We know her best as the loveable but extremely mischievous Tracy Beaker, and Dani Harmer played Tracy and later herself in a series of shows based around a children’s home called the Dumping Ground. For anyone in their twenties right now, it was a seminal part of their childhood experience.
Based on books by Jacqueline Wilson, Tracy Beaker was a young girl whose parents were no longer in the picture, but the TV series, aired on BBC2 during their CBBC children’s programming, soon outgrew the storylines of the original books. A large cast of oddball children made up the people living at the children’s home, and each episode of Tracy Beaker and later, Dani’s House, was a self contained narrative about a struggle faced by one of the kids.
It was a groundbreaking series when it aired for providing a platform to talk about all sorts of issues which often affect children but had not until then appeared on such a popular, mainstream TV show. These included the reasons that the children had ended up in care and the interpersonal relationships formed as part of a large, slightly dysfunctional family unit.
Prior to Tracy Beaker, most representations of children experiencing the care system and depictions of orphanages or care homes were overwhelmingly negative; Tracy Beaker changed this, and opened up discussion of more difficult issues for children and teenagers.
Since leaving Tracy Beaker Dani has made small appearances on several TV shows, as well as starring on the tenth series of Strictly Come Dancing and appearing regularly on stage, most notably in pantomimes, she also remains on the books at entertainment agencies.
In 2016 Harmer gave birth to her first child, a girl named Avarie-Belle Betsy Rachel Brough, with her long time partner Simon Brough, but she remains available to book through her celebrity agents, MN2S.
If you would like to hire a celebrity with MN2S, including Dani or anyone else on the books, just get in touch today.