Danielle Spencer: The Life of Dee Thomas from What's Happening

Danielle Spencer, Child Star on ‘What’s Happening!!,’ Is Dead at 60

She played a witty teenager on one of the first American television shows that centered Black teenagers.

• “Danielle Spencer became famous as Dee Thomas on the hit 1970s sitcom What’s Happening. Alongside co-stars like Haywood Nelson, she charmed audiences before pursuing a career as Dr. Danielle Spencer, a veterinarian.”

Danielle Spencer’s Early Life and Acting Career:

Danielle Spencer, best known for her role as the sharp-tongued, quick-witted teenager Dee Thomas on the 1970s hit sitcom “What’s Happening!!” and its sequel “What’s Happening Now!!”, died Monday at Chippenham Hospital in Richmond, Va. She was 60.

Her publicist confirmed her passing, citing gastric cancer and cardiac arrest as the causes.

Airing on ABC from 1976 to 1979, “What’s Happening!!” was among the first American TV shows to spotlight the lives of Black teenagers. Loosely inspired by Eric Monte’s 1975 film “Cooley High”, the series debuted during a wave of popular Black sitcoms such as “Sanford and Son” and “Good Times” (co-created by Monte) that were reshaping American pop culture.

The show followed three friends — Roger “Raj” Thomas (Ernest Thomas), Freddie “Rerun” Stubbs (Fred Berry), and Dwayne Nelson (Haywood Nelson) — as they navigated life in Los Angeles. Spencer played Dee, Raj’s spirited younger sister, appearing in 65 episodes of the original series and returning for 16 episodes in the 1980s reboot “What’s Happening Now!!”.

Playing Dee Thomas on What's Happening:

In a 2014 interview with Jet magazine, Dr. Spencer reflected on her groundbreaking role:
“I had never seen any young Black girl in that kind of spotlight, so I didn’t have a media reference point for how to handle the opportunity,” she said. “I was from the Bronx, so I used my own family as the model for how to play my character.”

One of her most memorable lines — “Ooh, I’m telling Mama” — became a lasting catchphrase. Fans repeated it to her for decades, often expecting the same reaction.
“I laugh because everyone thinks they’re the first to say it, so I have to pretend it’s brand new every time,” she told Black America Web.

What Happening Cast: Haywood Nelson, Fred Berry, Ernest Thomas:

Dr. Spencer revealed in a 2016 interview with a Richmond CBS affiliate that she didn’t initially land the role after her audition. But a month later, she got an unexpected call to come to Los Angeles — a major shift for someone raised in the Bronx. The character was designed to be outspoken, quick-witted, and unafraid to give as good as she got.

“I didn’t have an older brother,” Dr. Spencer told the CBS affiliate, “but I had plenty of pent-up sassiness because I wanted to be that way. And since I had the perfect excuse, why not?”
Danielle Louise Spencer was born on June 24, 1965, in the Bronx. Her father, James Spencer, worked as a civil servant in New York, and her mother, Cheryl (Smith) Spencer, was a schoolteacher.
She began acting around the age of 8.
“I realized early in acting classes that I loved memorizing lines, putting on makeup, and pretending to be different characters,” she told Jet magazine. “Acting is therapeutic because you can connect with your characters, understand what drives them, and blend in your own personality.”

Dr. Danielle Spencer: From Actress to Veterinaria:

After “What’s Happening Now!!” ended in 1988, Spencer pursued a new passion — veterinary medicine. She earned her undergraduate degree in marine biology from UCLA before graduating with a doctorate from Tuskegee University in 1993. Her love for animals had been with her since childhood.

“Ever since I was 5, I remember bringing my first pet home to my mom,” she recalled in 2012. “She said, ‘What is this?’ and I told her, ‘You have to keep it — you can’t throw it out.’ I cried and screamed until she let me.”
Her veterinary career spanned decades, though she did make a brief return to acting as a vet in the 1997 film “As Good as It Gets.”

Spencer’s life was also marked by profound challenges. During the filming of the second season of “What’s Happening!!”, she and her stepfather, Tim Pelt, were in a car accident that claimed his life. She spent three weeks in a coma and suffered a broken pelvis and limbs, but recovered in time for the show’s final season. She credited both her stepfather and her mother — later known as Cheryl Pelt — for guiding her acting career and helping choose auditions.

She later faced lasting health consequences from that crash. Nearly two decades afterward, in 2004, she developed spinal stenosis that nearly left her paralyzed. In 2014, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy, relying heavily on her family for support.

“They didn’t want me to think of suicide, even though I had considered it,” she said in a 2016 interview on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
In 2018, she underwent emergency brain surgery.

Her contributions to television history were recognized in 2016, when she was inducted into the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
“I still can’t believe it,” she told Black America Web. “That’s something people can look at for years to come, long after I’m gone.”