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Amanda’s First Years of Life<o:p></o:p>
Amanda Laura Bynes was born on <st1:date w:st="on" Month="4" Day="3" Year="1986">April 3, 1986</st1:date> to a doctor, Richard Bynes and his wife, Lynn Organ Bynes in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Thousand Oaks</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State></st1:place>. She was the 3rd and the youngest children of the Bynes. The other two being the oldest, son Tommy, and the middle child, daughter Jillian.<o:p></o:p>
Crayons, pens and pencils were Amanda’s first talents. She took up the hobby of drawing. Every blank piece of paper that she saw will be filled with Amanda’s imagination in overdrive. To keep Amanda busy and draw up all her imagination, her parents would go all the way to buy the entire paper supply of a company that went out of business (wow) so little Amanda won’t run out of paper! She was a gifted as a young girl, drawing so good for her age that her parents made more than 50 scrapbooks of her drawings. Some were even used for gift wrappings for presents to the family.<o:p></o:p>
The real talent<o:p></o:p>
Around the age of 5, Amanda had drawn her parents’ attention. She attended her older sister Jillian’s theater practices; Amanda would pick up bits of the dialogue and memorized them. Even on the night of the show, Amanda sat down and recited perfectly of her sister’s line, word by word. Now there was an extraordinary young girl in the middle of the family. Amanda’s parents’ realized that there was another budding actress in their family. At age 4, Amanda decides to become a wrestler when she grew up (haha). It didn’t came true. Rather, it was something different, but still on TV.<o:p></o:p>
Finally, Amanda began acting in school and performing annual pageants and plays. Then her career started at age 7, when it was brought by Amanda’s 1st commercial break on TV, for Nestle’s Buncha Crunch Candy. Soon after, she was commercial for dolls and toys companies. Rick and Lynn started taping Amanda’s performances to sent to talent brokers and TV shows looking for new actors. But sending to Jay Leno was quite a failure, giving of Amanda’s singing and a comedy routine video, because there was no reply.<o:p></o:p>
Showtime!<o:p></o:p>
In the same year, Amanda was enrolled in the Comedy Store’s summer comedy camp by her dad. It was really designed primarily for kids from broken homes (nyeh?), but the camp marveled at Amanda’s promise and received encouragement to visit comics Richard Pryor, Jay Mohr and Arsenio Hall. Her favourite comedy idols were Jim Carrey, Tracey Ullman, and Lucille Ball at that time. She was most aspired to them.<o:p></o:p>
By fall of 1995, little Amanda continuously ‘shining’ in the community theater, with acting out of The Secret Garden, To Kill a Mockingbird, even to become one of the Von Trapp kids in The Sound of Music. Then, she also becan a career as a standup comic, and frequently joining comedy clubs throughout the <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">L.A.</st1:place></st1:City> area. It was at one such venue, that we owe the Comedy Store for, because it was where Amanda Bynes was discovered.<o:p></o:p>
FOUNDED: AMANDA BYNES<o:p></o:p>
In the midst of a summer in 1996, Amanda was doing stand-up gigs as she played the Laugh Factory one evening. The club was frequented by Mr. Brian Robbins, one of the producers of “All That”, a sketch-comedy show series on the Nickelodeon channel. It was about to enter its 3rd season. As a former teen star, and veteran of TV’s “Head of the Class”, with longtime friend Dan Schneider, Brian Robbins had become a good judge of young talent. He saw Amanda’s act, and awed at her power and energy for only at ten years of age, he invited her to get Amanda on a serious contract on TV. The question is, will a younger kid be intimidated by older kids? Would this girl be able to put over the irreverent, wacky comedy of “All That”?<o:p></o:p>
On <st1:date w:st="on" Month="11" Day="16" Year="1996">November 16, 1996</st1:date>, this day answers our question. Amanda Bynes entered the green room for her new national TV career off on the 3rd season premiere of “All That”. Even more, she was the first cast member added to the series. And with her, “All That” changed for the better in Nickelodeon. Ten-year-old Amanda acted to addressed the opening sketch. <o:p></o:p>
Showing off her Talents<o:p></o:p>
The first month of shooting her new show, Amanda played 2 characters that showcased her talents. Captain Tantrum was about a ten-year-old captain of the U.S.S. Spaceship. The other character (FANS’ all-time #1 favorite) was “Ask Ashley”. She acted was a columnist Ashley, who lived for helping people. The act was usually sitting in her bed with a pile of letters. She took one and read it sweetly and girlie. Because the letter was made to be ‘stupid’ (everyone knows the answer, DUH), she would raise her voice with rage and always yell “stinking stupid” to the letter and the person who wrote it. She’ll scream, then calm down and show her sweet face again.<o:p></o:p>
Another reason why Amanda’s <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">America</st1:country-region></st1:place>’s most talented actress: As Dan Schneider has often remarked, the skit was a single camera shot and the time was anywhere from 3-5 minutes in length, and Amanda had to do it all in a continuous take. Every time they film it, Amanda nailed it (according to Dan). “Gilda Radner couldn’t even do that,” he said once. Then Megan Marples was added on the 3rd and 4th seasons of ALL THAT. It began with a cruel game show of “You Can’t Win!” also with “What Do You Do?”, a game show for kids. Amanda couldn’t start the show because she just had to dance.<o:p></o:p>
Being ALL THAT!<o:p></o:p>
Soon enough, Amanda was starting to get more attention for their drive and energy on this current show, with “Ask Ashley” skit as the most popular one. Amanda was honored in the World Wide Web (WWW). But the real problem is, there was not as much information on Amanda. More people wanted to get closer to Amanda more and learn about her. Slowly but surely, she starts to influence the future of the series. Her very first red carpet walk was on April 19th on the Kids Choice Awards.<o:p></o:p>
There were three new cast members when Amanda worked back on “All That”. Danny Tamberelli, Leon Frierson and Christy Knowings were the new actors. What made Amanda ‘Amanda’ was when she played her lifelong dream during the 4th season as she played Lucille Ball in the sketch of “I Luv Lucy.” Like everyone says, she acts like the young Lucille Ball.<o:p></o:p>
By fall, Amanda’s ALL THAT impact was honored by the CableACE Awards, a sub of a smaller Emmy competition for cable shows. In the show’s final fear, Amanda received a nomination for Best Actress in Comedy Series. She was competiting idol Tracey Ullman of “Tracey Takes On”, and eventual winner Sandra Oh from “Arli$$”.<o:p></o:p>
Eventually, Nick launched a new game show, “Figure It Out”, that was in production schedule in 1998. Amanda was on in the 2nd season, which was running in April. She made 12 appearances with Danny, Lori Beth, and guest Steve Pirnick, Taran Noah Smith, and wrestler Paul Wight. Her first panel appearances was along with stagehand Kevin Kopelow, along with football players Kordel Stewart, Neil Smith and Joe Namath. The 3rd season was renamed (or new series) of “Figure It Out Family Style”. Kids and parents are teamed up to figure the message out. Guests stars appearances were Aaron Carter, Carrot Top, Shannon Miller, Dennis Haskins, and cousin Skeeter (voice featuring Bill Belamy. In this season, Amanda only made 5 appearances.<o:p></o:p>
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