Amanda Peet

Amanda Peet is an American actress born on January 11, 1972, in New York City. Her father, Charles Peet Jr., worked as a corporate lawyer, and her mother, Penny (née Levy), was a social worker; her parents later divorced. Peet's mother is Jewish, and both parents are atheists. Among her maternal great-grandfathers were Samuel Levy, a lawyer, businessman, and public official who served as president of Manhattan Borough, and Samuel "Roxy" Rothafel, a theatrical impresario and entrepreneur. At age seven, Peet relocated with her family to London, returning to New York four years later. She enrolled in HB Studio's teen acting program at thirteen and attended Friends Seminary in Manhattan before earning a degree in American history from Columbia University. While in college, she auditioned for acting with teacher Uta Hagen and committed to a performance career after taking Hagen's class. During four years of study with Hagen, she appeared in an off-Broadway revival of Clifford Odets's Awake and Sing! alongside Stephen Lang.

Peet's earliest screen appearances included a television commercial for Skittles and an uncredited role in a 1992 episode of The Larry Sanders Show. Her feature film debut came in the drama Animal Room (1995), which also starred Neil Patrick Harris and Matthew Lillard, and that same year she appeared in the Law & Order episode "Hot Pursuit." Through the late 1990s she built her career in independent films alongside more established performers, including One Fine Day (1996) with George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer, She's the One (1996) with Jennifer Aniston and Cameron Diaz, and the ensemble drama Playing by Heart (1998), which featured Sean Connery, Angelina Jolie, and Ryan Phillippe. She also appeared in the eighth-season Seinfeld finale as a waitress Jerry Seinfeld dates, and starred opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar in the 1999 fantasy romantic comedy Simply Irresistible. That year she took on her first major television role, playing Jacqueline Barrett in the WB series Jack & Jill, which ran for two seasons through 2001.

Wider recognition came with the 2000 mafia comedy The Whole Nine Yards, in which Peet played Jill St. Claire opposite Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry. The film grossed $106.3 million worldwide, and her performance earned a Blockbuster Entertainment Award nomination for Favorite Supporting Actress: Comedy and a Teen Choice Award nomination for Choice Film Liar. Also in 2000, she appeared alongside Bette Midler and Nathan Lane in Isn't She Great, won the Young Hollywood Award for Best New Style Maker, and was named one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in the World. She followed that success with roles in Saving Silverman (2001), the critically praised Igby Goes Down (2002), the thriller Changing Lanes (2002) with Ben Affleck, and the suspense film High Crimes (2002) with Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman. In 2003, she appeared in Nancy Meyers's romantic comedy Something's Gotta Give alongside Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson, and Keanu Reeves, playing an auctioneer working for Christie's, and starred as a Las Vegas prostitute in the psychological thriller Identity opposite John Cusack and Ray Liotta.

Her most prominent film work in 2005 included the romantic comedy A Lot Like Love opposite Ashton Kutcher and the thriller Syriana, loosely based on former CIA agent Robert Baer's memoirs. That year she also stepped in for Marisa Tomei in the play This Is How It Goes after only six days of rehearsal, and appeared in Woody Allen's tragicomedy Melinda and Melinda. Peet's Broadway career spans 2004 to 2006 and includes three productions: The 24 Hour Plays 2004, Escape: 6 Ways to Get Away (2), and a starring role in Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park in 2006. In the same year, she joined the NBC series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, created by Aaron Sorkin, playing Jordan McDeere, the newly appointed president of entertainment programming. The role earned her a Satellite Award nomination for Best Actress in a Television Series Drama. The series was cancelled after one season.

Subsequent film appearances included the mystery drama The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008), the disaster film 2012 (2009), Gulliver's Travels (2010), Identity Thief (2013), and The Way, Way Back (2013). On television, Peet played Tina Morris on HBO's Togetherness from 2015 to 2016, Jules on IFC's Brockmire from 2016 to 2020, Betty Broderick in the second season of Bravo's Dirty John in 2020, Beth Gallagher in the Paramount+ adaptation of Fatal Attraction in 2023, and Mel Cooper in the Apple TV+ series Your Friends & Neighbors. In 2021, she wrote and co-executive produced the Netflix series The Chair. Peet is married to screenwriter David Benioff, and the couple has three children. She was born and raised in New York City, the same city where her Broadway career took shape.