Amanda Bynes is not an unfamiliar name in Hollywood. she has been acting ever since she was a child. But Bynes has been a target of the media for more than a decade because of her mental health issues.
She had the plight of almost all the other child artists that grew up in the limelight. She had to face a lot of legal troubles. In addition to that, mental health struggles had led her to a conservatorship.
Bynes was born in Thousand Oaks, California. She was born on April 3, 1986. Her father, Rick Bynes, is a dentist, and her mother, Lynn Organ, is a dentist assistant. Being born and brought up in California gave her easy access to acting opportunities. Even at a very young age, she began acting in local plays. By the age of 7, she got an agent!
When she was 10, her dad signed her up for a kid’s comedy camp at The Laugh Factory. It was her performance in this that earned her the connection to get a role at Nickelodeon. At the camp’s graduation, Nickelodeon Producers met her, and it was a turning point in her life.
Amanda Bynes Acting Career
13-year-old Amanda Bynes hosted her own Nickelodeon comedy sketch series, “The Amanda Show.” Nickelodeon
Being discovered by the producers Brian Robbins and Dan Schneider paved the way for her to get her major project, “All That.” It was an extremely popular Tv show that was modeled after Saturday Night Live, but the key difference was it was for kids.
It premiered from 1996-2000. She was cast in segments such as “Ask Ashley,” Whateverrr!,” and “Captain Tantrum.” This is the series that made her popular, and she was one of the most popular cast members of that show.
Both the show and Amanda became so well received that she got her own show called”The Amanda Show,” which premiered from 1999 to 2002. It is a sketch-comedy show. The show received many positive responses, and Amanda Bynes won the Favorite TV Actress award from the Nickelodeon Kids” Choice Awards for three consecutive seasons.
She then left the show to act in films; her first film Big Fat Liars, was a huge success that it grossed about $50 million worldwide. The success of that movie made her an A-list actress that regularly appears in romantic comedies.
Along with her big screen presence, she also continued to do roles on the small screen. She was a part of the coming-of-age series What I Like About you. It ran from 2002 to 2006. The key difference from her Nickelodeon day was that this show was aimed toward a more mature audience than her regular Nickelodeon audience.
This was her golden era as she became one of the most popular and On-demand actresses in Hollywood. 2010 was the year that changed her career. She was at the peak of her career with back-to-back hits when she announced that she would be quitting acting. She announced this news through Twitter. It came as a surprise to many as she was having a successful movie career.
Amanda Bynes After Retiring From Movies
13-year-old Amanda Bynes hosted her own Nickelodeon comedy sketch series, “The Amanda Show.” Nickelodeon
She was just 24 when she decided to retire from acting; in a now-deleted Twitter post, she said that she did not enjoy acting anymore. She felt like she shouldn’t be doing it if it doesn’t make her happy. She said she was quitting because she did not want to do it. She no longer felt like it was fun. It was later revealed that she did this because she had low self-esteem issues, and that was what led her to take this decision.
She said she couldn’t stand her appearance, nor did she like any of her performances. And hence she decided to take a step back and stay away from acting. She also said that she was high on marijuana when she said those words; at first, it came out of her and didn’t mean anything but then it all started to make sense, and she started to get affected by those words.
Amanda Bynes’s’ Legal troubles
It was after she announced that news troubles followed her. She was arrested for the first time for driving under the influence in 2012 when she hit a sheriff’s deputy’s cruiser with her car. Her mugshot from this incident made great news as she dyed her hair from blonde to pink and looked completely different. After this incident, she constantly made headlines for reckless driving. She also had two hit-and-run cases against her.
From February 2012 to 2014 she had multiple cases against her which includes two hit and run cases and smoking pot and throughing bong out of her Time Square apartment window. During the course of this time she was senteced to probation few times.
After the bong throwing incident upon agreeing to undergo psychiatric treatment, her case was dismissed. But she was still charged with possession of Marijuana and reckless driving. Even after this, she was once again caught driving under the influence, and it was in 2014. When she was caught, she was once again high on Marijuana.
Amanda Bynes’s’ wild relationship with social media
Amanda Bynes receiving the award
Under the influence of drugs, she has done a few things that had the potential to ruin her image. This reckless behavior includes ranting on Twitter. Her Twitter account is now deleted, but when she was active, she went against everybody.
She made some racist remarks about former president Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, calling them ugly. She also famously said that she would never marry a German because she was Jewish. Sometimes her tweets had sexual innuendo, for e.g., when she tweeted Drake to murder her private part.
Amanda Bynes Goes To Fashion School
Amanda Bynes debuted her pink hair on Twitter in 2019. (Twitter)
Amanda Bynes had a thing for fashion from a young age; even during her time at Nickelodeon, she had mentioned it. In an interview, she said she wanted to be a fashion designer because she loves fashion and she loves drawing. To fulfill this dream, she enrolled in a fashion school in 2014. She enrolled at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising to complete her dream.
Though she enrolled in fashion school in 2014, it took her almost five years to complete her course; she only graduated in 2019. A series of mental health issues and anxiety relapse delayed her graduation, and hence it took her this long to complete her course.
Amanda Bynes Reveals Psychiatric Issues On Social Media
Bynes’s battle with a mental disorder is known to us, but she first revealed this in 2014 through Twitter, announcing that she was battling with bipolar disorder and manic depressive disorder.
Bynes revealed on Twitter she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and manic depressive disorder. She was hospitalized many times for her mental health. The first time she went on psychiatric hold was in July 2013. It was rumoured that she set fire to an elderly woman’s driveway.
She was once again put on psychiatric hold for posting absurd and disturbing tweets on Twitter. In this tweet, she accused her father of abusing her and putting a microchip in her brain.
Amanda Bynes Conservatorship
All these incidents led the Judge to decide to give her mother a permanent conservatorship in October 2014. The judge ruled that she posed a substantial risk to not only her but others. The court ruled that she had been spending most of her savings on buying expensive things. And thus, her mother was given the responsibility of taking care of her and her medical and financial affairs.
Amanda Bynes’s Present Life
Paul Michael and Amanda Bynes. (Instagram)
After all the legal drama, Amanda Bynes stayed away from the spotlight for a while, but she made a comeback with the Paper magazine interview in which she got candid about her drug use. She said she started it at the age of 16. Ever Since then, she has been an addict. The interview was in 2018. Later in 2020, she announced her engagement with Paul Michael. This was also the same year she filed suit to end her conservatorship.
