Where Is Amanda Bynes Now? What Happened to Amanda Bynes
Amanda Bynes poses for a photo shoot with her dog Charlie in her home in Los Angeles on Feb. 12, 2008. (Photo by Zandy Mangold/Animal Fair Media/Getty Images)
Amanda Bynes was comedy's golden girl, but her life took a serious turn as she grew up.
Bynes got her start at age 13 on All That and The Amanda Show on Nickelodeon, and transitioned into stardom as a young adult on What I Like About You and movies including Hairspray, She's the Man, What a Girl Wants and more.
Unfortunately, the pressures of fame, combined with vices that she used to try to escape it, took a serious toll on her mental health, leading her to leave entertainment behind entirely as a means of self-preservation. Where is Amanda Bynes now and what happened to Amanda Bynes? Find out what she's been up to and exactly why she's been lying so low for years.
Related: Amanda Bynes' What I Like About You Co-Star Jennie Garth Speaks Out on Quiet on the Set Documentary
Where is Amanda Bynes now?
MEGA/Getty Images
Today, Bynes is generally lying low while she tries to live a healthy life.
According to E! News, she celebrated her 38th birthday in early April by touring apartment complexes.
After a brief stint as a podcast host, Bynes is now working on getting her manicurist license and has been working towards a career as a cosmetologist. She previously explained that she was happier with the consistency of a regular job in that field than she was as a podcaster.
Related: Amanda Bynes Shows Her Vulnerable Side In Candid Post
What happened to Amanda Bynes?
While there's been a lot of speculation about what happened to Amanda Bynes during her tenure at Nickelodeon, the star has never said anything negative about her experience as a child star, nor about her time working with Dan Schneider—creepy hot tub video be damned.
That said, Bynes struggled with substance abuse and mental illness, which led her to quit acting entirely as a young adult.
Her final film was Easy A with Emma Stone in 2010.
Related: Drake Bell's Honest Opinion of Amanda Bynes
FOX/Getty Images
"I literally couldn't stand my appearance in that movie and I didn't like my performance," she revealed in a 2018 interview with Paper magazine. "I was absolutely convinced I needed to stop acting after seeing it. I was high on marijuana when I saw that, but for some reason it really started to affect me. I don't know if it was a drug-induced psychosis or what, but it affected my brain in a different way than it affects other people. It absolutely changed my perception of things."
"I saw it and I was convinced that I should never be on camera again and I officially retired on Twitter, which was, you know, also stupid," she continued. "If I was going to retire [properly], I should've done it in a press statement—but I did it on Twitter. Real classy! But, you know, I was high and I was like, 'You know what? I am so over this,' so I just did it. But it was really foolish and I see that now. I was young and stupid."
In the years that followed, Bynes struggled publicly with substance abuse and legal trouble, including dings for DUI, drug possession and reckless driving. In July 2013, Bynes was put on an involuntary psychiatric hold after starting a (thankfully small) fire in a stranger's driveway, The Los Angeles Times reported. Her parents became her conservators, initially on a temporary basis and then on a long-term basis.
By February 2014, CNN reported, she struck a plea deal for a 2012 DUI, instead pleading no contest to reckless driving, and spent time in a treatment facility.
By November 2018, she celebrated four years of sobriety, crediting some of her success to her parents for their care, but like for anyone else, Bynes' recovery wasn't linear. She checked into a rehab facility for a stress-related relapse in January 2019, according to TMZ, and in June 2019 graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.
FIDM graduate 2019 #fidmgraduation pic.twitter.com/KdFI5dPOdK
— amanda bynes (@amandabynes) June 25, 2019
Her conservatorship ended in March 2022. A year later, she voluntarily sought treatment after she realized she had what TMZ reported was a "psychotic episode."
Related: All the Nickelodeon Scandals Revealed in Quiet on the Set
How old is Amanda Bynes in She's the Man?
Paramount Pictures
Bynes was about 19 years old when she filmed She's the Man, making her one of the few stars to play a teenager when they were actually a teenager. Props to her!
Related: Soleil Moon Frye's Cautionary Tale for Child Stars
Was Amanda Bynes on Adderall?
Bynes revealed to Paper magazine that she abused Adderall for several years after seeing herself as a boy in She's the Man put her into a "funk" in terms of her body image.
She recalled reading an article that called Adderall "the new skinny pill."
"They were talking about how women were taking it to stay thin," Bynes said. "I was like, 'Well, I have to get my hands on that.'" She said once she started taking Adderall, at one point, she even chewed the tablets for a stronger high, but it didn't help with her impression of how she looked. It led to her eventually quitting acting altogether after her addiction took its toll on her at work, making it hard for her to memorize her lines and worsened her self esteem.
She quit the movie Hall Pass because of trouble with her focus—not focusing enough on the script and focusing too much on drugs and on picking apart her own appearance.
"[I] remember seeing my image on the screen and literally tripping out and thinking my arm looked so fat because it was in the foreground or whatever, and I remember rushing off set and thinking, 'Oh my God, I look so bad,' " she said.
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Is Amanda Bynes free from her conservatorship?
Bynes' conservatorship ended in 2022. This wasn't a Britney Spears situation, according to Bynes' attorney.
"Amanda's conservatorship is nothing like Britney's conservatorship," Bynes' lawyer David Esquibias told NPR at the time. "Amanda's conservatorship was a collaborative effort with her parents. There was no fighting between her and her mother or father. Everyone was working together, including Amanda. She recognized that it was operating in her best interests and she allowed it. And it worked."
