Best Known As: Jacqueline "Jack" Barrett in TV's Jack & Jill
Amanda Peet is a brilliantly blue-eyed actress who rose to fame with a five-year string of TV and movie roles beginning in 1996. These included TV guest turns on Law & Order and Seinfeld (as Linette, a high-maintenance girlfriend for Jerry) and a starring role in the romantic sitcom Jack & Jill (1999-2001). Her special blend of goofy, cockeyed sex appeal was on prominent display in the comedy The Whole Nine Yards (2000, as a love interest for Bruce Willis), and she also appeared in films including She's the One (1996, with Jennifer Aniston), Grind (1997), and Simply Irresistible (1999). She's worked steadily since then, with appearances on the TV series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and in films including the sequel The Whole Ten Yards (2004), A Lot Like Love (2005), Syriana (2005, with George Clooney) and The X Files: I Want to Believe (2008). She has also dabbled in the New York stage scene: off-Broadway, in Awake and Sing! and This is How it Goes; and in a 2006 Broadway revival of Barefoot in the Park.
She married screenwriter and novelist David Benioff in 2006. Their daughter, Frances Pen Benioff, whom they call Frankie, was born in 2007... Peet was raised primarily in New York City, where she went to high school at Friends Seminary, graduated from Columbia University with a history degree in 1994, and studied with famous acting teacher Uta Hagen... Her parents are Manhattan lawyer Charles D. Peet Jr. and social worker Penny Peet (nee Levy)... In 2008, she drew the ire of child-vaccination opponents when she endorsed a pro-vaccination campaign sponsored by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Career Highlights: The Whole Nine Yards, What Doesn't Kill You, Melinda and Melinda
First Major Screen Credit: Animal Room (1995)
Biography
Born on January 11th, 1972, Amanda Peet grew up in New York and made a decidedly unconventional debut into showbiz: At three-years-old, a thoroughly uninvited Peet jumped onto a stage during the middle of a play. Despite the auspicious beginning, Peet treated acting as more of a hobby than anything else, and only began to consider it a potential career after her drama professor at Columbia University encouraged her to audition for renowned acting teacher Uta Hagen. Peet studied with Hagen for four years, during which time she participated in the off-Broadway revival Awake and Sing. Though she would eventually be voted one of the year's 50 most beautiful people in a 2000 issue of People magazine -- not to mention participate with the likes of Susan Sarandon, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jack Nicholson -- Peet worked as a waitress during the first few years of her acting career.
The sloe-eyed brunette made her onscreen debut in Craig Singer's Animal Room (1996). That same year, she could also be seen in an episode of Law & Order, and went on to play a role in Grind (1996), a crime drama starring Billy Crudup. Before long, Peet landed a small role in the Michelle Pfeiffer-George Clooney romantic comedy One Fine Day. Since then, the actress has continued to build both her film and television credits: in 1997, she appeared in the AIDS drama Touch Me, and the following year she had sizable roles in South Boston crime drama Southie with Donnie Wahlberg and Rose McGowan, which won the American Independent award at the 1998 Seattle Film Festival. On television, she could be seen guest starring on a number of shows including Seinfeld and Ellen Foster. In 1999, she got her own television show, Jack & Jill, on the WB network. That same year, she could be seen playing Sean Patrick Flanery's fiancée in Simply Irresistible and then acting as his bedmate in Body Shots, another in the long line of explorations into pre-millennial twentysomething dating angst.
After starring in director Neil Turitz's debut Two Ninas, Peet landed a leading role in Peter M. Cohen's independent comedy Whipped. While the film itself performed dismally, Peet met her boyfriend, Brian Van Holt, on the set. Despite it's independent status, Whipped was given a solid amount of mainstream marketing, and Peet was praised for a game performance in the face of an admittedly weak script.
The next year, Peet starred alongside Ashton Kutcher in the romantic comedy A Lot Like Love, before joining the cast of the politically charged thriller Syriana. Then, in 2006, the actress accepted a recurring role on the one-hour drama Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip. The Aaron Sorkin written series received major critical acclaim but was cancelled after just one season. Undeterred, Peet next teamed up with John Cusack for the quirky, heartfelt drama Martian Child. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
After studying with Uta Hagen, Peet began her career in television commercials, and progressed to small roles in television and indie movies. Featured roles in films such as The Whole Nine Yards (2000) brought her recognition and she was named one of People's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World". Her subsequent film roles were more prominent, and included Something's Gotta Give (2003) and Syriana (2005).
Peet was born in New York City, the daughter of Penny (née Levy), a social worker, and Charles Peet, a corporate lawyer.[1] The two are now divorced. Her father is a Quaker and her mother is Jewish.[2][3] She has one older sister, Alisa Peet, who is a doctor of internal medicine at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia.[citation needed] Peet attended Friends Seminary, then studied history at and graduated from Columbia University,[4] where she auditioned for acting teacher Uta Hagen and decided to become an actress after taking Hagen's class.[5] During her four-year period of study with Hagen, Peet appeared in the off-Broadwayrevival of Clifford Odets's Awake and Sing.
Career
Peet's first screen performance was a television commercial for Skittles. Her early roles included a guest role on the television series Law & Order. She made her film debut in Animal Room (1995). Peet maintained a steady acting career in relatively obscure indie movies.
Peet married screenwriter David Benioff on September 30, 2006, in New York City[7] and gave birth to a daughter, Frances Pen, on February 20, 2007.[8] The three live in Manhattan and Los Angeles. She was also maid of honor at Lauren Holly's marriage in 2001 with Francis Greco.
In 2008 Peet volunteered to be a spokeswoman for Every Child By Two (ECBT), a non-profit organization which advocates childhood vaccination. Peet began working with the group after becoming concerned by the "amount of misinformation floating around [about vaccines], particularly in Hollywood."[9] In an interview with Cookie, Peet stated: "Frankly, I feel that parents who don't vaccinate their children are parasites," referring to the benefit unvaccinated children derive from herd immunity and the concern that dropping vaccination rates may put all children at increased risk of preventable disease.[9] Peet's comments stirred controversy; in response, she apologized for using the term "parasites", but affirmed her position on the importance and safety of vaccination.[10][11]
