Amanda Louise Seyfried (born December 3, 1985) is an American actress and former child model. She is known for her roles in Mean Girls, Alpha Dog, Veronica Mars and Big Love.

Seyfried started her career as a model at age 11. From there she went on to acting in the daytime drama The Guiding Light. In 2000, she was the first actress to play the role of Lucy Montgomery on CBS’s As the World Turns. She went on, from 2002 to 2003, to play the role of Joni Stafford on ABC’s All My Children.

In 2004, Seyfried achieved a breakthrough when she was cast as the most dimwitted of the “Plastics”, Karen Smith, in the popular teen film Mean Girls. In Mean Girls, she initially auditioned for the role of Regina. She became the original casting choices for both the roles of “Regina George” and “Cady”. She was then cast as the sidekick to “Regina”, “Karen Smith”. The other roles later went to Rachel McAdams and Lindsay Lohan respectively. In 2005, she played the lead character in one of the nine parts in the movie Nine Lives.

Continuing her television career, Seyfried was cast in UPN’s Veronica Mars as the title character’s murdered best friend Lilly Kane. In her role as Lilly, she appeared on the show through a series of flashbacks, dreams and visions, which portrayed her as a wild, stylish, and bubbly teenage daughter of a business executive.

Lilly is sometimes compared to the character of Laura Palmer of Twin Peaks, who also was deceased and appeared through various flashbacks as the plot unfolded. While appearing often during Mars’ first season, she also appeared briefly in season 2’s premiere and finalé. Seyfried originally auditioned for the title role on Veronica Mars, but lost the place to Kristen Bell and ended up winning the role of Lilly Kane.

Seyfried has had primetime cameo appearances and minor guest roles on Fox’s House, Justice, NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and CBS’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and currently appears as Rebecca on ABC Family’s television series Wildfire.

Seyfried is also a main character, Sarah Henrickson, in the highly-touted HBO original series Big Love. She appeared in the 2007 film Alpha Dog and played a supporting role in the film Solstice in 2007. Amanda will play the role of ‘Sophie’ alongside Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan in the film version of the musical “Mamma Mia!”, due for release in 2008.

Seyfried was born in Allentown, in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. She is a 2003 graduate of Allentown’s William Allen High School and is currently a student at New York City’s Fordham University. As a teenager, she appeared on the cover of three Francine Pascal books.