Amanda was born in New York City. Her mother was a singer, her father a film editor. Every year he would screen a 16mm print of King Kong and The Red Balloon in the basement of their home. Amanda has always loved the way pictures, sound and music work together to tell stories, and believes that her affinity for music and sense of rhythm help greatly in the craft of editing.
Amanda got her first break as Editor on Wicked City, a music-driven film about a young girl finding her way in New York. She was later Associate Editor on Loverboy, directed by Kevin Bacon, Uptown Girls, starring Brittany Murphy, HBO's A Dog Year, starring Jeff Bridges, and Season 2 of the HBO series In Treatment, starring Gabriel Byrne. On The Devil Wears Prada, Amanda found many of the songs and edited much of the temp score, earning her the credit of Additional Music Editor on the film.
Throughout her career, Amanda has had the opportunity to work with an impressive list of directors including Terry Gilliam, Ang Lee, Sidney Pollack, Barry Levinson, Martin Brest and Robert Altman. She has also assisted many talented editors who have served as mentors and teachers.
Recently, Amanda edited the independent feature Somebody's Hero, starring Christopher Goran, as well as several episodes of the MTV series Skins and FX’s boxing series Lights Out. An episode of Lights Out that Amanda edited gained significant recognition in a January 2011 article in Salon.com. The article reads:
"The high point of the episode [SPOILERS AHEAD] is the last act -- the finest 12 minutes I've seen on TV in years, and about as strong an illustration of the power of cross-cutting as you'll ever see. Every minute, every second, every frame is held as long as it should be and not a moment longer; the filmmakers and actors attain an economy of gesture that's truly transporting. What's on-screen at first seems plain, simple, even corny. But if you watch it all again, you start to grasp the intricacies of its construction, and see how one shot or moment mirrors or intensifies another..."
Amanda spent a number of years living in Cambridge, England as a teenager. She considers England to be her second home, but lives and works in New York City.