Amanda Bynes
A Deep-Dive Into Her Legal Troubles, Mental Breakdowns, and How Dan Schneider May Be Responsible.

Show Notes:
*This is not an exact transcript, but rather an outline of my notes.

Ok, so now that I’ve given you an overview of Dan Schneider, let’s jump into Amanda Bynes’ story.

As you may have heard, Amanda Bynes has had some legal troubles and public outbursts over the past few years. But a lot of people aren’t aware of how her childhood may have contributed to behavior as an adult.

I want to really break what happened to Amanda. How did she go from this funny, charming, charismatic young lady to the manic woman who kind of had a mental breakdown and ended up in a conservatorship.

Among other things, it’s very possible that Dan Schneider may have something to do with Amanda’s breakdown.

AMANDA BYNES

Amanda Bynes was born 4/3/86 to Lynn and Rick Bynes. Rick tried to make it in comedy but it didn’t work out. Amanda was really into fashion growing up, but she had a real knack for comedy, so Rick encouraged it.

She was a total natural, doing hilarious impressions of celebrities. She started acting when she was 7 years old in commercials for Barbies and candy bars, and then moved on to a comedy camp in LA where she was discovered and asked to join the cast of All That.

This was huge. She was the youngest on the show, and this show often led to the actors getting a spin off of their own. She pulled in a huge fan base, but there were times where people, specifically adults, would make comments in passing about her appearance. Like for example, they would call her “puffy faced”. Amanda started to internalize these comments from an early age and she became self-conscious.

Nevertheless, Amanda was slaying business-wise, so she was given her own show, The Amanda Show, at age 12. Again, this show included cast members like Drake Bell, Josh Peck, and Taran Killam– who BY THE WAY is Gary Blauman in How I Met Your Mother among other fun roles, but– Gary Blauman– I LOVE how much I HATE Gary Blauman!

Anyway Taran Killam is like 4 years older than Amanda which isn’t much now, but when she’s 13 and he’s 17, and they eventually start dating when they’re 15 and 19… I don’t support that. Somebody should have put an end to that.

He played Spalding, by the way. The Amanda Show had a skit called “Moody’s Point” which I think was suppose to be like a parody of like, Dawson’s Creek. So Spalding was a character who was in love with Moody.

There’s an extra who allegedly worked on The Amanda Show, but chooses to remain anonymous. One of the things she said was that they were weirdly close, like Dan would hug Amanda from behind and hold her, like she was his girlfriend or something. She was literally like 12-13 years old. And her parents were on-set just letting it happen. Letting her suffer through it.

He also guest starred playing small roles in the show, and there are just a couple of instances that are a little weird. One is that the show always ended with Amanda in a jacuzzi interviewing one of the characters from the show, and sometimes it would be a grown man, like Dan, in the hot tub with Amanda.

As of her teenage years, we know she was not geting along with her parents, and she started spending a lot of time at the home of Dan and his wife, Lillien. Lillien said “she was spending a lot of time with us, but she never left her family’s house.”

Which, I think is weird. It’s like “she’s here a lot but SHE DOESN’T LIVE HERE.” like ok, Lillien. I wasn’t wondering if she lived there before but now I am.

The other thing is, there’s behind-the-scenes clip on the DVD for the Amanda Show, where Amanda’s sitting next to Dan with her head on his shoulder, and her face just looks smiley but sleepy, almost like she’s on drugs. And of course she could be not on drugs but it’s a little eerie considering what we know now.

By the third season, Amanda decided it was time to leave the Amanda Show behind, as she didn’t want to be a “nickelodeon kid until shes 30”.

Big fat liar

This was her first film role, and she starred alongside Frankie Muniz. In fact, Lindsay Lohan was originally cast for the role but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.

Then her agent at Endeavor, her manager at Tollin Robbins and her attorney at Myman, Abell, Fineman, Greenspan & Light were all fired by her parents.

“People change representation all the time,” says her father, Dr. Rick Bynes. “We just didn’t need any at the time, so we decided to not have any. We just got rid of everybody.”

