Mandy Moore

• 1. Introduction

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  Mandy Moore, the American singer and actress, once offered to refund everyone who had bought her first two albums. In 2006 she said she would give her fans their money back if she could. Then, during a radio interview in April of that year, a co-host who had seen her comments asked for a refund on her debut album. She fulfilled the request. For a pop star, that was a startling way to treat her own first record. What did she find so wrong with those early songs? How does a girl from Florida end up regretting the very music that made her famous? And what did she choose to build once she was free of it?

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• 2. Overheard in Orlando

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  On the 10th of April 1984, in Nashua, New Hampshire, Amanda Leigh Moore was born to Stacy and Donald Moore. Her mother was a former news reporter who had once worked for the Orlando Sentinel. Her father was a pilot for American Airlines. When Amanda was two months old, his job moved the family to Longwood, Florida, outside Orlando. She grew up with an older brother, Scott, and a younger brother, Kyle.

  Moore's British maternal grandmother, Eileen Friedman, had been a professional ballerina in London, and Moore counted her as an early inspiration. At the Park Maitland School she discovered what she later called her "passion for singing and the stage." Her parents assumed it was only a phase. "But I stuck to it and begged them for acting lessons, for voice lessons," she said.

  In Orlando, Moore took lead roles in local productions and sang the national anthem at a number of events. At twelve she attended the Stagedoor Manor performing arts camp. Production director Konnie Kittrell remembered her as "a quiet, sweet girl" who earned several solos. "She wasn't a spotlight seeker," Kittrell said.

  The turning point came in an Orlando studio, where thirteen-year-old Moore was recording music. A delivery man named Victor Cade overheard her. Cade had a friend in A&R, the part of a record company that scouts new talent, at Epic Records. He sent that friend a copy of her unfinished demo, and Moore signed with the label. That signature began a relationship with Epic that would last five years.

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• 3. Teen Pop Machine

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  While she was recording her debut album, Moore left Bishop Moore Catholic High School in College Park, Orlando. She had attended it from 1998 to 1999 and had reached the ninth grade. Tutors took over her education from there.

  In the summer of 1999, Moore went on tour with the boy band NSYNC, and later that year she toured with the Backstreet Boys. Her first single, Candy, reached U.S. stores on the 17th of August 1999. It entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 88 and eventually peaked at number 41. The Recording Industry Association of America, or RIAA, certified it gold for sales above 500,000 copies. Australia embraced it most, where it climbed to number 2 on the ARIA charts and went platinum. Comparisons to fellow teen pop singers Jessica Simpson, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears followed.

  At MTV, Moore worked as a host and VJ on shows including Total Request Live and Say What? Karaoke. She also fronted her own talk show. It was first called The Mandy Moore Show and was then renamed Mandy.

  So Real, her debut album, reached stores on the 7th of December 1999 through 550 Music and Epic Records. Reviews were mixed. Allmusic said it sounded inspired almost entirely by recent albums from NSYNC, the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears, and Entertainment Weekly gave it a C minus. It debuted at number 77 on the Billboard 200, climbed to number 31, and earned platinum status for more than one million copies sold in the United States. Its second single, Walk Me Home, failed to appear on any major chart.

  Before the push for So Real had ended, Moore was already recording again. The single I Wanna Be with You came out on the 3rd of April 2000 and spent 16 weeks on the Hot 100. It peaked at number 24 in its ninth week and reached number 11 on the Billboard Pop Songs chart. Billboard predicted that "Top 40 programmers and listeners alike will love Moore more with this track."

  A reissue of the debut, also titled I Wanna Be with You, arrived on the 9th of May 2000. It was billed as "a new version of Mandy's debut" and mixed new songs, remixes and tracks from So Real. In countries where So Real had never been released, it served as her first album. AllMusic called it "trashier, flashier, gaudier, and altogether more disposable" than its predecessor. Even so, it debuted and peaked at number 21 on the Billboard 200 and went gold. That year Moore won a Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Rising Star. Walk Me Home was re-released as its second single and reached number 38 on the Pop Songs chart.

