Why Amanda Bynes Disappeared From Hollywood

Amanda Bynes had always been a natural performer. She began acting as a child, appearing in several TV commercials, demonstratively oohing and ahhing over the Cut N' Style Barbie or snacking on Buncha Crunch to a variation of the "Addams Family" theme music. At school, she appeared in the musicals "Annie," "The Sound of Music," and "The Music Man." She was bitten by the theater bug early on.

Bynes experienced her big break in 1996 when she joined the cast of the hit sketch comedy series "All That" on Nickelodeon. She was 10. "All That" ran for a whopping 11 seasons from 1994 to 2005 and proved to be a stamping ground for up-and-coming talents, serving sort-of as a junior version of "Saturday Night Live." Keenan Thompson, Kel Mitchell, Jamie Lynn Spears, and Nick Cannon also broke out thanks to the popularity of "All That." Bynes was a regular cast member for the show's third through sixth seasons, meaning it encompassed her junior high school years. Also under the Nickelodeon umbrella was the game show "Figure It Out," on which Bynes appeared in 1997 through 1998. Any kid who had a basic cable package at this time likely knew Bynes' career well.

In 1999, when she was only 13, Bynes appeared on "The Amanda Show," her own series. The show ran for 46 episodes over three seasons. Amanda Bynes was a legitimate teen superstar, and movies lay ahead.

Her stint in Hollywood will be described below, but it wasn't a great decade for Bynes' health. Just as she was earning worldwide cinematic acclaim, Bynes began struggling with addiction and mental health. Her blowups on social media attracted a lot of negative attention and she confessed to her substance issues and diagnoses. By 2010, Bynes had retired from acting and has stayed out of the public eye ever since.

Here's what happened, according to public record.

Bynes was a brilliant young comedienne, often energetic and willing to be relaxed and silly. A lot was expected of her. In a 2000 profile in the Orlando Sentinel, she was called the Lucille Ball of her generation, which is a flattering comparison to receive when you're only 14. The same article revealed that she attended comedy classes at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, and studied under stars like Arsenio Hall and Richard Pryor. She joked about having her first kiss in front of a camera while her parents were present, but also seemed happy to have the career she did, happy to be part of a show where kids were allowed to be kids.

She did reveal, however, that her parents didn't let her go on dates.

In the early 2000s, Amanda Bynes' career seem to be on a meteoric trajectory. After the end of "The Amanda Show," Bynes was swept into the world of feature films, making her big screen debut in Shawn Levy's 2002 comedy "Big Fat Liar," starring opposite Paul Giamatti and Frankie Muniz, then famous for playing the eponymous role on "Malcolm in the Middle." "Big Fat Liar" wasn't terribly well-reviewed — it sports a 43% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes — but it was a modest hit, making over $52 million on a $15 million budget.

Bynes played voice roles in the animated film "Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure" and the giant hit "Robots." In 2003, she landed her first feature film leading role in "What a Girl Wants," a comedy about a girl who travels to England to meet her estranged father (Colin Firth), a rising British politician. That, too, wasn't very well-reviewed, but it was also a modest success.

Bynes had seemingly settled into a niche, playing light, comedic roles in broad romantic comedies. In 2005, she filmed "Love Wrecked" for Disney, but because of some wonky distribution deals, the movie wasn't released in the United States until 2007 and only aired on the ABC Family channel. In "Love Wrecked," Bynes played a young woman who found herself stranded on a desert island with a rock star (Chris Carmack), but who was actually lying to him about their location so she could spend time with him.

In 2006 and 2007, Bynes headlined a pair of teen updates to classic stories, which were in vogue at the time (recall: "10 Things I Hate About You," "O," that weird teen version of "Wuthering Heights"). "She's the Man" was an update of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," with Bynes playing the Viola role, this time to infiltrate an all-boys school to pursue an athletic scholarship. The following year, she also starred in "Sydney White," a modern update of "Snow White." In two very 2007 plot points, a "hot or not" website plays a role in that film (such a website served as the entry point for Facebook.com) and the seven dwarfs were transformed into seven dorks.

Also in 2007, Bynes played the bubbly Penny Pingleton in Adam Shankman's musical version of John Waters' "Hairspray," one her most visible roles yet. That film was a massive success, earning over $200 million at the box office, with Bynes supporting huge stars like John Travolta, Christopher Walken, James Marsden, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Queen Latifah.

