An appealing blonde actress who got her start in projects pairing her with twin sister Cynthia, fresh-faced energetic performer Brittany Daniel went from teen model to young actress when she stopped growing at a relatively short 5’7″. Appearing on the short-lived syndicated daytime drama “Swans Crossing” failed to jumpstart her career, but this onetime Doublemint twin found fame as Jessica, the wilder half of the Wakefield twins on “Sweet Valley High”, the syndicated series based on Francine Pascal’s long-running young adult book series. From 1994 to 1998 she played against type as the outgoing and opportunistic sister while her real-life twin played the more studious Elizabeth. With Cynthia, Daniel made her big screen debut in the gritty biopic “The Basketball Diaries”, playing Blinkie alongside her sister’s Winkie, two upper-class wild girls who run around with would-be heroin-addled poet Jim Carroll (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his pal Neutron (Patrick McGaw).
When “Sweet Valley High” ended production, sister Cynthia gave up acting for photography, and Daniel began to work on her own. She returned to series television with a recurring role as Eve on “Dawson’s Creek” in 1999. As the mysterious new stripper/high school student intent on deflowering the all-too-serious Dawson, Daniel’s Eve was a provocative, welcome addition to the cast, but audiences were only treated to her unexplainable antics for four episodes before her character revealed her secret and skipped town. A role in the direct-to-video thriller “Sonic Blast” (2000) kept her busy, while a supporting turn in that year’s New Orleans on Mardi Gras-set disaster flick “On Hostile Ground” (TBS) brought her back into the public eye. In 2001, Daniel returned to the big screen, playing the dream girl of “Joe Dirt”, David Spade’s clueless loser on a journey to find his long lost family. Here she displayed the natural down-to-earth charm she played against on both “Sweet Valley High” and “Dawson’s Creek”, gently spurning Dirt’s unwanted advances while sparing his feelings. Displaying a talent for comedy, and believable in action-packed thrillers, Daniel was a versatile performer who found a steady stream of work in projects as diverse as the short-lived “That 80s Show” (Fox, 2002) and the drama “11 Gramercy Park” to films like “Club Dread” (2004), and the Wayans brothers’ “White Chicks” (2004) in a scene-stealing turn as one of the bitchy Vandergeld sisters, arch rivals to the blonde, white heiresses the Wayans are pretending to be.
- Also Credited As:
Brittany Ann Daniel
- Born:
on 03/17/76 in Gainesville, Florida
- Job Titles:
Actor, Model
Family
- Brother: Brad Daniel. born c. 1968
- Father: C B Daniel. member of the Florida State University
- Mother: Carolyn Daniel.
- Sister: Cynthia Daniel. twin of Brittany; five minutes younger
Significant Others
- Companion: John Corbett. dated in 2001
- Companion: Joshua Jackson. co-starred with Daniel on “Dawson’s Creek”; dated from 1999-2000; no longer together
Education
- Gainesville High School, Gainesville, Florida, 1994
Milestones
- 1987 With sister, portrayed a two-headed dragon in a fantasy sequence on “The New Leave It to Beaver” (Disney Channel; TBS; and syndicated)
- 1992 Was featured on the short-lived syndicated daytime drama “Swans Crossing”, starring with Sarah Michelle Gellar
- 1994 Starring opposite twin Cynthia, played Jessica Wakefield on the teen series “Sweet Valley High” (syndicated; UPN)
- 1994 With sister, guest starred in an episode of the detective series “Burke’s Law” (CBS)
- 1995 Made feature debut in “The Basketball Diaries”
- 1999 Had a recurring role on “Dawson’s Creek” as the mysterious Eve, the would-be seductress with a secret
- 2000 Acted in the TBS original movie “On Hostile Ground”
- 2000 Featured in the direct-to-video actioner “Sonic Blast”
- 2001 Played the dream girl of David Spade’s titular loser in the comedy “Joe Dirt”
- 2002 Co-starred in the Fox midseason replacement sitcom “That ’80s Show”
- 2004 Appeared in the Pilot episode of the NBC drama “North Shore”
- 2004 Cast opposite Shawn and Marlon Wayans in the comedy “White Chicks”
- 2004 Featured in the comedy “Broken Lizard’s Club Dread”
- Began modeling at age 11; appeared in teen fashion publications Seventeen and YM
- With sister Cynthia, was a Doublemint Twin in the famed gum commercials