  The final single, So Real, was released in selected territories on the 13th of June 2000. It reached number 21 in Australia and number 18 in New Zealand.

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• 4. Shedding Bubblegum

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  By 2001, Moore had grown weary of the sound that made her name, and she told Billboard magazine, "All of the music has started to look and sound the same." For her second album she wanted more live instruments. She said she wanted "no more dancers, no more singing to tracks. I got tired of that in a big way."

  The lead single, In My Pocket, came out on the 29th of May 2001. Entertainment Weekly heard "pumping, Indian-influenced Eurodisco" in it. It missed the Hot 100 but reached number 2 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, number 21 on Pop Songs, and number 11 in Australia. The self-titled Mandy Moore followed on the 19th of June 2001, mixing uptempo dance and pop with Middle Eastern influences. It debuted and peaked at number 35 on the Billboard 200 and went gold. Estimates put its worldwide sales near 1.5 million copies. A second single, Crush, came out on the 28th of August 2001 and reached number 25 in Australia.

  Coverage, released on the 21st of October 2003, collected songs from the 1970s and 1980s and was produced by John Fields. Her version of John Hiatt's 1987 song Have a Little Faith in Me led the way and peaked at number 39 on the Pop Songs chart. Allmusic described a leap to musical maturity, and Entertainment Weekly saw an effort to shed her bubblegum-blond image. The album debuted at number 14 on the Billboard 200 with 53,000 copies in its first week. That was her highest debut, yet it became her lowest-selling album and the first without an RIAA certification. A cover of XTC's 1982 song Senses Working Overtime failed to chart. Earlier that year, her version of Carole King's 1971 song I Feel the Earth Move had appeared on Love Rocks, a compilation from LGBT rights supporters.

  In 2004, Moore left Epic over creative differences. The two sides marked the end of her contract with a greatest hits album, The Best of Mandy Moore, released on the 16th of November 2004. It reached number 148 on the Billboard 200. Another compilation, Candy, followed on the 5th of April 2005.

  Moore signed with Sire Records in 2004 but left in May 2006, again citing creative differences. In July 2006 she joined The Firm Music, which was owned by EMI. She called the deal "especially exciting" and said she had not wanted to "follow the mainstream." What she wanted was "complete control and freedom" over her music.

  Late in 2006, Moore stayed alone in a house in Woodstock, in Upstate New York, to record Wild Hope. She worked with producer John Alagía and a circle of musicians that included Chantal Kreviazuk, Lori McKenna, Rachael Yamagata and The Weepies. She performed the lead single, Extraordinary, at the Brick Awards on the 12th of April 2007. The album arrived on the 19th of June 2007. Billboard called it the sound of a singer finally finding her comfort zone. It debuted at number 30 with 25,000 copies in its first week, and sales later passed 120,000 in the U.S. and 350,000 worldwide. On the 23rd of February 2008 it came out in Australia, where she toured in the west of the country with musician Ben Lee and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.

  In December 2008, Moore recorded in Boston with Mike Viola, a singer-songwriter, producer, pianist and guitarist. Amanda Leigh reached stores on the 26th of May 2009. "The music is all a reflection of me now, not somebody else's choices," Moore said. Its lead single, I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week, appeared on the 17th of March 2009 and made no impact on major charts. Time magazine called the album "impeccably recorded," and Paper magazine said Moore was a far better musician than she is often given credit for. It debuted at number 25 with 16,000 copies sold and reached number 4 on the Top Independent Albums chart. Sales are estimated at 100,000.

  Amanda Leigh was recorded just before her marriage to musician Ryan Adams. It would be her final album for over ten years.