But it seems that Amanda’s father, Rick, was super controlling and strict. I mean, Amanda has said that her parents were strict in a way like they wouldn’t let her go to the mall alone. But it seems like maybe he was more controlling than that. She’s admitted that there has always been tension with him.

So Amanda went to her reps and said she wanted to be emancipated. Essentially, she wants to divorce her parents so that she can make her own decisions without needing a parent or guardian’s permission.

The actress’s former reps say that when her parents learned she wanted to “divorce” them, the parents felt doubly betrayed: Her reps knew about these plans but kept mum for months.

https://variety.com/2003/film/news/young-famous-and-in-control-1117887890/

What’s weird is that this coincided with when she was spending a lot of time at Dan Schneider’s house, which has led people to speculate that maybe Dan was encouraging her to seek emancipation.

So since Amanda wanted to leave Nickelodeon behind and play not-so-childish roles, Dan Schneider and his company Schneider’s Bakery went and created the show What I like About You, starring Amanda Bynes as an older teen/young adult character. Dan only worked on that show for 2 seasons and then he left and then he and Amanda seemingly never worked together again. Kind of strange after all these years of working so closely together because ever since then, Amanda does not talk about him kindly. We’ll get into that but it just seeeeeems like maybe something happened around 2004 to make them part ways, and then Dan went back to Nickelodeon that year to work on Drake & Josh.

This is another thing that I don’t really have evidence for, and you have to decide for yourself if you find the source to be credible. There’s a website called Crazy Days And Nights which was created by a Hollywood lawyer. The lawyer’s identity is a mystery and it’s said that only about 20 people actually know who he is, but supposedly, he has shown his credentials proving that he is licensed to practice law.

This lawyer goes by Enty Lawyer, and allegedly has connections and maintains close contact with a lot of celebrities. Enty Lawyer has been releasing “blind items” over the years. This means that they release quotes or information they gather through emails while keeping private the name of the person who said it.

Enty Lawyer released information that they later revealed to be from Amanda Bynes. If this information is true, it may answer some of our questions.

Amanda allegedly emailed Enty Lawyer back in 2018 when Dan Schneider was released from Nickelodeon. This email said:

thank you for all of your ongoing support. i Don’t know how Any of these meN sleep at night, but if there’s one thing that i Do know Is that what’s Done In the dark, always comes to lighT! xoxo

Sorry, I thought it was clever :D unfortch I will obviously not be making any comment whatsoever (for obvious reasons) and unfortch I feel as though the only way that legitimate stories can make the headlines regarding ____ is if others publicly speak on his behavior. _____ was truly like a 2nd father to me. But things changed. After the 2nd incident, i don’t know if I will ever be able to have children or have the family of my dreams.

People have been picking this scab for years. I just won’t be the one who finally rips it off.

The capitalization is unusual. She uses lowercase letters for most of the message, and the only letters she capitalizes spell out DAN DID IT.

She mentions that she’ll never be able to have children or the family of the dreams, which has led us to speculate that Dan Schneider may have impregnated Amanda Bynes, leading her to have an abortion and unable to have children. This is what makes me so curious about the fact that people were quick to believe that Dan was the father of Jamie Lynn Spears’ daughter.

In 2005, Amanda filmed a movie called Love Wrecked in Dominican Republic. When she returned home, she started feeling really tired and sick and lost a ton of weight. It turned out that she had mononucleosis, and she dropped down to100 lbs. Though she was at this dangerously low weight, her mother told her that she never looked better. Going forward, Amanda would fixate and trying to get back down to 100lbs.

In 2006, Amanda was in the movie She’s the Man, and she basically plays a girl who dresses up as a boy and pretends to be her own brother.

Amanda has said that she fell into a deep, deep depression after this movie. She called this an “out of body experience” and said that she hated how she looked as a boy. And it makes sense, I think for any girl with issues about her appearance, it probably hurts to find out you can convincingly play a boy. And it really messed with her head.

