Amanda Bynes’ Rise and Fall: A Timeline of Ups and Downs as the Former Nickelodeon Star Turns 40

Amanda Bynes, who was thrust into the spotlight at an early age, has experienced many highs and lows throughout her career.

After she began acting professionally at age 7, it wasn’t long before she was discovered by a Nickelodeon producer and landed her big break on the sketch comedy series All That. The actress eventually segued into a career in film, appearing in staples of the early aughts including What a Girl Wants, She’s the Man and Easy A.

However, the actress struggled with her mental health throughout the years and suffered a public breakdown, leading to legal trouble and a conservatorship that lasted from 2013 to 2022.

As the former child star turns 40, In Touch looks back at her journey.

Amanda Bynes’ Early TV Shows and Nickelodeon Career

After appearing in a few stage productions as a child actor, Amanda Bynes began performing at the Los Angeles Laugh Factory. It was there that she met Dan Schneider, the famed Nickelodeon producer who has since come under fire for allegations of misconduct and inappropriate behavior. “Dan saw her and immediately knew she would be a star,” director Virgil L. Fabian, who worked closely with Schneider, said in ID’s documentary series Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.

Bynes was cast in the network’s popular sketch comedy series All That, for which she won a Kids’ Choice Award in 2000. She was also part of the game show series Figure It Out and went on to lead The Amanda Show, for which she won four Kids’ Choice Awards. Though it was revealed years later that some Nickelodeon cast members experienced a toxic work environment, Bynes declined to participate in the Quiet on Set docuseries and, in response to a TikTok claiming that Schneider got her pregnant at age 13, she said it was “lies for click bait.”

Amanda Bynes’ Movies and Film Career

As Amanda Bynes’ star continued to rise amid her Nickelodeon success, the actress made her way into movies. In 2002, she made her feature film debut in Big Fat Liar opposite Frankie Muniz, receiving a Kids’ Choice Award for her performance. She went on to star in the 2006 comedy She’s the Man before showing off her musical chops in the 2007 film adaptation of the Broadway hit Hairspray.

The actress was also seen in 2007’s Sydney White, the 2008 Lifetime Television movie Living Proof and the 2010 hit teen rom-com Easy A, in which she played opposite Emma Stone. But by 2012, Bynes — who has since graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM) in California — told People, “I am retired as an actor. I am moving to New York to launch my career. I am going to do a fashion line.”

Amanda Bynes’ Legal Troubles and Arrests

Shortly before Amanda Bynes announced her retirement in 2012, she was arrested on suspicion of DUI that April after allegedly side-swiping a police car. After being charged in June, she reached out to then-president Barack Obama via Twitter (now X), writing, “I don’t drink. Please fire the cop who arrested me. I also don’t hit and run. The end.” She was reportedly involved in another alleged hit-and-run that August.

The following year, Bynes — often seen out and about in wigs and acting erratically — went through a series of troubling events. She was arrested in May 2013 for allegedly throwing a bong out the window of her New York City apartment; the case was eventually dismissed by a New York judge. In July, she was placed under a psychiatric hold after setting a fire outside of a home in California.

Bynes was placed under a conservatorship, giving her parents control over her personal and financial decisions, from 2013 to 2022.

In November 2014, she tweeted (via E! News), “I was diagnosed bi – polar and manic depressive so I’m on medication and I’m seeing my psychologist and psychiatrist weekly so I’m fine :D. I’m not living with my parents. I’m not legally obligated to. My lawyer said if I comply with the courts and take my meds and see my psychologist and psychiatrist weekly then I will get unconserved. Thank GOD.”

Where Is Amanda Bynes Now?

In 2017, after her hiatus from the spotlight, Amanda Bynes sat down with Hollyscoop’s Diana Madison and raised eyebrows when she addressed her infamous tweet to Drake. “I was, like, saying, ‘Murder my vagina,’” she recalled. “I was serious, but I was also on drugs, so that was my way of saying like, ‘Let’s do it, man.’ … It just means, like, ‘F**k me, Drake!’”

Bynes also posed for Paper magazine’s November 2018 cover story, in which she addressed her previous drug use. “I started smoking marijuana when I was 16,” she explained. “Even though everyone thought I was the ‘good girl,’ I did smoke marijuana from that point on.”

Eventually, her substance abuse “progressed to doing molly and ecstasy,” she revealed. “[I tried] cocaine three times but I never got high from cocaine. I never liked it. It was never my drug of choice.” She admitted, “I definitely abused Adderall.”

Following her return to the public eye, People reported in March 2019 that Bynes checked into a rehab facility following a “relapse.” That June, she graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising.

On February 14, 2020, Bynes announced that she was engaged to Paul Michael, but the pair were on and off and officially called it quits in July 2022. They previously announced that they were expecting a child together, but Bynes’ lawyer told Us Weekly in May 2020 that she was not pregnant.

In December 2023, Bynes launched the Amanda Bynes & Paul Sieminski: The Podcast. As of January 2026, Bynes was reported to be dating a man named Zachary, as seen in photos obtained by TMZ.