[3] Her father is Israeli-born former professional soccer player Mordechai ("Moti") and her mother, Donna Rose, is a former elementary school art teacher from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

[4] Both of her parents have musical backgrounds; Moti played drums, while Donna won a contest on The Gong Show in the 1970s singing a Bonnie Raitt song.

[8] While Danielle showed an aptitude for the guitar at a young age, Moti made the decision that Este would be more suited to the bass, buying her a second hand Fender for $50.

[11] After playing a gig with their parents, Danielle and her older sister Este were asked to join a pop group called the Valli Girls, and signed to Sony Records in 2004.

The group made promotional videos, an unreleased album, and their song "Always There in You" was featured on the soundtrack of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants in 2005.

"[21] In 2019, Danielle was featured in Vampire Weekend's album Father of the Bride, providing vocals on the tracks "Hold You Now", "Married in a Gold Rush" and "We Belong Together".

[22] Danielle serves as Haim's lead vocalist and guitarist,[23][24][25] although all three band members sing and play multiple instruments.

[32] The Pop Break contributor Jason Kundrath described Danielle as being "in full command of her low alto, stacking her syllables close together, and using each one percussively to create rhythmic hooks on top of her grade A melodies".

[33] Similarly, Spencer Kornhaber of The Atlantic observed that the artist "breaks words into a cluster of onomatopoeias delivered rapid-fire, making sentences sound like tongue twisters even without alliteration".

[24][37] Several interviewers and publications have cited Danielle as the quietest and most reserved among her siblings,[38][36][35] with Melena Ryzik of The New York Times describing her as the band's "most precise and serious-minded" member.