Andrea Hope Elson (born March 6, 1969) is an American retired child model and actress, best known for her science fiction television roles as Alice Tyler on the CBS adventure series Whiz Kids and as Lynn Tanner on the NBC comedy series ALF, which garnered her two Youth in Film Award nominations in 1986 and 1989.
[2] Elson began her professional career as a child model and actress, appearing in a number of commercials, print advertisements and community theatre productions in San Diego.
[2] In 1983, after relocating with her family to Los Angeles, Elson made her television debut at the age of 14 with a co-starring role on the CBS mystery-adventure series, Whiz Kids.
[1][2] On the series, she portrayed Alice Tyler, co-starring with Matthew Laborteaux, Todd Porter, and Jeffrey Jacquet as a group of teenage detectives who solve crimes and bring perpetrators to justice with the help of a talking computer.
She portrayed Lynn Tanner, the teenage daughter in a typical middle-class suburban family who adopt a friendly extraterrestrial, performed by puppeteer Paul Fusco.