She also was constantly referred to as a funny girl. She was never really called pretty. And she grew up competing for roles against actresses like Lindsey Lohan and Hilary Duff, who were the same age and had the same demographic, but they were successfully moving on to more mature roles, and in comparison, Amanda wasn’t really thought of for the same roles. Like, Amanda was getting typecasted. She was always playing a quirky girl who was up to some crazy antics. She often compared herself to other actresses like Lindsay Lohan. By 2007, Lindsay Lohan was already doing movies like Mean Girls and I Know Who Killed Me and became recognized for her sex appeal. And Amanda started comparing herself to all of them. She would say “I’m not getting this role or that role, I’m not getting the Lindsay Lohan roles”.

But also, by 2007, Lindsay and Amanda were both 21 years old and Lindsay was having all kinds of legal issues and she was a fixture in the tabloids for her drunk driving and she went to rehab for her alcoholism.

Amanda wasn’t there yet. She was kind of a beacon of hope, along with Hilary Duff, when Lindsay was out being the bad girl.

Amanda would say that she hated every film she was in because she hated seeing herself. But she did enjoy working on Hairspray because she got to have fun with all these huge stars. One day on set, she was reading a trashy magazine and read about an article about adderall being effective for weightloss. So she went to a doctor and feigned symptoms of ADHD, and got a prescription for aderall.

2007 was also when Amanda followed her passion in fashion and launched her clothing line with Steve & Barry. Unfortunately it wasn’t successful.

On June 19th, 2010, Amanda announced on twitter that she was retiring, stating “being an actress isn’t as fun as it may seem. "If I don't love something anymore, I stop doing it. I don't love acting anymore, so I've stopped doing it. I know 24 is a young age to retire, but you heard it here first”

About a month later in July 2010, she tweeted “I’ve unretired!” followed by a trailer for Easy A.

Amanda hated seeing herself in this film

This is kind of the point in time where Amanda starts acting kind of funny.

That same year, Bynes started shooting the comedy film Hall Pass but dropped out of the film and was replaced by Alexandra Daddario. Here was finally a grown-up role, but unfortunately, she was having problems on-set where she was acting erratic and paranoid, and they were struggling to get any usable footage of her. Amanda later revealed that her adderall use was getting out of hand and she was struggling to even speak. At the time she claimed her departure was due to scheduling conflicts.

By the way, Alexandra Daddario did move on to get some pretty good roles.

Amanda was kind of out of the spotlight for a bit, but she started having some pretty concerning public outbursts.

2010 was when her strange tweeting began. It was like manic oversharing.

If you have to force someone to do anything – you are in the wrong

— amanda bynes (@amandabynes) November 10, 2014

Forcing someone to like you when it is obvious they don't like you is considered unattractive in my mind

— amanda bynes (@amandabynes) November 10, 2014

feel my pain

— amanda bynes (@amandabynes) November 10, 2014

If you don't like someone regardless of who they are you have every right to be rude to Them

— amanda bynes (@amandabynes) November 10, 2014

I'm so rude

— amanda bynes (@amandabynes) November 10, 2014

I only follow ppl I find beautiful

— amanda bynes (@amandabynes) November 10, 2014

It goes against my religion to follow an ugly person

— amanda bynes (@amandabynes) November 10, 2014

That's why I feel pretty

— amanda bynes (@amandabynes) November 10, 2014

If only you could block ppl in person

— amanda bynes (@amandabynes) November 10, 2014

That'd be so tight

— amanda bynes (@amandabynes) November 10, 2014

Adolf Hilter tricked the germans into believing that jews were less than the germans and that they should be segregated and then killed

— amanda bynes (@amandabynes) November 10, 2014

But germans who feel that Adolf Hilter was incorrect aren't guilty in my book

— amanda bynes (@amandabynes) November 10, 2014

Beauty is truth

— amanda bynes (@amandabynes) November 10, 2014

feel my pain

— amanda bynes (@amandabynes) November 10, 2014

And it got worse. But sometimes, it was funny.

But then it was not funny.

In retrospect, we should’ve been more concerned about her tweets. But it made her the center of jokes. She was mocked and called crazy.

