Celebrity Details:
Identity was born January 11, 1972, in New York City, NY. The younger of two daughters, Amanda was raised by her father Charles, a lawyer, and mother Penny, a social worker, before their subsequent divorce in 1990.
Although it was clear from the start that Amanda had the showbiz flair after she jumped on a stage in the middle of a play, she majored in history at Columbia University. It was there that a drama professor encouraged her to audition for Uta Hagen, an acting teacher.
With the urge to study drama and try her hand at acting, Amanda spent 4 years under the dramatic training of Uta Hagen after she graduated University in 1994. In the meantime, she gained experience by performing in the play, Awake & Sing. With no more than her income as a waitress, and paychecks from a candy commercial she starred in, to support herself, Amanda accepted whichever acting gigs she was offered. She was finally cast in an episode of NYPD Blue, and had a recurring gig in Central Park West. She also appeared in Law & Order and The Single Guy. She finally received her film debut in 1995's Animal's Room, and bit parts in She's the One, with Jennifer Aniston, and One Fine Day, with Michelle Pfeiffer. Virginity followed a year later.
In 1997, Amanda appeared in Seinfeld's "The Summer of George" episode, as well as the sitcom Spin City. Roles in independent features were heading her way, namely Grind and Touch Me, and of course, they offered no more than experience and measly paychecks. Amanda was able to add more films to her resume, and we would have to take her word for it as they went straight to video, unless 1999, Southie, and Origin of the Species ring a bell. 1998's Playing By Heart was already a career step up considering its star-filled cast of Gillian Anderson and Sean Connery.
By 1999, Amanda didn't need the film flop Simply Irresistible to increase her star power; she was cast in the WB romantic series, Jack & Jill. Although Amanda wasn't the original beauty set to play the masculine-monikered "Jack," Amanda proved to be the perfect fit.
Jack & Jill has been praised with positive reviews and has gained quite a fan base (even men tune in, thanks to Amanda and her costar, Jaime Pressly). This was undoubtedly the role Amanda needed to boost her career, as the short-lived Partners certainly wasn't. And a string of sexy movie roles didn't hurt her reputation either, as seen in 1999's Body Shots and Whipped, in which she stars as a dominant tease who turns the world of three men upside-down.
After a role in Two Ninas, Jump, and the comedy Isn't She Great, Amanda gained more recognition as a film actress in her role as a dental hygienist in The Whole Nine Yards, starring Bruce Willis. Her topless scene was certainly the film's highlight. Amanda practically reprised her role of the domineering girlfriend from hell in 2001's Saving Silverman.
In 2002, Peet played a considerably less vicious wife in Changing Lanes with Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson, and won no small amount of praise for her performance as the heroin-addled mistress of Kieran Culkin's character's godfather in Igby Goes Down. Peet would go on to star opposite film veterans Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson in Nancy Meyers' Something's Gotta Give, in which she stars as Nicholson's scandalously young girlfriend, as well as James Mangold's psychological thriller Identity with John Cusack. In 2004, Peet is slated to appear in the sequel to The Whole Nine Yards (aptly titled The Whole Ten Yards, and act alongside Josh Brolin, Chloe Sevigny, and Gene Saks in a yet unnamed Woody Allen feature. The young actress is also scheduled to play the leading role in John McKay's 2005 romantic comedy Picadilly Jim. |
