Danielle Spencer, the former child actress best known for her role as sassy tween Dee Thomas on the groundbreaking sitcom “What’s Happening!!,” died Monday after battling cancer for several years. She was 60.
The news was made public by her friend and former co-star, actor Haywood Nelson, who wrote on Instagram, “Brilliance! It comes in a great many forms. We all have them and we all have this family’s – Dr. Danielle Spencer (June 24, 1965 – August 11, 2025). Dr. Dee, our brilliant, loving, positive, pragmatic warrior, without fail, has finally found her release from the clutches of this world and a body. We celebrate Danielle Spencer and her contributions as we regret to inform her departure and transition from a long battle with cancer.”
“We have lost a daughter, sister, family member, ‘What’s Happening’ cast member, veterinarian animal rights proponent and healer, and cancer heroine. Our Shero. Danielle is loved. She will be missed in this form and forever embraced,” Nelson concluded.
Born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1965 and raised in New York City, Spencer started acting in elementary school, taking lessons from age 8. At age 11, she landed her big break as Dee Thomas, younger sister of main character Roger (Ernest Thomas) on “What’s Happening.” Loosely based on the hit movie “Cooley High,” the series was a groundbreaking hit that among other things was possibly the first majority Black TV show to focus on teenage characters.
Though popular for most of its run, the show’s producers chose to cancel the show after Season 3 in 1979, due to a dispute with two of the lead actors over compensation. Spencer, 14 at the time, took time off from acting and eventually enrolled at the University of California, Davis, where she studied marine biology.
Meanwhile, “What’s Happening!!” performed exceptionally well in syndication during the early 1980s and in 1985 it was revived with “What’s Happening Now.” Spencer returned on a recurring bases as Dee Thomas while continuing to attend college. “What’s Happening Now” was canceled after 3 seasons, at which time Spencer retired from acting and focused on her education, earning a doctorate in veterinary medicine from Tuskegee University in 1996.
She later wrote a well-regarded memoir of her experiences as a child actor, “Through the Fire: Journal of a Child Star,” published in 2011.
Spencer was married twice, first to Garry Fields from 1999 to 2013. She married David L. David in 2014, though it’s unclear if they remained married at the time of her death.
In her last decade she fought a multi-front battle with cancer: she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, and had been fighting stomach cancer at the time of her death.