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Amanda Detmer

Amanda Detmer is an American actor whose career moves comfortably between film, television and stage. Born in Contra Costa County on September 27, 1971, she moved with her family to Chico, California, while in primary school. She later attended California State University, Chico, before earning a Master of Fine Arts from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Detmer made her screen debut in the 1995 television movie Stolen Innocence, then arrived in cinemas as Miss Minneapolis in the beauty-pageant comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous. That role began a busy stretch of films that showed her range across very different tones. In 2000, she played Terry Chaney in Final Destination, bringing a grounded presence to the supernatural horror film, and also appeared in the romantic comedy Boys and Girls. The following year brought major roles in Saving Silverman and Frank Darabont’s The Majestic, where she starred opposite Jim Carrey. Her first star-billed film role came with the 2002 romantic comedy Kiss the Bride. She also took supporting parts in Big Fat Liar and You, Me and Dupree, continuing a screen career shaped as much by ensemble chemistry as by any single genre. Television has been an equally consistent part of Detmer’s work. She was a regular on the NBC sitcoms M.Y.O.B. and A.U.S.A., and later starred alongside Barry Watson, Sarah Lancaster and Rosanna Arquette in the ABC comedy-drama What About Brian. She held recurring roles on Private Practice and Necessary Roughness, co-starred in the sitcom Man Up!, and made guest appearances on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Vampire Diaries, The Mentalist and Two and a Half Men. Across horror, romantic comedy, drama and network television, Detmer has built a varied career around an approachable, adaptable screen presence—equally at home in a heightened comedy, a tense genre story or an ongoing ensemble.