Mandy Moore Biography

Birth Name: Amanda Leigh Moore

Birth Place: Nashua, NH

Date of Birth / Zodiac Sign: 04/10/1984, Aries

Profession: Actor; singer

Education:

Lake Brantley High School, Altamonte Springs , Florida

Bishop Moore High School, Orlando , Florida

Amanda Leigh Moore was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, on April 10, 1984 to Don (an airline pilot) and Stacy (a former news reporter). After seeing the musical "Oklahoma!", she decided that she wanted to pursue a career in singing. As a child, she performed the National Anthem at several athletic events around her hometown of Orlando, Florida, and became known as the "National Anthem girl".

At the ripe age of 14, while she was recording in a studio in Orlando, a Fed-Ex worker who happened to be passing through heard her and was interested in her talent. He happened to know someone at Sony as well. Moore worked on cutting a demo and shortly thereafter signed a record deal with Sony 550 Music. At 15, her first record "So Real" was released. Her first tour was with the Backstreet Boys.

As her touring and recording schedule demanded more of her time, Moore withdrew from Bishop Moore Catholic High School in Orlando and opted for a tutor/correspondence. She has stated that her education is important to her and says that the fact that she wants to go to college motivates her to continue with her schooling.

Achieving platinum sales by 2000, Moore was now a fixture on MTV, guest-hosting the popular daily series "TRL" (MTV, 1998-2008) and starring in MTV specials such as "Mandy's Mountain Makeover" and "Spring Break 2000" that same year. Noting the performer's charm, charisma and screen presence, the cable network offered Moore her own series during the summer of 2000: "The Mandy Moore Show," which resumed in the summer of 2001 as the retitled "Mandy." A star whose work crossed media lines from the beginning, Moore began working as a Neutrogena spokesperson soon after "Candy" was released, and in 2000, the home video "Magic Al and the Mind Factory" surfaced, a children's project she had filmed in 1998. The following year saw the actress make her big screen debut; first, with a small voice role in "Dr. Dolittle 2" (2001), followed by a pivotal supporting role in the Garry Marshall comedy "The Princess Diaries" (2001). As the popular tormentor of unlikely - and unsuspecting - Princess Mia (Anne Hathaway), Moore set aside her sunshiny image to play the archetypical schoolgirl bully. Jumping at the opportunity to work with legends Marshall and star Julie Andrews, Moore enjoyed an overwhelmingly positive reaction to her entry into film from her co-stars, as well as a rather warm reception from the critics. It seemed of all her blonde pop star peers of the new millennium - Aguilera, Spears and Jessica Simpson - only the newly brunette Moore had the chops and the drive to make it as a viable actress.

It was a busy year for Moore, if not particularly a banner one. Following right on the heels of "Because I Said So" was the highly anticipated romantic comedy "License to Wed" (2007), co-starring Robin Williams and John Krasinski. The result, however, was mixed, with the film being largely dismissed by critics and met with ambivalence by audiences. Greeted more warmly by reviewers, but lacking the marketing power to make much of a dent at the multiplex, was the sardonic romantic comedy "Dedication" (2007), directed by Justin Theroux. Neither of these could compare to the star-studded critical and financial catastrophe that was writer-director Richard Kelly's apocalyptic mash-up "Southland Tales" (2007). Despite this stretch of feature film misfires, Moore's musical career provided a bright spot with the release that summer of her first self-written album, Wild Hope. Taking a break from Hollywood, Moore continued to focus on her music for the time being, releasing the thematically more mature album Amanda Leigh in 2009. In 2010, Moore took on a small recurring role on the popular medical melodrama "Grey's Anatomy" (ABC, 2004- ). In her next cinematic effort, Moore provided the vocals for the Disney-fied version of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, "Rapunzel" in the animated "Tangled" (2010).