In March of 2012, Amanda was pulled over for talking on her cell phone while driving, and she drove off before the officer was able to give her a ticket. A month later, she was driving at 3 am and tried to pass a car and ended up sideswiping it. I saw one source say that the car she clipped was a BMW, but another source said it was actually a police car. In any case, she was pulled over. After refusing to take a breathalyzer test, she was arrested for a DUI. Later that month, she was arrested again, for hitting a car and fleeing the scene. Later that same year, she was arrested in connection with two hit-and-run incidents. She ended up racking up seven accidents in that year. After the first one, she tweeted Hey @BarackObama… I don’t drink. Please fire the cop who arrested me. I also don’t hit and run. The End.” And she pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Some have speculated that maybe Amanda was intentionally getting herself into trouble, like Lindsay, so she could get more adult roles. That’s probably not true but sadly, turning into a party animal and doing things like getting DUIs is kind of like a right of passage for child actors.

After the second hit-and-run, she had her driver’s license revoked. And then she was pulled over for driving after her license was revoked.

After that happened, Lindsay Lohan actually tweeted:

“Why did I get put in jail and a Nickelodeon star has had no punishment so far?”

September 2012-

Amanda Bynes acted so bizarre during a workout class in Hollywood Tuesday night ... her instructor stopped the session halfway through and kicked her out

Gym sources tell us, Amanda was attending a 50-minute spin class at Equinox when she suddenly stopped participating in the class and aimlessly walked around looking to switch bikes.

Once Amanda found a replacement -- closer to the room's giant mirror -- we're told Amanda started cycling again, but removed her top, revealing a "tiny black strapless push up bra ... not a sports bra."

Roughly 25 minutes into the class, we're told Amanda stopped cycling again -- this time to pick up her Louis Vuitton purse ... and reapply her makeup.

According to sources, the actress was doing her makeup -- lipstick, eyeliner, the whole shebang -- for ten full minutes before the instructor grew furious and told her to get out, claiming he couldn't BELIEVE someone was doing makeup in the middle of his spin class.

Amanda then left the room and the class continued.

I dont know about you, but to me, this is really speaking to her body dysmorphia.

Not long after that, Amanda went to a cupcake shop in Soho and locked herself in a bathroom for over 30 minutes.

She was there for two hours and "she spent more than 30 of those minutes locked in the store’s bathroom." After buying a cupcake, "She then took her bathroom break, which was so long that one of the bakery’s patrons — coincidentally, a New York City firefighter — became concerned. 'He knocked on the bathroom door numerous times and called for her,' says the source, noting that the firefighter feared Bynes may have been unconscious.

The store turned down its music and closed its doors as they tried to ease Bynes out and the firefighter spent 15 minutes trying to convince Bynes to come out. The source said, "Finally, he called the police and asked if he had their okay to break down the door"—which got Bynes out. She said, "Excuse me, I was doing my makeup."

Later September 2012, Amanda’s agent, publicist, and lawyer all reportedly dropped her within a matter of weeks of each other, after they just couldn’t reach her. They said she was a dream client for years but she had become difficult in recent years.

She started making big changes to her appearance, like shaving off half of her hair and getting cheek piercings. She also started announcing that she was going to sue different magazines and blogs for misrepresenting her and calling her mentally ill, and demands that they only use photos of her from her Twitter.

Then in May 2013 she did an exclusive interview with In Touch Magazine where she said again that she doesn’t drink because she’s allergic to alcohol, and also doesn’t smoke pot.

But then like 3 weeks later, a photographer from In Touch visited her apartment and he documented weed all over the place, like on the floor and all over the bed. He said she would smoke a joint half way, put it out, light up a new one, put it out, and then go back and finish the first one. He said that her house was a mess, she slept on a bare mattress and her windows had been painted black.

In July 2013, the police were called to Amanda’s apartment building because she was allegedly smoking marijuana in the lobby. When they arrived, she was back in her apartment which reeked like pot.

So an officer went to her door and when she opened it, he saw a bong on her kitchen counter.

The officer said:

“When I asked defendant about said bong, and while wearing full police uniform, I observed defendant grab said bong, run to the westbound-facing window, and throw it out the window where numerous pedestrians were walking on the Eighth Avenue and West 47th Street sidewalks below.”

