It’s hard to imagine anyone else but Danielle Fishel playing Topanga Lawrence, especially as Boy Meets World just marked its 33rd anniversary (the sitcom premiered on ABC on September 24, 1993). But for one very chaotic day in the 90s, the role was someone else’s entirely.
Fast forward thirty years to June 2023 and the two women are meeting up to spill the details on Fishel’s own podcast: Pod Meets World.
Bonnie Morgan Was Cast as Topanga at 12 — Then Fired After One Day
Bonnie Morgan was just 12 when she landed the part of free-spirited Topanga Lawrence. “Every time I’d audition we’d talk a lot,” she recalled on Pod Meets World. “And every time I’d come, the script would change slightly, it seemed, to things that we had talked about.” She even felt a personal connection to the character’s name, since her own parents had married in Topanga Canyon.
But she’d landed in the middle of a power struggle between showrunner Michael Jacobs, who wanted her on the sitcom, and director David Trainer, who did not.
Her first and only day on set went sideways fast. She had difficulties with a line and co-star Ben Savage teased her off-script, rattling her further. Trainer grew visibly frustrated, repeatedly pushing her to deliver a line differently.
Fishel was there that day, too, cast in a minor role in the episode. In her 2014 memoir, Normally This Would Be Cause for Concern, she recalled watching Morgan receive notes and deliver the lines the exact same way again. The next day, Morgan was gone.
“It was the weirdest day of my life,” Morgan said. “All the adults were very short with me.” She left that Friday still under the impression she’d be back the following week. But she wasn’t…and the apparent reason was rather shocking: “It came out very quickly to my agent that the director didn’t think I was pretty enough.”
Danielle Fishel Nearly Lost the Topanga Role Too
Fishel nearly lost the role too, but for different reasons. Her fast, clipped speech reportedly annoyed Jacobs, and she had to work with her mother to slow it down to keep the part.
Hearing Morgan’s account decades later, Fishel drew her own conclusion about what had really happened to both of them: “There was a power struggle that had nothing to do with the characters, or Topanga, or the actors at all. It was a power struggle between two adults who wanted power, period, and we were all just pawns.”
RELATED: At 49, Boy Meets World Star Maitland Ward Is Making Adult Films — And Has No Regrets
From Boy Meets World to The Ring: Bonnie Morgan’s Contortion and Horror Career
Losing the role didn’t derail Morgan’s career. Instead of playing Topanga on Boy Meets World for the next several years, she leaned into a skill that set her apart from other Hollywood starlets… contortion, which she’d been practicing since she was nine.
Bonnie’s father, Gary Morgan, is a veteran actor and stuntman, having played one of the villainous Gogan brothers in Pete’s Dragon (1977) before Bonnie was even born. Naturally, his daughter was inspired and became skilled at stunts of her own.
Some of Bonnie Morgan’s stand-out roles include:
- Contortionist in Minority Report (2002): The spine-defying role that helped show off her physical abilities to other producers.
- Stunt performer in Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008): Stunt work that earned her a SAG Award nomination as part of the stunt ensemble.
- Rosa in The Devil Inside (2012): Played a demonically possessed exorcism subject.
- Samara Morgan in Rings (2017): Took on horror’s most recognizable ghost girl, 12 years after she first performed the character’s infamous ‘spider crawl’ as a stunt double in The Ring Two.
- Colette in A Series of Unfortunate Events (2018–2019): Portrayed one of Count Olaf’s contortionist henchwomen in the Netflix series.
RELATED: Daveigh Chase, Who Played Samara Morgan in The Ring, Has Died at 35
Fun Fact: Bonnie Morgan held a Guinness World Record after she spent roughly 3 minutes squeezed into a 2×2-foot box with two other people.
Does Bonnie Morgan Regret Losing the Topanga Role?
She’s admitted that for a long time it felt like Fishel took the role from her, but she doesn’t blame her. Morgan has said she watched just one episode with Fishel as Topanga and never tuned in again.
Her tone throughout the podcast interview with Fishel leaned more matter-of-fact than bitter, and the fact that she opened up to the woman who got the role instead of her feels like a full-circle moment. Let’s remember that she lost the role three decades ago and Morgan has had an incredible career since then.
While she isn’t a household name, she’s remained active in the entertainment industry and she has developed a cult following within the horror and sci-fi genres.
Recent projects include a contortionist cheerleader in Them (2021), Courteney Cox’s movement double in Shining Vale (2023), an alien servant woman in Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire (2023), and the role of Suzy in A Moment for Love (2025).
Her adventurous and daring life is shared with the public through regular Instagram updates. We’re not sure what Bonnie Morgan will be doing next but we can guarantee you that it won’t be boring.
Bonnie Morgan’s Major Movies
| Year | Movie | Role |
| 2001 | Bubble Boy | Rubber Girl |
| 2002 | Minority Report | Contortionist |
| 2005 | The Ring Two | Stunts (Samara’s well crawl) |
| 2008 | Hellboy II: The Golden Army | Stunts (SAG Award nomination) |
| 2011 | Fright Night | Vamp #1 |
| 2012 | The Devil Inside | Rosa |
| 2015 | The Last Witch Hunter | Tree Witch |
| 2017 | Rings | Samara Morgan |
| 2023 | Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire | Alien Servant Woman |
Boy Meets World is streaming on Disney+ and Hulu in the US.
