Staci Keanan caught fire early in her career, getting her big break in acting at the age of twelve on a major network sitcom which would go on for three seasons. Then, she would be lucky enough to land yet another major sitcom that would air for seven seasons with her as a main cast member. When you hit gold that early, where else is there to go?
Starting off strong
Staci Keaner was born Anastasia Love Sagorsky in 1975, one of two daughters in a small family of four living in Pennsylvania. While she would start early in commercials and child fashion modeling, Staci wouldn’t start acting in the big leagues until her parents moved the family to Los Angeles when she was just 12 years old in 1987.
The then-upcoming sitcom My Two Dads was casting right around the time Staci Keaner’s family moved to LA, and were looking for someone to play the main character Nicole, Keanan would land the part with ease and go on to star for three seasons alongside actors like Paul Reiser and Giovanni Ribisi in the story of two single men raising a child that could be either one of theirs.
Running off the continued success until 1990 when the show ended, Keanan took on a film role in the thriller Lisa, a psychological slasher better left forgotten. The film would bomb, but she would pick up another role in the sitcom Going Places, co-starring with the perpetually anxious Alan Ruck.
Going Places would, unfortunately, do the opposite and go nowhere, seeing cancellation after just one season. No sweat for Staci though, who would change her name and pick up a whole new co-starring role that would see her through most of the 90s.
Step By Step
While she had until now been performing as Staci Love, using her mother’s maiden name, she would change it to Staci Keanan upon being cast as Dana in Step by Step. Just one of a cast of eight main characters, Step by Step is best summed up as The Brady Bunch, with two parents with three kids each getting rebound married immediately after they meet. There are only two options in that scenario and it’s either a family sitcom or a slasher film, with no in-between.
She would star in the show with a cast that included Josh Byrne, Angela Watson, Christopher Castile, Sasha Mitchell, and Emily Mae Young, among others.
Step by Step would run for seven seasons from 1991 to 1998, seeing almost two hundred episodes. Staci Keanan would take time here and there between filming to guest star in other shows like Boy Meets World and cult film Nowhere. She would act in her final television credit to date in an episode of Diagnosis: Murder in 1998.
Exploring Different Roads
Staci Keanan would step back from acting completely for a bit, taking time to get her bachelor’s degree from UCLA in Art History. She would return to acting in 2004 in the short film Stolen Poem alongside a then-unknown Alison Brie of Community fame.
Her film output for the remainder of the 2000s was questionable at best, with the pro-life A Christmas Carol ripoff Sarah’s Choice being a standout for the laughability factor. Her other credits would vary between a murder mystery and an Amish meta-comedy. I wish I was kidding but the film is called Holyman Undercover. Don’t torture yourself, it’s not worth it.
Her final role in indie horror Death and Cremation seemingly marked the end of her acting career, with the actress only making a brief cameo with former Step by Step co-star Christine Lakin’s strange meta projects since then. While she may not be acting anymore, she is still involved in the Hollywood area.
What is Staci Keanen Doing Now?
In 2013 Staci Keanen graduated from Southwestern Law school, earning her license to practice that same year. While she would go back to using her birth name for her law career, she has still found time to show up in one of Lakin’s shows in 2017 between prosecuting murderers as the Deputy District Attorney in Los Angeles. Pretty badass for the girl that was in a love triangle with Giovanni Ribisi.
In 2017 she would marry fellow actor Gary Birtwhistle, with the two still residing in Los Angeles. Staci Keanan has made no comments about returning to acting or any plans to do so but still keeps up with some of her former co-stars from her Hollywood days. Currently, she is still acting as the Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles, working to prosecute violent crime in the city.
Staci would return to her alma mater of Southwestern Law in late 2021 as an adjunct professor, teaching various courses throughout the semesters since then on specialized law subjects like DUI cases.
These days she tries to live a quiet life outside of her likely very stressful job as district attorney. She lives in Los Angeles, is still married to Gary Birtwhistle, and making waves with her career.