| “ | I am a stylist. Rachel Zoe can suck it - there's a new skinny bitch in town! What! | ” |
— Amanda finding her true calling, Blue on Blue
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Amanda Tanen-Sommers (born Amanda Sommers) is one of the main characters on Ugly Betty and her spin-off web-series, Mode After Hours. She is portrayed by Becki Newton.
Appearing as the beautiful but vain receptionist at MODE, Amanda is the first person Betty Suarez meets on her first day as assistant to the Editor-in-Chief. Amanda and Betty have an extremely quarrelsome relationship, owing to the fact that Amanda initially wanted Betty's job and was judgmental towards Betty's appearance. However, as the series progresses, she becomes better friends with Betty and briefly moved in with her in the third season.
In the first season, Amanda discovers that she is the daughter of the previous Editor-in-Chief of MODE Fey Sommers after Fey had a one night stand at Studio 54 at Fey's first issue party, according to Wilhelmina. Her father would be later revealed to be soap opera star Spencer Cannon, whom she invites to Hilda's wedding.
Early Life[]
- "I was conceived during Studio 54. I knew there was glamour in my genes."
- —Amanda, Grin and Bear It
Born January 31, 1982, Amanda was raised by Mr. Tanen and Rosemary Tanen in a well off neighborhood in the Hamptons due to her father's career as an investment banker and, according to Amanda, "an embezzler." Her parents now live in Scarsdale. Her uncle is the "thin one" out of the Three Tenors. As an adult, Amanda discovers that she was in fact adopted and that her biological mother is Fey Sommers, her former boss at MODE, and that she was conceived at a party at Studio 54. Wilhelmina Slater, who was at the time Fey's assistant, tells Amanda that she saw Fey with Amanda's biological father that night; however, she did not see his face, only the Tweety Bird tattoo on his backside.
Amanda has a tendency to go on eating binges whenever she feels threatened, as a way to control her fears and insecurities and attempts to be the "perfect" woman. Despite her somewhat conceited and ditzy exterior she is quite bright, but has a tendency to butcher the Spanish language, using mangled pronunciations like "hoe-la" (hōʹlä) for hola and "bareo" (bârʹē-ō) for barrio. It's implied in various episodes that Amanda may be attracted to women as well as men and generally has a very healthy attitude towards her sexuality and expressing her desires. It's also stated that Amanda aspires to marry royalty, preferably a duke, as a prince "would be too much pressure."[1]
Prior to working at MODE, Amanda was an actress and appeared as a hostess in a commercial for a medieval-themed restaurant. This is an inside joke, referencing an Olive Garden commercial in which Becki Newton, who plays Amanda, appeared as one of the restaurant chain's cheery hostesses.
Throughout Ugly Betty[]
Season 1[]
Amanda Tanen is the attractive receptionist at MODE magazine and is allied with both Wilhelmina Slater and Wilhelmina's assistant Marc St. James when it comes to taking down the two major thorns in Wilhelmina's side: Betty and Betty's boss Daniel Meade. Amanda is also in love with Daniel, with whom she has been casually sleeping for some time before beginning of the series, though Daniel does not see Amanda as a potential girlfriend even as he continues to sleep with her when it's convenient to him. This a point of tension for Amanda throughout the first season, as she struggles to accept that her genuine feelings for Daniel are not reciprocated.
In the finale of the first season, Amanda makes the shocking discovery that she is adopted when she discovers a hidden safe in Fey's secret room ("love dungeon"), containing a bunch of photos of Amanda as a child as well as a diary and a genuine birth certificate, naming Fey as Amanda's biological mother. Curious about her past, Amanda decides to seek out the identity of her father. Based on the information Wilhelmina tells her about the night that Amanda was conceived, she believes her father to be KISS bassist and lead singer Gene Simmons.
Season 2[]
At the start of the second season, Amanda has temporarily gained weight from binge eating to manage her worry and frustration after learning of her parentage. She also became the caretaker of her late mother's pet dog, Halston, as most of Fey's possessions were given away at auction for charity. Also at the wedding of Wilhelmina and Bradford she sang the song "Milkshake" by Kelis and had the whole reception clapping with her. She also became involved with rival employee Nick Pepper, whose "dislike" between each other is a turn-on.
She also discovered the truth about what Fey did to Claire Meade resulting in Fey's murder by Claire. After discovering several diary pages kept hidden in the back of a portrait of Fey in the Love Dungeon, Amanda learned Fey was responsible for poisoning a perfume she gave to Bradford so he can give it to Claire as a gift. When Claire began to use it, the perfume would make Claire go crazy, resulting in her killing Fey instead. Amanda wanted to get back at Claire for having killed her mother by forcing Marc to burn the pages and get rid of the perfume Claire gave to Betty after she spots it on Betty's desk, only to have Marc tell her it was Fey who killed herself. Realizing this, she turns over the evidence to Betty at Claire's trial, resulting in Claire being set free.