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• 5. Leading Lady Roles

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  Moore's first film credit was a voice. In 2001 she played a Girl Bear Cub in Dr. Dolittle 2, which starred Eddie Murphy. On the 3rd of August that year, The Princess Diaries opened with Moore as Lana Thomas, the rival of Anne Hathaway's Mia Thermopolis. The film was based on Meg Cabot's novel. Moore told InStyle, "I'm the crude popular girl who gets ice cream in her face." Rotten Tomatoes found 47 percent of 113 critics positive, with an average rating of 5.2 out of 10. At a beach party in the film, she sang Connie Francis's 1958 song Stupid Cupid.

  A Walk to Remember in 2002 gave her a first starring role, opposite Shane West, with Peter Coyote as her father, Reverend Sullivan. Moore played Jamie Sullivan, the unpopular daughter, in an adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel. The film opened at number 3 at the U.S. box office with $12,177,488 in its first weekend. Reviews were generally negative, though Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called the performances of Moore and West "quietly convincing." It earned $41,281,092 in the United States and $47,494,916 worldwide, and it became a sleeper hit in Asia. Her single Cry, released on the 4th of November 2001, was issued to help promote it. Looking back in 2010, Moore said: "It was my first movie and I know people say it may be cliché and it's a tearjerker or it's cheesy, but for me, it's the thing I'm most proud of."

  How to Deal in 2003 paired her with Allison Janney, Peter Gallagher and Trent Ford. Moore played Halley Martin, a cynical, rebellious seventeen-year-old, in a film drawn from Sarah Dessen's novels That Summer and Someone Like You. It failed to find teenage audiences in the U.S. and grossed $14 million domestically. In 2004 came Chasing Liberty, with Matthew Goode, in which she played Anna Foster, a rebellious eighteen-year-old First Daughter chafing at Secret Service protection. It grossed roughly $12 million. Both films drew generally negative reviews, but Ebert again singled her out. He cited "an unaffected natural charm" in one and "undeniable screen presence" in the other. Other critics called her an "actress of limited range," though one called her the "most painless of former pop princesses."

  Late in 2004, Saved! cast her as Hilary Faye Stockard, a proper and popular girl at a Christian high school. Jena Malone, Macaulay Culkin and Patrick Fugit co-starred. The satirical comedy-drama drew generally positive reviews but did not get a wide release. One critic called Moore a "demented delight," and another judged it her best performance to date. She and Michael Stipe covered The Beach Boys' 1966 song God Only Knows, which bookended the film.

  In 2005, Moore voiced Sandy the white horse in Racing Stripes and guest-starred on HBO's Entourage. Cursed, Havoc and The Upside of Anger, three films she had once been scheduled to star in, all came out that year without her. In 2006 she guest-starred as Julie Quinn in two episodes of Scrubs. She also voiced Tabitha Vixx on The Simpsons.

  April 2006 brought American Dreamz, with Hugh Grant, in which Moore played Sally Kendoo, a sociopathic contestant on a singing competition modelled on American Idol. Director Paul Weitz had her in mind from the start, saying "there's something inherently sweet about Mandy; it makes it all the more interesting to see her in a villainess role." Moore says she enjoys playing mean-spirited characters but fears being typecast as a villain. The film opened at number 9 and totaled barely $7 million. Robert Koehler of Variety called her role a "pitch-perfect study of a woman for whom a reality show is reality."

  Brother Bear 2, released straight to DVD on the 29th of August 2006, had Moore voice Nita, its heroine. She had also been cast in Emilio Estevez's drama Bobby, but Mary Elizabeth Winstead replaced her.

  Because I Said So, released on the 2nd of February 2007 with Diane Keaton, earned $69 million worldwide despite generally negative reviews. License to Wed, with John Krasinski and Robin Williams, opened on the 3rd of July 2007. It grossed $43.8 million domestically and $69.3 million worldwide. Variety called the film "an astonishingly flat romantic comedy, filled with perplexing choices," but called Moore's performance "appealing." In Dedication, she played children's book illustrator Lucy Reilly, who falls in love with Henry Roth, played by Billy Crudup. The film premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. On the 24th of September 2007, she guest-starred on How I Met Your Mother. Then she took a break of almost two years from film roles.

