Nickelodeon fans were introduced to The Amanda Show on October 6, 1999, and met Amanda Bynes, Drake Bell, Josh Peck, Raquel Lee, Nancy Sullivan and John Kassir who got the chance to act out hilarious skits in front of a live-TV audience. After three seasons, the show said its bittersweet goodbye to the network on September 21, 2002, but the entire cast went on to nab some pretty major roles. A lot of them even starred in their own shows!
Amanda, for one, was known for being front and center the show’s skits like “Judge Trudy”, “The Girls’ Room” and “Moody’s Point.” But, once the show came to an end, she had a major transformation and became a huge comedy film star. Over the years, she appeared in fan-favorite flicks like She’s the Man, Sydney White and Hairspray, among others.
“It was a dream come true,” the actress told Paper magazine in 2018 about her Nickelodeon roles. “It was unbelievable for me.”
While she’s still a huge icon in Hollywood, Amanda has experienced some legal troubles and even went to rehab — she was released in December 2013. Over the years, she also made headlines for a few Twitter posts, which she’s since publicly acknowledged.
“I can’t turn back time, but if I could, I would. And I’m so sorry to whoever I hurt and whoever I lied about because it truly eats away at me,” she told Paper in the same interview. “It makes me feel so horrible and sick to my stomach and sad. Everything I worked my whole life to achieve, I kind of ruined it all through Twitter. It’s definitely not Twitter’s fault — it’s my own fault.”
Amanda’s former costar Drake had a run-in with the law. In July 2021, Us Weekly confirmed that the actor was sentenced to two years’ probation and 200 hours of community service after pleading guilty to child endangerment a month prior following an incident that occurred in December 2017. In September 2021, Drake addressed the entire situation in a three-minute-long Instagram video.
“I know that this has moved very quickly for you, but for me, it’s been a three-year, thorough investigation into every false claim that has been made,” he alleged, noting that there were “reckless and irresponsible text messages” shared between himself and the individual. “And it’s not me telling you that the claims are false, but the state of Ohio has proven the claims to be false. If these claims were remotely true, my situation would be very different. I would not be here at home with my wife, [Janet Von Schmeling], and my son. But that being said, I am not perfect, and I make mistakes.”
Aside from Amanda and Drake, the other Amanda Show alums have stayed in the spotlight. Click through our gallery to find out what the cast is up to now.
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