Season 3[]
In the third season, Amanda's spending lifestyle would catch up with her. After being evicted from her apartment and accumulating debt, she ends up moving in with Betty at her apartment, where Betty would give her a wake-up call over her financial responsibilities, which resulted in Amanda acquiring a second job at a fast-food restaurant. After realizing she had been taking advantage of Betty, Amanda began to thaw to Betty, and began treating her better, though still affectionately mocks her. During the financial struggles at MODE Amanda was made redundant, she was re-instated when Calvin Hartley invests in the company in order to save it from bankruptcy.
Season 4[]
As the fourth season began, Amanda would finally bury the hatchet with Claire over Fey, and agreed to help Claire with establishing a relationship with Claire's son Tyler, who she gave up for adoption because he was the product of a affair between Claire and Calvin, who by the way, is also the father of Matt Hartley, whom she began to pursue after he and Betty broke up, only to end it after she realized that Matt still had feelings for Betty. Amanda later sleeps with Daniel; however, they realize that it only occurred out of impulse, later saying that they were "there for each other and that was it". Amanda's favorite "fall color" is pale carmine.
Amanda's Family Life[]
In the wake of discovering the truth about her mother, Amanda tried to find out more about her connection to Fey Sommers as she stands to inherit the late editor's fortune and to find out why her adoptive parents kept the truth from her all these years. The Tanens explained Fey was focused on her career at the time and didn't think she would be able to devote her efforts in raising Amanda.
With the fact Fey had carried a long-term affair with Bradford Meade, Amanda worried Bradford may be her biological father since it would mean she had committed incest by sleeping with Daniel, who would be her half-brother. She expressed this concern to Daniel, right before reading the results of a DNA test showing they were not related.
The search for her biological father has been Amanda's priority throughout season 2. In "Grin and Bear It", She learned from Wilhelmina (who was Fey's assistant and confidant) that she was conceived at Studio 54 during a celebration honoring Fey's first issue as editor of Mode; With leads on her search, which led to her attempts to contact Kiss frontman Gene Simmons in "A Thousand Words By Friday"; with Marc's help, she wrote and performed the song "Gene Simmons is My Daddy" in hopes to catch the attention of someone in Simmons' camp - but as luck would have it, Simmons himself showed up to watch Amanda's performance. This led to a reality show called "Daddy's Little Girl" about their life as father and daughter. However, Amanda later learned that Simmons was only pretending to be her father to gain publicity. The identity of Amanda's father was finally revealed in The Past Presents The Future when Amanda, unknowingly, sets him and Marc together on a date. Spencer Cannon, whom welcomed Amanda with open arms. He calmly admitted to Amanda that he had been so drunk at the party he thought Fey was a man.
Relationships[]
Marc St. James[]
Marc was the executive assistant to Wilhelmina Slater at MODE and Amanda's frequent co-conspirator in plans to humiliate Betty and sabotage her work. They have a co-dependent relationship; she often pretended to be his girlfriend to help him hide from his mother that he was gay, and he has taken risks to protect her job from Wilhelmina. The two shared a rowdy Thanksgiving in the office together, drinking champagne, playing with couture gowns, and placing a prank phone call to the mysterious bandaged woman, which placed both their jobs in jeopardy. In a scene at Tavares' party, Marc claims Amanda had a huge crush on him when he first started working at MODE, before she realized he was gay, but she insisted she kept staring at him only because he had a discolored tooth at the time.
Betty Suarez[]
Executive Assistant to the Editor in Chief at MODE; Amanda has wanted to get rid of Betty from the beginning, believing that Betty stole a job that should have been hers - assistant to Daniel Meade. She schemed to get rid of Betty by any and all means, so she could get her job and win Daniel's affection and admiration. After Betty agreed to take Sofia Reyes' job offer, Amanda replaced her temporarily as Daniel's assistant. In the episode "In or Out" she realized the assistant job was better suited to Betty and returned to her receptionist's desk with a pay raise. Despite her frequently taking jabs at Betty, the two seem to like each other and at times look to be friends. Betty is the only person to have seen Amanda crying after she ended her affair with Daniel. Amanda always seems interested in Betty's love life; she was with Betty when she found out Walter wanted Betty to move in with him. She also has fun tormenting Betty about her crush on Henry, calling him her "Nerd Lover."