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• 6. Rapunzel And Other Roles

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  Tangled, released in 2010, made Moore the voice of Rapunzel opposite Zachary Levi. Rotten Tomatoes recorded 89 percent positive reviews out of 185, with an average score of 7.5 out of 10. Metacritic gave it 71 based on 34 reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore on opening weekend gave it an A+. The film earned $200,821,936 in North America and $389,900,000 elsewhere, for a worldwide total of $590,721,936.

  That total made Tangled the 17th-highest-grossing animated film worldwide and the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2010. Among that year's animated releases, only Toy Story 3 and Shrek Forever After earned more. It ranked third among Walt Disney Animation Studios films, behind Frozen and The Lion King.

  At the 83rd Academy Awards, Moore and Levi performed the film's theme song, I See the Light. It was nominated for Best Original Song. The song also won a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media, along with Best Song from the Las Vegas Film Critics Society.

  Rapunzel kept calling her back. A short film, Tangled Ever After, followed in 2012. In June 2015 it was confirmed that Moore and Levi would return for an animated series set between Tangled and Tangled Ever After. Tangled: The Series premiered on the Disney Channel in 2017. In November 2018 she voiced Rapunzel again in Ralph Breaks the Internet, which grossed almost $500 million worldwide. That film earned a Best Animated Feature nomination at the 76th Golden Globe Awards and the 24th Critics' Choice Awards. A 2023 short, Once Upon a Studio, brought Rapunzel back once more.

  In 2010, Moore returned to live action with a guest role as Mary Portman in a two-part sixth-season finale of Grey's Anatomy. It was her first television role since 2007, and she came back for two episodes of the seventh season. Swinging with the Finkels, shot in the United Kingdom in 2009 with Martin Freeman, was released in 2011. So was Love, Wedding, Marriage, shot in 2010 with Kellan Lutz. Hotel Noir, a crime drama with Carla Gugino and Rufus Sewell, reached U.S. audiences on the 9th of October 2012.

  Voice work kept her busy. From 2012 to 2013 she voiced Mara in the short-lived Disney XD series Tron: Uprising. From 2014 to 2015 she voiced the title character of Disney Junior's Sheriff Callie's Wild West. In 2014 and 2015 she also had a recurring role as Dr. Erin Grace on the short-lived Fox series Red Band Society.

  Not every project landed. In October 2011, Moore was set to star in an ABC sitcom called Us and Them, but the network passed on the pilot. On the 20th of February 2013, it was announced that she would play Louise in the ABC sitcom Pulling. By March, her character was moving in a different direction, and Moore felt she was no longer the right fit. She asked to leave the pilot, and ABC agreed.

  Filming for the underwater survival thriller 47 Meters Down, with Claire Holt, began on the 18th of June 2015 at Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom and in the Dominican Republic. It wrapped on the 7th of August 2015. The film reached theaters on the 16th of June 2017.

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• 7. Second Act

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  In September 2016, Moore began playing Rebecca Pearson in the NBC family drama This Is Us. The role earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a series, miniseries or television film. It also earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. As part of the ensemble cast, she won two Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. She played the part until 2022.

  Music had been waiting through all of this. In July 2012, Moore announced that she would make her sixth album with her then-husband, Ryan Adams. She said a lot had happened in the roughly three years since her last record. By July 2014 she told CBS News it was "the year of actual progress forward" and that the album was more "dangerous" and "raw" than her earlier ones. On the 5th of September 2014 she sang on two tracks of Adams's fourteenth album, Ryan Adams. In September 2015 she said: "I guess 2016 will be the re-emergence of my music. That side of my life has been dormant for too long in my opinion."

  In July 2017, Moore told People magazine, "I want to return to music." She added that she had no record label but plenty of songs written. In July 2018, she said on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that she might collaborate with her husband, Taylor Goldsmith, the lead singer and guitarist of Dawes. The long wait ended on the 17th of September 2019, when she released When I Wasn't Watching with a music video. It was her first original song in more than a decade. I'd Rather Lose followed on the 31st of October.

