Sydney White & The Seven Dorks
Amanda Laura Bynes (born April 3, 1986) is an American actress and former show host on Nickelodeon. After appearing in several successful television series on Nickelodeon in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Bynes has moved into a film career, starring in several films aimed at teenage audiences, including her latest, She's the Man, and her upcoming role in a remake of Hairspray.
Bynes has been described by The Boston Globe as having an "Everygirl" appeal, embodying "both everything her teen fans dream of being and everything they know they really are, and they love her for it." In 2006, she was named one of Teen People's "25 Hottest Stars Under 25".
• Early Life
Bynes was born in Thousand Oaks, California to Rick Bynes, a dentist who also practiced stand-up comedy, and Lynn Organ, a dental assistant. She has two older siblings, Tommy, a chiropractor, and Jillian, who has a B.A. in psychology from UCLA. Bynes grew up "half Catholic and half Jewish" and identifies herself as Jewish.
• Career
Bynes was trained as an actress by Arsenio Hall and Richard Pryor at a comedy camp, and began professionally acting at the age of seven, appearing in a television advertisement for Buncha Crunch candies. During her childhood, she also appeared on stage in versions of Annie, The Secret Garden, The Music Man and The Sound of Music. After taking acting classes, Bynes became a regular cast member of Nickelodeon's Figure It Out and All That (both in 1996) and later became the star of The Amanda Show, also on Nickelodeon.
Bynes made her film debut in 2002's mild box office success, Big Fat Liar, where she played opposite Frankie Muniz. Her first solo leading role was in 2003's What a Girl Wants, which also performed fairly at the box office with her co-star Oliver James. Subsequently, Bynes starred in the WB Network's sitcom What I Like About You and had voice parts in 2003's Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure and 2005's CGI animated comedy, Robots. She also co-starred in an episode of The Nightmare Room as Danielle Warner, and in Arliss as Crystal Dupree.
Bynes appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair's July 2003 edition with Hollywood's nine most popular female young stars, including Lindsay Lohan, Hilary Duff, the Olsen Twins, and Mandy Moore. Although she is often compared with them, Bynes has commented that "It's like being the hot girl at the high school party. I was never that girl. I grew up with terrible acne and feeling insecure. I was tall and skinny. I didn't feel pretty at all, and guys didn't even like me. That's why I got into comedy." Bynes has also said that her relatability to teenage audiences may stem from the fact that she is "more similar to them than some... socialite or whatever".
Her most recently released film is She's the Man, a comedy based on William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. In the film, which opened in March 2006, Bynes disguises herself as her brother in order to join an elite boarding school. Producers had originally wanted to cast singer Jesse McCartney as Bynes' brother, noting a physical resemblance between McCartney and Bynes disguised as a boy, but McCartney was unavailable. Around the time of the film's release, Bynes commented that she would like to start appearing in more mature roles and believes that she is still developing her acting skills and maturing as an actress, specifying that she is "getting better" with each role.
Bynes has completed filming on another romantic comedy, Lovewrecked, which was shot before She's the Man but will be released after it, at some point in 2006 or 2007. She has also been cast as Penny Pingleton in Hairspray, a new film adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name; Hairspray began filming in Toronto in September of 2006.
• Personal Life
Amanda graduated from Thousand Oaks High School's independent study program and has expressed a desire to attend New York University in the near future. She briefly moved into an apartment in Hollywood, California, but has since returned to her family home. She also wears contact lenses.
Bynes is interested in drawing (she once painted a portrait of David Letterman as a gift to him) and fashion design, having commented that "I'm the girl whose biggest nightmare would be to lose my makeup bag while traveling".