Will Amanda Bynes Return To Acting After Conservatorship Ends?

Amanda Bynes
2011 MTV Movie Awards, Los Angeles, America - 05 Jun 2011

After nearly nine years under a conservatorship, Amanda Bynes is about to be free. After a judge issued a tentative ruling that the court-ordered arrangement was “no longer required,” a Tuesday (Mar. 22) hearing will make the conservatorship’s termination official. Does that mean Amanda, 35, will appear on stage and screen once again? “I have not heard her say that she’s interested in returning to becoming an actress, but I wouldn’t rule that out,” Amanda’s attorney, David A. Esquibias, told Variety. “She has a new life ahead of her, and she is so young… She was a great actress. I’m sure many people would love to see her return to acting.”

Amanda’s last listed role was in 2010’s Easy A. The former Nickelodeon star rose to fame on series like All That, What I Like About You, and on her own program, The Amanda Show. Amanda, who will not be at Tuesday’s hearing, is engaged and is currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. “Besides normalcy as a person and a student, I know that she is looking forward to what her next step is going to be,” her attorney told Variety.

“One of the things that she’s talking about is a fragrance line and possibly a clothing line, while she is concentrating on school,” added Esquibilas. “She is very creative, so she’s trying to find an outlet for that.”

In 2013, her parents, Rick Bynes and Lynn Organ, petitioned a court for conservatorship after Amanda allegedly set a driveway on fire and was subsequently hospitalized on an involuntary psychiatric hold. In 2014, Lynn Organ was granted full conservatorship over Amanda. That same year, Amanda posted some erratic messages on Twitter, claiming she had a microchip in her brain and was diagnosed as “bipolar and manic depressive.” Amanda’s attorney, citing medical confidentiality and privacy, declined to comment on Amanda’s diagnosis.

Amanda Bynes in ‘She’s The Man’ (Shutterstock)

In February 2022, Amanda filed documents in California’s Ventura Country Superior Court, requesting the end of the conservatorship of her person and estate. Her parents are “supportive of their daughter, and all they ever wanted was for her to be happy and healthy,” a source told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY, and that’s why they “completely back her decision to end the conservatorship.”

“I just had no purpose in life,” Amanda told Paper Magazine in 2018. “I’d been working my whole life, and I was doing nothing. 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…It makes me feel so horrible and sick to my stomach and sad.”