Daniel Meade[]
Daniel was the Editor-In-Chief at MODE; He sees Amanda as another one-night stand—he slept with her but forgot about it the following day—and Amanda has been frustrated by his continual womanizing. After Daniel lost an expensive watch and sent Betty looking for it at the apartments of his past week's conquests, Betty turned up empty handed while Amanda had it with her the entire time. Daniel gave Betty a list of names, addresses and the day of the week he was with that girl. He had forgotten to list one night of the week and it was the night he was with Amanda. She finally admitted she had the watch and asked Betty to not tell Daniel. Since he never figured out which girl it was, Amanda came forward and she finally relinquished the possibility of a serious relationship with him. Her past feelings for Daniel have caused problems for proving her loyalty to Wilhelmina and Marc. Amanda feared Daniel may be her half-brother as she suspected Daniel's father Bradford may be her father, but the results came back negative. In the fourth season, episode 8 "The Bahamas Triangle", Daniel consoles her for the affair of Matt, and they spent the night together. From then they become lovers again and, after Marc, who got a promotion from Wilhelmina (after being Daniel's assistant, and once again getting his old job back) as her new Junior Fashion Editor, Amanda becomes Daniel's assistant, as she said that she is the most perfect assistant for him- she knows him well and they are already lovers (or fun buddies as Amanda says), so he wont be distracted by wondering should he or should he not sleep with his gorgeous assistant, which he would probably have. They become closer and Daniel agrees to spend the night at her house without sexual implications. After she met Tyler, Daniel's half brother, she realizes that she must end her relationship with Daniel. After an initial opposition from Daniel, he ends up accepting Amanda's love for his half brother, though not so easily.
Tyler Meade-Hartley[]
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Other Relationships[]
- Christina McKinney - Seamstress at MODE; Amanda frequently calls her "Braveheart" because of her Scottish heritage. They have an antipathetic relationship; in "Fake Plastic Snow", Christina told "Santa Claus" she wishes that Amanda had "a brain". She was with Amanda when she discovered Fey Sommers was her mother.
- Sofia Reyes - Editor in Chief at MYW; In Trust, Lust, and Must she became the catalyst for Amanda's realization a relationship with Daniel was not possible. After discovering that Sofia was actually using Daniel as a stunt promotion for her new magazine ("Sofia's Choice"), Amanda took revenge on Sofia by viciously beating her with her purse in the elevator where Sofia and Daniel first met ("Trust").
- Nick Pepper - Amanda took an instant dislike to Nick, partly because he wouldn't go out with her. She feels she's better suited for his job as Alexis' PA. So using the same tactics she used to unsuccessfully try and take Betty's job, Amanda attempts to strong-arm her way into forcing Nick out of his by convincing Alexis she should pick her over Nick. In the episode Bananas for Betty, after shooting Nick in a paintball game, Amanda and Nick end up making out.
- Fey Sommers - In the 1st season finale, while locked in Fey Sommer's "Love Dungeon", Amanda discovers childhood photos of her and a birth certificate declaring Fey as Amanda's mother.
- Bradford Meade - CEO of Meade Publications; Because of his affair with Fey Sommers, Amanda suspected he may be her biological father, but it turned out he was not.
- Henry Grubstick - Accountant at Meade Publications; Along with Marc, Amanda likes to torture him, especially when it involves Betty or when they demand their paychecks...as long as they don't endure his wrath (as they did in "Betty's Wait Problem").
- Gene Simmons - pretended to be Amanda's father to fuel a father-daughter-inspired reality TV show.
Quotes[]
| They are so in love , it's disgusting. I want that.
— Amanda to Marc about Betty and Matt, Blue on Blue
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| Marc: Oh, I never think to destroy someone for me. Amanda: That's called low self-esteem. — Amanda to Marc, Blue on Blue
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Trivia[]
- Amanda is the character with the most scenes in Fey's Love Dungeon, in fact she is indirectly the one who discovered the Dungeon.
- She also has the most scenes in the Receptionist Hall of Mode due to the fact that she works as a Receptionist for Mode.
- Amanda is arguably the most popular character in Ugly Betty due to her comical personality.
- Amanda's character is a combination of Patricia Fernandez and Marcela Valencia, but her appearance is similar to Marcia Villarroel from the Mexican adaptation.
- Like Henry Grubstick, Amanda shares a last name with a real-life member of Ugly Betty's production staff writer Brian Tanen.
- It can be assume she was conceived on April 26, 1981 as Wilhelmina caught Fey and her father together at Studio 54.