Date of Birth

3 December 1985, Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA

Birth Name

Amanda Michelle Seyfried

Height

5' 3" (1.6 m)

Mini Biography

Amanda Seyfried was born and raised in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to Ann (Sander), an occupational therapist, and Jack Seyfried, a pharmacist. She is of German, and some English and Scottish, ancestry. She began modeling when she was eleven, and acted in high school productions as well as taking singing lessons.

More soap work followed as she completed her schooling and had already secured a place at Fordham University when she was offered a role in the Tina Fey-penned teen comedy Mean Girls (2004). She deferred her university education to complete the film. More television work followed, raising her profile across America, while her appearances in Mamma Mia! (2008) and Red Riding Hood (2011) helped establish her international fame.

Trivia

• Grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
• Has appeared on the cover of three Francine Pascal books.
• Put attending college on hold (this was to be Fordham University in New York) to film Mean Girls (2004).
• Was considered for the roles of Regina and Cady in Mean Girls (2004). These roles eventually went to Rachel McAdams and Lindsay Lohan, respectively.
• She began modeling at age 11.
• Good friends with American Gun (2005) co-star Nikki Reed.
• The correct pronunciation of her last name is "Sigh-Frid".
• In May 2008, she dressed up as Alice of "Alice in Wonderland" for a seven-page spread for Vogue Italia. That same month, she was also featured in the promotional poster for her movie musical Mamma Mia! (2008).
• Originally auditioned for the title role on Veronica Mars (2004) but lost the role to Kristen Bell. Instead of playing Veronica Mars, she was offered the role of Lilly Kane, Veronica's dead best friend. She was so popular in this role that she was brought back more often than ever expected.
• As a child model, she initially signed with Image International Agency in Allentown, Pennsylvania before working under Bethlehem's Pro Model Agency and eventually with Wilhelmina agency in New York.
• Attended and graduated from William Allen High School in Allentown, Pennsylvania (2003).
• Missed 70 school days during her senior year in high school due to her acting commitments.
• If she were not into acting, she would have liked to study meteorology. She admits being fascinated by weather.
• Trained in classical opera for two years and studied under a Broadway voice coach for almost five years.
• While living in Allentown, Pennsylvania, she got to see musicals in Manhattan such as "Cats" and "Les Miserables", which is her all-time favorite musical.
• Her special skills and interests include dancing, singing, painting and tennis.
• Beat several actresses for the role of Sophie Sheridan in the film Mamma Mia! (2008). One of the actresses was fellow co-star Rachel McAdams who acted alongside Seyfried in the film Mean Girls (2004). In this film, McAdams beat Seyfried for the role of Regina George.
• Auditioned for the lead role of Kelli Presley for the horror remake Black Christmas (2006), but lost out to Katie Cassidy.
• Was in a relationship with Dominic Cooper, having met on the set of Mamma Mia! (2008) (October 2007-May 2010).
• Lost the role of Babydoll in Sucker Punch (2011) because she was committed to her HBO series Big Love (2006).
• Named one of People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People in the World (2009).
• Wanted to be an actress at age 10 after watching Romeo + Juliet (1996) with her father, who was a film buff.
• Former waitress.
• Has an Australian shepherd dog named Finn who has his own Twitter account.
• She has German, with smaller amounts (to varying degrees) of English, Scottish, Welsh, Swiss-German, and Scots-Irish/Northern Irish, ancestry.
