hallmark regular.
Christmas at Grand Valley is far from Danica's first Hallmark project. Over the past four years, she's appeared in a slew of movies for the network, including last year's Very, Very Valentine and Love In Design, and 2017's Coming Home for Christmas. But Grand Valley does have a special significance for Danica, because she gets to reunite with her Wonder Years co-star Dan Lauria. He'll play her father in the movie, and played Jack Arnold on The Wonder Years.
Emma Dibdin is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles who writes about culture, mental health, and true crime. She loves owls, hates cilantro, and can find the queer subtext in literally anything.