  Moore signed with Verve Forecast Records in late 2019. She said she had "slight PTSD from being on labels in the past," but that Verve felt run by "deeply creative people who aren't necessarily just concerned with the numbers game." Her sixth studio album, Silver Landings, came out on the 6th of March 2020. It was preceded by the single Save a Little for Yourself, with a music video.

  In Real Life, her seventh studio album, followed on the 13th of May 2022. The single In Real Life arrived on the 8th of March, and Little Dreams followed on the 5th of April. The title song's video was packed with cameos from her This Is Us co-stars. Wilmer Valderrama, Hilary Duff, Matthew Koma, Amanda Kloots and Karamo Brown also appeared.

  Honors gathered around the two careers. On the 25th of March 2019, Moore received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2012, VH1 had ranked her number 96 on its list of the 100 Greatest Women in Music. In June 2024, she received the inaugural Lifetime of Culture Award at the Las Culturistas Culture Awards.

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• 8. Beyond the Stage

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  Moore champions "giving with your head," a phrase that endorses the philosophy of effective altruism. She has promoted Population Services International and its subsidiary Five & Alive, which tackles health crises facing children under five and their families. She has served as honorary chairperson of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's youth awareness division. She is the spokesperson for Cervical Cancer Awareness Month each January, working with Dr. Yvonne Collins, the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation and GlaxoSmithKline. She also made a surprise visit to Children's Hospital Los Angeles as part of the Get Well Soon Tour.

  As ambassador for the UN Foundation's Nothing But Nets malaria prevention campaign, she interviewed Laurence D. Wohlers, the U.S. ambassador to the Central African Republic, in 2010. She helped the campaign raise $1.2 million. She also speaks for Dove's self-esteem movement and its "Women Who Should Be Famous" campaign. With domestic violence survivor Indrani Goradia, founder of Indrani's Light Foundation, and the Mom Bloggers Club, she campaigns against domestic violence.

  In July 2016, Moore joined other celebrities in an a cappella version of Rachel Platten's Fight Song at the Democratic National Convention, for Hillary Clinton's presidential bid. On the 21st of January 2017, she demonstrated at the Women's March in Los Angeles. On the 13th of January 2020, she endorsed Pete Buttigieg ahead of the Iowa caucuses. She also uses her social media platforms to support criminal justice reform and Black Lives Matter.

  In 2005, Moore launched Mblem, a fashion line of contemporary knitwear and cashmere. At 5 feet 10 inches tall, she focused partly on clothing for taller women. In February 2009 she announced that the line would end, while hoping to return to fashion someday.

  From 2004 to 2006, Moore dated actor Zach Braff. She began dating Ryan Adams in 2008, and after a February engagement the two married on the 10th of March 2009 in Savannah, Georgia. In January 2015 she filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences, and a joint statement described a respectful, amicable parting. Court documents later showed they had been legally separated for nearly six months before the filing. The divorce was finalized in June 2016. In 2019 she called Adams emotionally abusive.

  Moore began dating musician Taylor Goldsmith in 2015. They were engaged in September 2017 and married on the 18th of November 2018 in Los Angeles. They have two sons, born in 2021 and 2022, and Moore's daughter was born in 2024.

  In 2019, Moore reached Everest base camp with friends and fellow hikers, at an elevation of 17,598 feet. That year she also disclosed digestive issues and gluten sensitivity that cause fatigue, gas and bloating. In August 2022 she was diagnosed with immune thrombocytopenic purpura, an incurable but treatable autoimmune disease that causes abnormally low levels of platelets.

  In January 2025, her home in Altadena, California, was believed to have burned down in the Eaton Fire. She later learned it was still standing, but almost everything inside had been lost to damage from fire on all sides. Her relatives' house did burn down. After she shared a GoFundMe page for them on Instagram, some online commenters criticized her. She replied that she was obviously helping her relatives and told the commenters bluntly to back off.

  Her filmography already lists a 2026 title, The Breadwinner, in which she plays a character named Katie. The film was in post-production.

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