• Was considered for the role of Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby (2013), but Carey Mulligan was cast instead.
• Was in a relationship with Ryan Phillippe (October 2010-May 2011).
• Her role in the drama film Nine Lives (2005) was written specifically for her.
• One of the songs on the Dear John (2010) soundtrack was written by her.
• Named one of People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People in the World (2010).
• Ranked #2 in Who magazine's "Most Beautiful People" in 2010.
• Ranked #59 in the 2011 FHM Australia list of "100 Sexiest Women in the World".
• Ranked #1 on People magazine's "25 Beauties (and Hotties) at 25" list in 2011.
• Ranked #92 on Ask men's top 99 "most desirable" women on 2012 list.
• Ranked #3 in Glamour magazine's "50 Most Glamorous Women of 2010" and was also named "The Most Down-to-Earth".
• Ranked #17 in Glamour magazine's "30 Hottest and Sexiest Stars Under 30" (2010).
• Ranked #4 in People magazine's Most Beautiful 2009 - Beautiful at Every Age.
• She was ranked as having one of the "Most Beautiful Famous Faces" for six consecutive years on the list of "The Annual Independent Critics List of the 100 Most Beautiful Famous Faces From Around the World". She was ranked #32 in 2005, #23 in 2006, #46 in 2007, #65 in 2008, #5 in 2009 and #9 in 2010.
• Her father, Jack is a pharmacist, while her mother, Ann, is an occupational therapist.
• Ranked #41 on Ask men's top 99 "most desirable" women of 2012 list.
• Named as having the "Sexiest lips" by Victoria's Secret What Is Sexy list (2012).
• Admitted to David Letterman that she gets nervous doing television interviews and often fortifies herself with a drink beforehand, usually whiskey.
• Has struggled with anxiety disorder and panic attacks.
• Had a body double for her shower scene in the mystery thriller Gone (2012).
• Very good friends with Gone (2012) co-star Jennifer Carpenter.
• Previously in a relationship with actor Justin Long from October 2013 to September 2015.
• Auditioned for the role of Alexandra King in The Descendants (2011), but was beaten out by Shailene Woodley.
• Distant cousin of Gwyneth Paltrow and Gwyneth's mother Blythe Danner, through their common descent of the Danner family (a Pennsylvania Dutch [German] family).
• (March 12, 2017) Married her boyfriend of a year Thomas Sadoski following a 6-month-long engagement.
• Has two children: daughter Nina Sadoski (Nina Seyfried Sadoski) (born March 21, 2017) and a son (born 2020) with husband Thomas Sadoski.
• Was 8 months pregnant with her daughter, Nina Sadoski, when she completed filming on First Reformed (2017).
• (December 2, 2016) During an interview with W magazine, she unintentionally revealed she and her husband (then fiancé) Thomas Sadoski were expecting a son.
• Is the second of the four main Mean Girls (2004) cast members to get married and have a baby; the first being Lacey Chabert.
• Returned to work 2 months after giving birth to her daughter, Nina Sadoski, to begin filming Gringo (2018).
• Her daughter weighed 3.005321 kilos or 6 LBs 10 Oz at birth early in the morning of March 21st she revealed that in a appearance on Dr Elliot Berlin's informed pregnancy and parenting podcast seven weeks after her daughter was born in which she also said at that point the baby weighed 4.535950 kilos or 10 LBs and also that she'd be back on the show in August to update.
• Gave birth to her daughter, Nina Sadoski, five weeks after her close friend, Amber Tamblyn, gave birth to her daughter, Marlowe.
• Second wife of Thomas Sadoski.
• In 2010, she took acoustic guitar lessons.
• Was considered for the role of Katie Mitchell in The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021) (aka Connected (2020)).
• On the internet, people often compare her to Rapunzel from Tangled (2010).

