Get Your Licks on Route 66 Pet Adoption Tour – with Danica McKellar and Brandon McMillan
Two pet-supporting celebrities, actress Danica McKellar and animal expert Brandon McMillan help Fido Friendly Magazine unleash its 6th annual Get Your Licks on Route 66 Pet Adoption Tour at the Los Angeles Animal Services center. Oh Behave host Arden Moore is there for the kickoff of this 17-stop, 8-state tour that has a goal of adopting thousands of dogs and cats from animal shelters located on the historic Route 66. Discover the math genius of Danica (who played Winnie on The Wonder Years and danced up a storm on Dancing With the Stars). She serves as the official spokesperson for this Route 66 adoption tour. And be amazed by how many different animals – big and itty bitty – that Brandon McMillan can train. He hosts the Lucky Dog show that airs Saturday mornings on CBS.
BIO:
Danica McKellar
Best known for her roles on The Wonder Years and The West Wing, Danica McKellar is also a three-time New York Times bestselling author, internationally-recognized mathematician and advocate for math education - and now a new mommy! A summa cum laude graduate of UCLA with a degree in Mathematics, Danica has been honored in Britain's esteemed Journal of Physics and the New York Times for her work, most notably for her role as co-author of a groundbreaking mathematical physics theorem which bears her name, the Chayes-McKellar-Winn Theorem.
After graduating from UCLA, Danica returned to acting, starring as Elsie Snuffin in the fourth season of The West Wing, and soon found a unique way to combine Hollywood with mathematics. Tackling math education and simultaneously breaking the stereotype of the "math nerd," Danica began writing entertaining math books - with a glamorous flair - to teach and encourage middle school and high school girls in math. Published by Penguin books, Math Doesn't Suck (2007), Kiss My Math (2008) and Hot X: Algebra Exposed (2010) are all New York Times bestsellers. Her fourth book, Girls Get Curves: Geometry Takes Shape (2012), hit the shelves this August. The immediate success of this series prompted ABC World News to name Danica their "Person of the Week." Her message to girls? Smart is sexy!
In addition to continuing her acting career with such roles as a recurring spot on CBS's hit show How I Met Your Mother, a guest appearance on The Big Bang Theory, and various films, Danica voices the regular role of "Miss Martian" on Cartoon Network's Young Justice. To date, she has starred in over 30 films and has had over 50 guest-starring roles on series. Visit the videos page to watch some clips!
"It's hard to describe why I love acting. I've always had two sides to my personality - on the one hand I love logic and math and puzzles, and on the other, I just love to entertain people. I have an instinct to tell human stories with the belief that somehow we understand ourselves better when we see someone projected up on a screen, someone who is saying things we've said and feeling what we've felt. I also do it because it feeds an instinct that I have to share something. And boy, there's nothing like "sharing" with a live audience in theater acting - it's like dancing for me. There's a real thrill to it."
She can be seen this year in Lifetime's Christmas-y Romantic Comedy, Love at the Christmas Table, alongside Lea Thompson and Dustin Milligan, and in 2013, look for Danica in SyFy's suspense flick Tasmanian Devils (with Olympian Apolo Ohno).
Brandon McMillan is an animal trainer and behaviorist who has spent his entire life learning about and working with all types of animals—from household pets to the wildest of untamed beasts.
Born into a family of animal entertainers, McMillan has been training wild animals since he was born. Thanks to his father and uncle who gave him the knowledge and work ethic , McMillan developed an attachment to animals at an early age. He jokes that he’s been “picking up tiger poop” as far back as he can remember, but his early years around the animal performers certainly gave him valuable skills that he uses in his current career as a Los Angeles -based animal trainer.
Since becoming an animal trainer, Brandon has trained lions, bears, tigers, reptiles and even insects for such films as The Hangover, We Bought a Zoo, The Jungle Book II, I Am Sam, Buddy, Soul Plane, Red Dragon and television’s 24, Dharma and Greg, Jackass, Wildboyz and Carnivale, plus hundreds of commercials and ads. Even with no formal training, Brandon has built such expertise with animals that he now teaches others how to train wild animals, priding himself on his blue-collar educational background.
Brandon and Conan copy“My school was the school of hard knocks,” he says. “All my educational background is from 100% experience in the field– no books, no classrooms.” When asked if he feels he’s garnered a sixth sense because of all his interactive animal experience, Brandon replies with an emphatic, “No!” He doesn’t see it that way. “I don’t have any special powers, just cut and dry experience. Having a sixth sense won’t save my life if an animal is coming at me, but experience will.”
In his spare time, Brandon brings his vast animal knowledge to the domestic world when he trains dogs at his prestigious canine obedience school the “LA Dog Retreat.” Brandon is well known in Los Angeles for rescuing dogs out of the pound that are just days away from being put to sleep and turn them into movie stars. Many of Hollywood’s A-list celebrities call upon Brandon to help with their out of control pets at home. However, as much as Brandon loves man’s best friend, his wild side and the need for an adrenaline rush always beckon him back to the wild beasts.
“I just need the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up at least once a day,” he admits. “It lets me know that I am alive and living, not just alive. There’s a big difference.
"Oh Behave " Theme Song Written & Produced by Mark Winter
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