Where Is Amanda Bynes Now?

For plenty of people on the outside, celebrity can seem idyllic. The fashion, the parties, and of course the money can tease and tantalize those of us in the "civilian" world, possibly making us yearn for a spotlight we have little hope of attaining. But even the briefest look at Hollywood history reveals that there's truth to the old adage "Money can't buy happiness." Each generation of celebrities has its cautionary tales — examples that expose the harsh realities of immense success. Unfortunately, those examples often come in the form of child stars whose early fame ended in tragedy.

In the mid-1990s, Amanda Bynes joined the cast of Nickelodeon's "All That" and became a child star on the rise. However, a little more than a decade after headlines trumpeted her talent and bright future, Bynes became a near-constant feature in tabloids due to her personal struggles and public breakdowns. Now that some time has passed since Bynes started regularly making headlines, her one-time fans may well be wondering what she's up to today.

On April 6, 2012, news broke that Amanda Bynes had been arrested for driving under the influence (via E!). That story was followed by another on April 10 claiming Bynes was involved in a hit-and-run accident. Then, Bynes was charged with a second hit-and-run in August of 2012 as well as driving with a suspended license that September. In mid-2013, Bynes was arrested again, this time in New York on charges of reckless endangerment and marijuana possession (via NBC New York). Two months later, Bynes was placed on psychiatric hold after starting a fire in the driveway of a neighbor's home (via LA Times). 

Also in 2013, she feuded with Courtney Love, Perez Hilton, and Jenny McCarthy on Twitter (via EW). In 2014, she used the platform to publicly accuse her father of physical, emotional, and sexual assault; she would later recant those claims, claiming a microchip implanted in her brain caused her to make these serious accusations (via Complex). Finally, Bynes closed out the year by announcing she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and manic depression (via E!), at the very least sharing a reason for her headline-making behavior.

In March of 2022, Variety reported that a judge ruled a conservatorship Amanda Bynes' mother Lynn Organ had maintained for the prior nine years was no longer necessary. Initially, Organ and Bynes' father Rick Bynes arranged for this conservatorship after the notorious driveway fire incident in 2013. Amanda Bynes' lawyer David A. Esquibias praised her parents for the support they provided her during those nine years. Their intent was always to end the arrangement once Bynes seemed capable of taking care of herself, which they determined was feasible in 2022.

Unfortunately, the end of this conservatorship didn't necessarily spell the end of Bynes' struggles. The following year, in March of 2023, she committed to joining a reunion of the original "All That" cast at a '90s-themed convention, but had to cancel at the last minute. "I've just been praying for her," Bynes' former "All That" co-star Kel Mitchell told Entertainment Tonight. "It's awesome to see she's doing better. Which is great. We're just continuing to pray for her on her journey, and it's answered prayers that she's doing a lot better."

Despite facing some hardships over the years, Amanda Bynes has stayed creatively ambitious through her interest in fashion and desire to start a clothing line. This passion for fashion developed in earnest back in 2019, when she reportedly graduated from "California's Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising," where she studied all things clothes, colors, and styles. Having entered the school back in 2014, Bynes celebrated her completed education with a fun social media post reading "FIDM graduate 2019 #fidmgraduation."

Since then, Amanda Bynes has taken her passion into the world of business by expressing serious interest in creating her own fashion line. In 2020, Bynes took to Instagram to pitch her dream of making a clothing line to her millions of followers. In her post, she said, "I'm really looking forward to starting my clothing line, and I'm hoping that in the near future it will be out online." She also added her genuine appreciation for the love and support fans had been throwing her way by commenting, Just wanted to say hi to all of my followers; I really wanted to say I appreciate you so much for supporting me." While there hasn't been much info on her upcoming business venture, real fans will remember that Bynes had already released a limited-run clothing line called "Dear" back in 2007 that was exclusively sold at Steve and Barry's. Who knows, maybe this will be a revival!

While Amanda Bynes has made significant steps towards healing and growing from her personal troubles, there have been times in recent years when she struggled in a way that caused some controversy. Social media is always a hotbed for people saying awful things online about others, and that's exactly what happened with Bynes back in the early aughts when she would get in prolonged and inflamed arguments online with people where she'd call them personal insults or, in one particularly infamous case, talk about how much she wanted Drake to "murder her vagina." 

This certainly isn't the best look for a former child actor turned tabloid fixation, but luckily, Amanda Bynes has had the decency to come out and apologize for her past actions. She would go on to explain that this period of her life was caused by substance misuse and unwarranted anger at seemingly random celebrities, whom she would then insult on the internet. Bynes touched on this in an interview with Paper, where she said, "[I] was just stuck at home, getting high, watching TV and tweeting," before adding, "I had a lot of time on my hands and I would 'wake and bake' and literally be stoned all day long." Amanda Bynes officially and publicly apologized for this behavior, saying, "I just wanted to post a video to say I'm sorry to everyone I called ugly on Twitter."