Whatever Happened To Amanda Peet?

Celebrity is fickle and fleeting. Case in point: a Twitter post went viral after a user posted photos of Amanda Peet, asked if people knew the star by name, and wondered whether she was famous or "super famous." What followed was a discussion of the arc of her career (with some suggesting that her stardom had fizzled out) as well as a passionate defense of the actress by some fans who have continued to follow her work. So what did become of Amanda Peet? 

This smart, stunning, and once promising leading lady didn't exactly take the road most traveled by young actresses who make it big in movies, and it seems like that was mostly by design. She might not be "super famous" by Twitter's standards, but she's carved out a career that fits her life and her convictions. Peet is a candid and ambitious working wife, mother, and activist. She's especially frustrated by the lack of depth and breadth in the types of roles that are available to women. In interviews, she's lamented that there isn't much to playing a "lovely mom" or the pretty girl in an action movie. Instead, she's sought out opportunities — in front of and behind the camera, as well as on stage — that she finds intellectually stimulating and that allow her to collaborate with other artists she respects. Her journey in the entertainment industry has taken her from college acting classes to creating her own show about college and some surprising places in between.

In some ways, it's fitting that Peet has largely returned to the small screen. The now 50-year-old actress got her start with minor television roles on programs like "The Larry Sanders Show" and "Law & Order." But her entire career in the entertainment industry might not have happened at all if not for one encouraging professor. 

Peet's worldly and extensive education seemed to be preparing her for a very different life. She moved to London as a child and attended an all-girls school before returning to the United States, where she was enrolled in a Quaker seminary. She was accepted into Columbia University and graduated in 1994 with a degree in history. Prior to graduation, Peet took a theatre class with acclaimed stage actress Uta Hagen. The two hit it off; Hagen saw something in Peet and encouraged her to start auditioning. During that time, in addition to the aforementioned television appearances, she also landed a Skittles commercial as well as a role in an off-Broadway revival of "Awake and Sing!" by Clifford Odets. 

In 1995, she nabbed her first feature film role alongside Neil Patrick Harris and Matthew Lillard in "Animal Room." This psychological thriller about bullying was described in marketing as a modernization of "A Clockwork Orange." "Animal Room" hasn't endured as a hit, though it did help propel Peet's acting career to the next level. 

It's entirely possible that Amanda Peet could've had a future in major Hollywood blockbusters. She did appear in the climate disaster epic "2012," but almost as soon as she became a household name, she began to veer toward projects that interested her instead of those designed for maximum fame. Peet co-starred with Kieran Culkin, Jeff Goldblum, and Susan Sarandon in the low-budget dark comedy "Igby Goes Down," which some critics compared (favorably and unfavorably) to "The Catcher in the Rye." 

She tried her hand at horror with 2003's "Identity," in which a serial killer methodically picks off ten strangers trapped at a hotel during a storm. Peet plays Paris Nevada, a sex worker who's among those stranded. She was a member of another ensemble cast in the 2004 Woody Allen philosophical comedy "Melinda and Melinda" along with Will Ferrell, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Chloë Sevigny, and Radha Mitchell. Then, in 2005, she reteamed with George Clooney in "Syriana," a political thriller based on the memoir of a former CIA agent. 

From there, her choices got even more idiosyncratic. In 2010, she co-starred with Catherine Keener and Rebecca Hall in indie writer-director Nicole Holofcener's "Please Give" (which she told Vanity Fair was the "Holy Grail" of acting opportunities), and in 2012, she was featured in that year's Sundance Film Festival fave, "The Way Way Back."  During this time, Peet consistently earned strong reviews for her work as an actor, but most of the titles in her filmography remain underseen. 

Fans of Amanda Peet's screen work might not know the actor has also graced the Great White Way with her presence on more than one occasion (and in more than one capacity). After her stage debut in 1995's "Awake and Sing!", Peet appeared in 2005's "This Is How It Goes" with Ben Stiller and Jeffrey Wright. The following year, she starred in a revival of Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park" with Patrick Wilson. In 2010, she co-starred with David Duchovny in Neil LaBute's "The Break of Noon." 

Peet works behind the scenes, too, as a playwright. Her script "The Commons of Pensacola" is loosely based on the family of disgraced Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, and its off-Broadway production starred Blythe Danner and Sarah Jessica Parker. She's also the author of "Our Very Own Carlin McCullough," about a 10-year-old girl who turns out to be a tennis phenom. It premiered at the Geffen Playhouse in 2018. In an interview with Vanity Fair's Richard Lawson, she said she, "found not performing to be incredibly liberating."

As she approached 50, Amanda Peet stepped into her own as a producer and showrunner with Netflix's "The Chair." Vanity Fair called the six-part limited series "an Academic Game of Thrones," which is ironic and all-too-appropriate considering who Peet's married to. "The Chair" — which stars Sandra Oh and previous collaborator Jay Duplass as well as Bob Balaban and Holland Taylor — is about the machinations within a stuffy East Coast college's English department as it tries to deal with societal pressures to be more inclusive and diverse.

Peet told Vanity Fair that she got the idea for the comedy-drama as she brainstormed with Duplass after "Togetherness" was canceled. They'd been batting around a show about a widower who started dating his supervisor. Peet, who doesn't like to write characters for herself, had nonetheless been ruminating on her experience as an "unrepentant nerd" and the child of a psychologist, as well as her experiences as a mother in middle age. She combined all of these elements and pitched the concept to Netflix with Benioff, who already had a deal in place with the streamer following the conclusion of "Game of Thrones." Though both are listed as executive producers, Peet was definitely the one running the show (and co-writing four of the six episodes) while David was at home with the kids. "The Chair" was released to mostly positive reviews in August of 2021. 

Many celebrities have causes that are near and dear to their hearts, and Amanda Peet's passion is as timely and important as anyone's. The actor-turned-writer-producer has long been involved with Every Child by Two, an organization that advocates for the safety of childhood vaccines, as well as the United Nation's Shot@Life initiative, which aims to vaccinate children globally against communicable diseases like measles, pneumonia, and polio. Peet told People that she volunteered to be a spokesperson for vaccination efforts after her own daughter contracted whooping cough during an outbreak. She wants to remind parents that routine vaccinations are, "not just about your kids, but about your neighbor's kids, everyone's kids."

Her passion for the subject has come through in several interviews and TV appearances, where she's stressed that parents should consult with doctors and not trust unqualified celebrities when it comes to the issue of pediatric vaccine schedules. Peet has tried to fight against rampant misinformation about vaccines and links to autism, although her candor drew her into a media debate with the most prominent actress who disagrees with her, Jenny McCarthy. Despite the fact that she regularly gets hate mail for her pro-vaccination stance, she continues to lend her voice to the cause today.