Staci Keanan began her career at age four with fashion-show assignments and magazine work. At age eight she moved to New York with her mother and sister and balanced a modeling career with a budding theater career, in addition to keeping a high scholastic record. She won several prestigious scholastic awards, including a City of New York essay contest and the National Language Arts Olympiad. As for her acting career, she branched from modeling into commercials, voice-overs and jingles, and then got roles in several mini-series and TV specials. her first starring role was in the series "My Two Dads" (1987). She received both the Youth In Film Award and Sixteen Magazine's Top TV Newcomer Award for her work on the series. In 1989 Staci made it to the big screen in the feature film Lisa (1989), and then starred in the TV series "Step by Step" (1991).