Staci Keanan was born Anastasia Sagorsky on June 6, 1975 in Devon, Pennsylvania. She began her career at age four with fashion-show assignments and magazine work. At age eight, she moved to New York City 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, voiceovers and jingles, and then got roles in several miniseries and television specials. Her first starring role was as Nicole Bradford in the situation comedy 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 silver screen in the horror film Lisa (1989), and then starred in the situation comedy Step by Step (1991).