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Dani Harmer

English actress

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ4952735 ↗
Source-derived summary

Danielle Jane Harmer (born 8 February 1989) is an English actress, television personality, and former singer. She is best known for her lead role as Tracy Beaker in the CBBC series The Story of Tracy Beaker (2002–2006), Tracy Beaker Returns (2010–2012), for which she was nominated for a BAFTA in 2010, The Tracy Beaker Survival Files (2011–2012), My Mum Tracy Beaker (2021), and The Beaker Girls (2022–2023).

Harmer played the role of Molly Louise Venables in the BBC One comedy series After You've Gone (2007–2008). She starred in her own CBBC sitcom Dani's House (2008–2012), which received several awards and nominations from BAFTA Kids, and its spin-off Dani's Castle (2013–2014). Harmer also occasionally presented Friday Download and continuity clips for CBBC.

In 2008, Harmer branched into the music industry and signed a £3m record deal with Universal Group. She recorded her debut studio album, Superheroes, in September 2009, and released the single and theme from Dani's House, "Free", but the album was never released and it was later confirmed she had abandoned her music career indefinitely.

In 2012, Harmer competed in the fourth series of Let's Dance for Sport Relief alongside Tyger Drew-Honey, in which they both finished as joint runners-up. Later that year, she competed in the tenth series of Strictly Come Dancing, partnered with Vincent Simone, reaching the final and finishing in fourth place.

In 2022, Harmer directed scenes of The Beaker Girls, and in 2024 she directed her first full episode of The Dumping Ground, going on to direct their online content the following series.

Early life

Danielle Jane Harmer was born and raised in her hometown Bracknell, Berkshire, to parents Jill, a former legal worker and children's casting agent, and Andy Harmer, a mechanic and chauffeur.

Editorial summary

“Dani Harmer” enters the record as english actress. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Dani, Harmer and English can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1989, 2002, 2006, 2010—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1989-02-08. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Dani, Harmer and English.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Dani Harmer” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Dani, Harmer and English provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4952735. VIAF identifies the subject as 95117482. The Library of Congress control number is no2017065346. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1989, 2002, 2006 and 2010.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Dani Harmer”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Dani Harmer primary sources, Dani Harmer archive and Dani research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Dani Harmer”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Dani Harmer” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.