'Boy Meets World' star Danielle Fishel claims to know 'nothing truly' about acting?

Danielle Fishel recently admitted that she could not fully discover her potential while she was working on Boy Meets World.

For those unaware, the 45-year-old started playing the role of Topanga Lawrence when she was just 12 years old in a coming-of-age sitcom created by Michael Jacobs and April Kelly that aired on ABC for seven seasons between September 1993 and 2000.

In a new documentary about the series and accompanying podcast, Pod Meets World, Fishel recalled how she spent her years in the entertainment industry after wrapping up the series at the age of 19.

She told her mother, Jennifer Fishel, “Knowing nothing truly, I spent seven years in the entertainment industry, and had I not been a teenager, had I been an adult, I really could've used those seven years to figure out how the entertainment industry works. But I didn't.”

“I didn't feel like I knew how to act. It's like I knew how to be Topanga the way Michael liked. And so then the show ended, and I didn't understand, like, ‘No, now's the time when you're really supposed to be out auditioning all the time,’” the Boiling Pot star confessed.

In the documentary Doc Meets World, her castmates Rider Strong and Will Friedle also reflected on her journey.

Strong said, “At the end of Boy Meets World, she and I had really drifted apart. Danielle, as a person, I think was in a bit of a flux. I sort of felt like she was like the little sister I needed to move away from.”

Fishel went on to add, “When I finished Boy Meets World in 1999, I had no idea where I would end up two years later, much less where I would end up 30 years later.”

Friedle said of Fishel, “She was always kind of on a new trip. She was a new person. I've known many Danielles. You needed all of them to get to be the person she is today.”

“Knowing you during Girl Meets World was clearly a different stage than now,” the Batman Beyond star admitted.

“Yeah, no, I have lived many lives. And I've liked them all. Well, some more than others,” Fishel stated.

It is pertinent to mention that Doc Meets World premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday, June 6, 2026.