Trademarks:

• Often plays young women questioning love.
  
• Often in romantic comedies.
  

Quotes

• I love low-rise, boot-cut, perfect fitting jeans.
• I collect jeans. I don't care how expensive they are.
• Jeans are just so sexy, there's something about them that turns me on, you know?
• [on plans for the future] If I came out with a club hit, if I were singing duets with Jesse McCartney, I think people would get the wrong idea. I'm not interested in fashion design. I'm an actress, and that's all I want to focus on. For me, that's just more fulfilling.
• [on Mamma Mia! (2008)] I had never seen the stage show. When I first heard about the audition, I was like, "Damn, I'm not Greek!". I thought it was about this big Greek family.
• I do feel like I've grown up. Living by yourself in two cities, having a relationship, the Hollywood stuff. It forces you to deal with things as an adult.
• I just love to act and be on the set. I want to make acting my life and get really good roles.
• I'm not really into clubbing, I like to go to parties after events, and those do end up at clubs or bars. But in my free time, I go grocery shopping or to the gym, or I talk on the phone.
• At 11, I had a crush on Leonardo DiCaprio. Actually, it was not a crush. It was an obsession! I was also obsessed with Richard Dean Anderson, from MacGyver (1985) and Indiana Jones.
• I have jeans with holes in them and I have nice jeans. I have casual and I have dressy jeans. I've got all kinds.
• [on playing the lead role in Mamma Mia! (2008)] It doesn't really get better than this. I'm afraid I'm going to just have to beg Meryl [Meryl Streep] to do another movie with me. She's so in touch with herself. I know that comes with age, but I'm really excited to figure out who I am.
• I've auditioned for roles that involved voice, but I don't like it. I feel like, "I can't do this in front of you". It seems so separate--I don't share it with a lot of people. And I'm not into public performances.
• [on being in a polygamous marriage] I don't think I could share, no. I don't think I would trust. I want to be the most important thing in my husband's life. It's just weird. It's not natural.
• It's really easy to avoid the tabloids. You just live your life and don't hang out with famous people who are in the tabloids. Don't do anything controversial and be a normal person. Have friends. And get a job and keep working.
• People do judge you, and there are stupid rivalries. You have to wear the right things, because there are all these girls my age competing for the same roles. They're judging me and I'm judging them. I try not to be that way, but sometimes I am.
• No matter what's happening in my life, I can always get lost in the romances of my characters.
• Sex scenes are great. A lot of my co-stars have been sexy guys my age, and so, why not? I'm not going to pretend it's not fun. Justin [Justin Timberlake] was great--he had come from doing Friends with Benefits (2011), where he basically had sex every day at work--and so it was easy for both of us. We just kind of got it on, and then were like, "That was good".
• [on her modeling career] I was naturally skinny and had braces, so I wasn't a cute model. I never felt pretty but it was fun, and I got a cool paycheck to buy sweets with.
• [on her developing interest in taxidermy] I love animals and they're very easy to look after when they're dead. I recently decided I was going to start building a parliament of owls.
• [on her childhood] I was super outgoing until I was around 10. I got a bit older and started getting shy. Way too shy.
• [on her childhood] I felt so extremely ugly. When I look back, I was not ugly--I was cute, and had a gap in my teeth. But I wish I could have enjoyed that part of my life and be more confident.
• I don't think men find me irresistible at all. I've got a filthy side and a romantic side--I like to keep them guessing.
• [on singing] Sometimes, I would sing around the house for two hours straight, but I didn't want anyone to hear me up close. I would sing all the Broadway show-tunes, like, "Cabaret". Our cat started hating me. He went from being affectionate, to being almost scared of me. Our theory was that when I was singing around the house, I hit notes that hurt his little ears. That is what I tell myself anyway!
• [on full-frontal nudity] I'm pretty sure I would never do a full-frontal in a movie--for personal reasons, I wouldn't really want to show that.
• [on mysterious men] Mystery is really sexy. Bad guys also tend to be really self-centered and very fearless--I don't know why, but that is sexy. It shouldn't be: it's disgusting.
• Am I confident about my looks? No. Not even a little bit. But this is the way I look, and I'm stuck with it. I work out hard, but I'm never going to be confident about getting into a bikini. Some days, I look at myself and think, "Ugh, I can't go anywhere," and other days I feel, "Yeah, I look okay." I just put on a pretty dress and a ton of make-up and get on with it.
• I've been disconnected with the sexual side of me. I know it's in me, but it doesn't really reveal itself very often in my personal life. Which I do find problematic! And I am working through that, and finding that side of me. [But] I don't know what to do with my hands when those sex scenes come on! I usually cover my eyes when I'm doing something questionable! So, it's really awkward for me. I can never really wrap my head around how I'm supposed to behave, or how I'm supposed to feel.
• [on living with OCD] I'm on Lexapro [an antidepressant], and I'll never get off of it, I've been on it since I was 19, so 11 years. I'm on the lowest dose. I don't see the point of getting off of it. Whether it's placebo or not, I don't want to risk it. And what are you fighting against? Just the stigma of using a tool? A mental illness is a thing that people cast in a different category [from other illnesses], but I don't think it is. It should be taken as seriously as anything else. [2016]
• I was made fun of at school for being pale and ugly. [2018]