Amanda was like “it was just a vase.”

The officers never found the bong though,. I guess they looked all over for it with a flashlight and they literally don’t understand where it went.

Side note– Amanda started wearing crazy wigs all the time, including to court. And they were bright colors and ratty, not natural looking. Like, she could take a lesson from Phil Spector’s wig game.

I was trying to figure out why and what I found was, I guess she had to cut or shave some of her hair because of a bad bleach job from a hair salon. So like if you followed her around this time, you probably remember wearing a number of colorful wigs.

Just a couple of weeks after the bong accident, Amanda started a fire in her neighbor’s driveway. This doesn’t make a lot of sense but for some reason she started the fire using a gas can, and she accidentally caught her pants on fire AS WELL AS HER DOG. A little pomeranian. Neighbors started trying to extinguish the fire and asked if she needed help, and she just fled the scene. Apparently she ran to a nearby liquor store and into an employee area so she could rinse her dog off in a sink. When they tried to question her, she ran off again. Passersby recognized her and asked if she needed help, but she just kept fleeing. Police were able to locate her and placed her on a 5150 psychiatric hold. Amanda never gave a coherent explanation. After her 72 hour psych hold, she was put into the conservatorship of her parents. It was just temporary though.

Bynes' parents testified in court that the former actress had been experiencing extremely erratic behavior, including expressing paranoia over being watched and followed.

She went to rehab for 6 months and her conservatorship ended, and what followed was an even darker period on Twitter.

Amanda’s parents and her siblings publicly said that the allegations were completely false and they don’t know why she would fabricate things like that. Her parents then flew out to try to convince her to check into a mental health facility, but she tried to flee the city to avoid them.

And she backtracked–

Soon after, her mother was given conservatorship again.

About a month later, Amanda admitted on twitter to being diagnosed bipolar and manic depressive. Her tweets became more sporadic, pretty much just selfies and an announcement that she was planning to attend the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in LA, and by March of 2015, she wasn’t tweeting at all.

In 2018, Bynes stated she had been sober for four years with the help of her parents.^[12] She also apologized for what she said on Twitter during her years of substance abuse: "I'm really ashamed and embarrassed with the things I said. I can't turn back time but if I could, I would. And I'm so sorry to whoever I hurt and whoever I lied about because it truly eats away at me."^[12] In an interview, Bynes stated that during her days of substance abuse she would experiment with cocaine and MDMA, but the drug she "abused the most" was the ADHD prescription medication Adderall.

In February 2022, Bynes filed to end her conservatorship.^[74] "She believes her condition is improved and protection of the court is no longer necessary."^[75] The conservatorship was officially terminated on March 22, 2022.

Her parents and team agreed with Bynes' decision to end the conservatorship, the Associated Press reported.

"We're all excited and we're all anxiously looking forward to Amanda living a life as a private and normal citizen. Ms. Bynes' parents have both been very supportive throughout the entire conservatorship, and have helped her work towards a positive transition into the real world, which was the goal from the beginning of the legal arrangement," Bynes' lawyer David A. Esquibias told Entertainment Tonight. "Ms. Bynes has done very well in a very short period of time that she's been [living at the structured community for women.] Now she's able to live on her own independently and free of the conservatorship. Besides normalcy as a person and a student, I know that she is looking forward to what her next step is going to be.”

Amanda Bynes/Dan Schneider Connection

Ok so this is interesting but difficult to confirm. There are people who have come forward and told their own stories of Dan Schneider or of having witnessed Dan behaving inappropriately towards Amanda. But these people will only speak anonymously.

Obscure-nick has exposed a lot and spoken to victims--

For auditions females had to wear spaghetti straps and open toed shoes and dan preferred pig tails on female actresses

This person got role in unfabulous and assistant said they sent her on graduation party an girls parents would not allow her to go alone. They insisted and pushed it was a requirement to go alone and meet producer. Also said it was a no-shoe party and asked if it was ok to photograph their feet.

Another actress was paid $100 to have her feet massaged/tickled by Dan.