She Played Molly on "Roseanne." See Danielle Harris Now at 45.
These days, the actor is best known for much scarier roles.
During Season 5 of Roseanne, the show added a few new characters to shake things up: the Tilden family. The Tildens lived next door to the Conners, and the two teenage sisters, Molly (Danielle Harris) and Charlotte Tilden (Mara Hoble), were featured frequently—before disappearing in Season 6. You may remember Molly in particular being a frenemy to Darlene (Sara Gilbert), with the two characters often butting heads.
While Harris' role on Roseanne was pretty short-lived, her acting career has been a long one. She began acting as a child and is still active in entertainment now—including making an appearance on the Roseanne sequel series, The Conners. Read on to find out more about Harris' life today.
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Harris got her start as a child actor.
Harris was 15 when she joined Roseanne in 1992, and she had already been acting for some time. She had appeared in the series One Life to Live, In Living Color, and Growing Pains, and was in two Halloween movies and Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, among other roles.
Harris opened up about Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, which has become a cult classic, in a 2021 interview with Looper. "It's a typical '90s feel-good nostalgic movie. It just feels good," she said. "[I]t's the only movie that when it comes on TV, I curl up and I watch it and I watch the whole thing. I just love it."
She's still acting today.
Harris has made a name for herself starring in horror movies and is considered a Scream Queen. In addition to the two Halloween movies she made as a young actor, she's been in the 2007 Halloween remake and the 2009 sequel. She's also been in the scary movies Urban Legend, Hatchet, See No Evil 2, and more. Some of her non-horror projects over the years include appearances in ER, The West Wing, Psych, and Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. She also voiced the character Debbie Thornberry on the Nickelodeon series The Wild Thornberrys.
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She's also a director.
Harris has also worked behind the camera. She co-directed the 2008 horror film Prank and the 2012 comedy-horror movie Among Friends. In a 2020 interview with ComicBook.com, she shared that she was going to be directing an upcoming movie.
"I am currently set to direct a feature that Joe Dante is producing," she said. "He and his production company have found a script for me that will allow me to hire all my friends and create my own franchise. So, yes, I'm down to do a franchise, but I think I'm going to start my own thing and not hop on board of somebody else's."
She's married and a mom.
As reported by People, Harris married her husband, David Gross, in 2014. They have two children together, Carter and Jagger.
During a 2020 interview with Horror Geek Life, Harris was asked if she'd like to take a lead role on a streaming service project. She responded, "I don't think I want to be a lead on anything. (Laughs) You simply don't have a life anymore, you don't have time to do anything. I have one son about to turn two and another son who is three and a half turning four, so it's a really important time to be with them I think. I had kids late in life so it's one of those things where ok, I've spent all this time focusing on me and my career, now I just want to do things I really like, not work every day, just come in and knock it out of the park and then get to go home to my family."
She reprised the role of Molly Tilden.
Nearly 30 years after first playing the character, Harris returned as Molly Tilden on an episode of The Conners in 2021. And, in a shocking move, her character was killed off. Molly had brain cancer and gave Darlene advice about living life to the fullest before dying.
"Even when I'm not doing horror movies, I'm dying on a show, right? I was like, 'Really? I have to die, too?'" Harris told ComicBook.com.
But she also said that she was thrilled when she was asked to come back, because it was something she hoped might happen. "[I]t was just such a fun character to play and I know they were bringing people back here and there, so I've kept my eyes on it and I watched the show anyway," she said. "So I kept my eyes open and when I got the call that they wanted to put me on hold for some episodes, and I was like, 'Wait, wait. For what? Wait, what? For Molly? For me? Me, Molly? Like they want me?' So it was pretty exciting. It was definitely the most exciting news I got in a very long time."
