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Amanda Bynes, born April 3, 1986, in Thousand Oaks, California, is an American actress who was best known for her various role on the children’s television channel Nickelodeon and in the film Easy A.
Bynes first gained national recognition on the Nickelodeon sketch-comedy series All That, alongside fellow Nick stars such as Kenan Thompson, Kel Mitchell, and Nick Cannon. In addition to All That, Bynes was given her own show on Nickelodeon, The Amanda Show, which aired from 1999 to 2002.
Following her time starring on Nickelodeon, Bynes starred on The WB sitcom What I Like About You, which ran from 2002 to 2006.
In addition to her television roles, Bynes starred in a handful of films throughout her career, such as What a Girl Wants (2003), She’s the Man (2006), Hairspray (2007), Sydney White (2007), and Easy A (2010).
After starring in Easy A in 2010, Bynes took an indefinite leave from acting to deal with her substance abuse issues and has not starred in a professional acting role since.
In late November of 2018, Bynes appeared in a feature in Paper Magazine where she revealed that she has been sober for 4 years and is receiving her Associate’s of Arts degree in Merchandise Product Development from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles.
via Paper:
Bynes already has thoughts and words of advice for people who might see themselves in some of her experiences. “My advice to anyone who is struggling with substance abuse would be to be really careful because drugs can really take a hold of your life,” she says “Everybody is different, obviously, but for me, the mixture of marijuana and whatever other drugs and sometimes drinking really messed up my brain. It really made me a completely different person. I actually am a nice person. I would never feel, say or do any of the things that I did and said to the people I hurt on Twitter.”
She continues, “There are gateway drugs and thankfully I never did heroin or meth or anything like that but certain things that you think are harmless, they may actually affect you in a more harmful way. Be really, really careful because you could lose it all and ruin your entire life like I did.”
Additionally, Bynes said that she has plans to return to acting.
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