Bynes' final acting credit came in 2010 when, at the age of 24, she played the snotty rival to Emma Stone in "Easy A," a modern semi-riff on "The Scarlet Letter." Although "Easy A" was also a massive success, Bynes hasn't appeared in any TV shows or movies since.

It seems that while her star was rising, Bynes had personal dramas of her own.

Bynes' personal life was, at least for a while, kept mercifully out of the tabloids. Recall that the early 2000s saw celebrities like Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears undergoing an unhealthy amount of media scrutiny. It seemed that, throughout the 2000s, Bynes was left alone. In 2008, when she was 22, she briefly dated Seth MacFarlane (13 years her senior) after she appeared on an episode of "Family Guy," but the relationship didn't last long.

In 2012, however, Bynes was arrested for driving under the influence. It was the first of several arrests. She was also busted for a few hit-and-run incidents that same year.

 The following year, she was arrested again, although it was only for smoking weed in her apartment's lobby. The cops evidently also went to her apartment, and before they could find her bong, she hucked it out the window. Both of these cases were eventually dropped, but the arrests also began to uncover other issues Bynes was struggling with. Also in 2013, she was arrested for starting a fire (!), which led to her being held in a mental health facility for two weeks. Although she was 27, her parents stepped in and imposed a conservatorship over their daughter.

In 2014, Bynes was arrested for another DUI while also being sentenced for the first one. It was also at about this time that Bynes' Twitter account became a little distressing, and her online outbursts became the subject of articles and analysis. She plead with President Obama to fire the cop who arrested her before going on to admit that she has long had an eating disorder. She added that one of the arresting officer's sexually harassed her, and that she needed "another nose job," revealing that she'd had cosmetic surgery. She also stated that she and her parents were no longer on speaking terms, and that she needed to lose weight. Bynes, as many could see, was troubled.

Bynes' claims became more severe. In 2014, she accused her father of emotionally sexually assaulting her, a claim that bother her father and mother denied. Bynes later announced that it wasn't true and that a microchip implanted in her brain forced her to tweet out those things. She eventually announced that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and that she was going on meds and seeing a psychiatrist regularly. She was not living with her parents, although she was still under a conservatorship.

For the next four years, Bynes stepped out of the public eye entirely, having officially retired from acting. She attended the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, and graduated with a BA in 2019.

In 2018, when she was 30, Bynes gave an interview with Paper, announcing that she had been sober for four years. It seems she was using cocaine, molly, and ecstasy, but was particularly abusive of Adderall. She started taking Adderall in 2007, hearing it was "the new skinny pill." It seems Bynes felt pressured to stay as thin as possible at all times. She recalled eating Adderall while working on the film "Hall Pass," and being scattered and unable to work as a result. She also was terrified at how she looked, eventually dropping out of the film altogether. This led to a bleak period where she had nothing better to do than get high all day. 2010 to 2014 was an especially dark period, she noted.

Bynes apologized for her tweets and her erratic behavior, and advised people to be careful with substances, as they can easily take over one's life. In 2018, she seemed to be in a good place.

Bynes was still under her parents' conservatorship until 2022, when she finally moved to be released from it with her parents' blessing. She was 35 and finally in charge of her own finances, no longer having to live under any kind of personal scrutiny.

Bynes, however, has continued to struggle with mental health and depression. In 2023, she was found wandering the streets of downtown Los Angeles nude. She called 911 and explained she was coming down from "a psychotic episode." She was checked into a mental health facility, admitting that her depression was still forcing her mind to some dark places. This was shortly after she had agreed to appear on stage at an upcoming "All That" reunion show. Bynes did not appear.

As of this writing, Bynes has been checked out of the facility for about 16 months.

In 2024, a documentary series called "Quiet on Set" was released, detailing the horrors that went on backstage during the 1990s Nickelodeon heyday, most notably, the sexual abuse committed by producer Dan Schneider. Bynes did not participate in the documentary, although several of here co-stars have alleged they were abused. Bynes, as stated in an article on Coming Soon, had a close relationship with Schneide, and he carefully curated her career. Bynes and Schneider, however, evidently had a falling out when she announced she wanted to start appearing in more adult roles and that she wanted to be emancipated from her parents.

The details are hazy, but it seems Schneider may have tried to help Bynes become emancipated, but it was bungled terribly, and he and Bynes stopped speaking after that.

What we can see, though, is that Bynes was a young, funny, talented actor and comedienne who was put under tremendous pressure from her bosses and parents. The stress may have exacerbated her mental health issues or substance addictions, and Bynes had to fight to come out on the other side. May she continue to survive and thrive.