amanda peet

Amanda Peet 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 .

Amanda can still be seen as Jacqueline "Jack" Barrett in Jack & Jill (although the show may be canceled due to poor ratings), but Amanda has nothing but roles in upcoming high-profile films, such as Changing Lanes , with Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson, High Crimes , with Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman, and Igby Goes Down .

Named one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful Women in the World, Amanda is a one-woman man to actor Brian Van Holt, her Whipped co-star.

Amanda Peet has done what few who seek out Tinseltown achieve. Yes she made it .

It seems easy enough; you audition, you scream a little, cry a little, get the part, and cash in your millions, right? We all know better, and Amanda can attest to that bunk theory, thanks to a Hollywood experience that began less than glamorously.

After appearing in a dozen independent movies, her autograph was amazingly still not in demand. But a lucky break as a last-minute replacement for Amelia Heinle, landed her on the WB show Jack & Jill . Interestingly enough, she plays Jack (yet she played wacky dental hygienist Jill St. Claire, in The Whole Nine Yards ), and although Amanda's relatives seem to be the only ones watching the show, she has been getting critical raves for her charismatic performance.

Those who saw The Whole Nine Yards with Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry, left the movie theater with an indefinable impression of Miss Peet. Was she a crazed woman with a passion for violence and getting naked in front of people, or was she a sweet and amiable professional? Well, a little bit of both, and that suits the New York native just fine, who said uniqueness was never a flaw.

Amanda Peet studied under Broadway great Uta Hagen, and graduated from New York's Columbia University, albeit with a history degree (you never know when an acting role may involve having a deep understanding of the reason why Marie Antoinette was beheaded).

Her greatest skill as an actress is her presence. Her ever-present smile and eyes make sure everyone notices her onscreen, which is the great step on the road to being a respected dramatic actress.

What makes her personality so likeable is how down-to-earth she is. She still experiences stage fright when she does a talk show, she still gets giddy when she meets a celebrity, and she is a fanatic of Cheez Doodles.

Amanda likes to burp, she'll pick her nose if she has to, and she tends to laugh like a donkey who just saw an SNL Hans & Franz skit. Is this sexy?

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You'd think that Amanda Peet would be better known with her impressive credits, but she remains as recognizable as the 1994 Olympic cross-country skiing silver medallist (alright, she is a little more famous than that).

She headlined the movie Whipped (which gallantly describes what happened to the flick when it was released in movie theaters), and Saving Silverman . She appeared with George Clooney in One Fine Day , Gillian Anderson in Playing by Heart , Jennifer Aniston in She's The One , and Sarah Michelle Gellar in Simply Irresistible .

Jack & Jill wasn't her first TV job, she has also appeared in Law & Order , Seinfeld , Spin City , The Single Guy , and Central Park West .

Future projects include Changing Lanes with Ben Affleck and Samuel L. "as in long list of movies I've appeared in" Jackson, and High Crimes with Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman.

The 5'6" beauty with the mesmerizing blue eyes and full lips, doesn't exercise and loves to eat junk food, which helps raise the blood pressure of every lady who is reading this right now.

She was selected by People magazine for its 2000 "50 Most Beautiful People" list, and iin reference to her beauty, she said, "Makeup artists always want to take my eyebrows away. They practically come at me with a lawn mower. And last year someone at a studio said I have horse's teeth. People started calling me Mr. Ed!"

How can we possibly follow that up?

Picture us shrugging our shoulders, and making a "so-so" hand gesture, and you get an idea of what we think of her fashion sense. Sometimes she hits a homerun, sometimes she should go back to Little League to learn the basics (ah, the amazing dexterity of baseball analogies).

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