Mandy Moore

Mandy Moore is a versatile singer, songwriter, and actress who is a big part of one of television’s most popular series, This Is Us. It was very apparent from her early singing career, opening for bands like NSYNC and then the Backstreet Boys, that Moore had what it took to be a headliner herself.

Acting came just as easy for Moore and she handled moving back and forth from music to the big and small screen quite well. With This Is Us working on its sixth and final season, where does that leave Mandy Moore, or is she taking this downtime to focus on her family?

MANDY MOORE CLIMBED MOUNT EVEREST IN 2019

We will get into Mandy Moore’s professional accomplishments soon, but it needs to be mentioned that one of her biggest accomplishments took place not in a recording studio or in front of a camera, but in the craziest and most daring of all places – Mt. Everest.

In 2019, Mandy Moore, along with a few close friends, made the ascent to the Mount Everest base camps. It was an accomplishment that she was proud to share on her Instagram page.

“There is so much magic in these mountains,” a proud Moore began in her caption. “They represent adventure in the grandest form and in a language all their own.” She followed that up by beautifully describing what her journey meant to her.

Moore posted pictures of her harrowing adventure as well as noting that the training she received from guide Melissa Reid was key in making it as far as she did. “Breathing at altitude, for instance, is not easy,” she said.

“One of the greatest gifts/lessons that Melissa simultaneously bestowed on us during this trek was the fine art of pressure breathing. It makes all the difference as you climb higher.”

MANDY MOORE RELEASES CANDY, HER FIRST POP MUSIC HIT

Mandy Moore was barely a teenager when she began to work on music by herself. While living and going to school in Orlando, Florida, Moore was in a studio working on her music when she was overheard by FedEx deliveryman Victor Cade. To Moore’s luck, Cade had a friend that worked for Epic Records.

He took an unfinished demo of Moore’s and sent it to his friend. Epic liked what they heard and signed Moore. “Candy” was the name of Mandy Moore’s first single.

“Candy” was a big hit for Moore, debuting on Billboard’s Hot 100 at number 88 and peaking at 41. The song was also on her debut album, So Real, and while Moore was climbing the charts, she was immediately compared to singers of that time such as Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera. They all had a very similar pop sound.

Mandy Moore quickly followed up on the success of her freshman album with I Wanna Be With You. Her first single from the album, the same as the album title, was a big hit for Moore. The album itself didn’t get great reviews though as it was a remix album and not a true follow-up to So Real.

Mandy Moore began to redefine her sound with her third album, the self-titled Mandy Moore. Her goal on this was to bring a more adult sound to her material. Moore explained in a Billboard interview at the time that “all of the music has started to look and sound the same.”

She felt it was time to move in a different musical direction and she did so with up-tempo dance and pop songs that came with a Middle Eastern influence.

MANDY MOORE FINDS SUCCESS IN HOLLYWOOD WITH FILMS LIKE A WALK TO REMEMBER

With the release of her third album, Mandy Moore felt it was not only time to branch out musically but also as a performer. Her first venture into moviemaking came in 2001 when she voiced the Girl Bear Cub in the Eddie Murphy film Dr. Dolittle 2. Her vocal performance would be a harbinger of what would be a successful career in animated films and series.

But Mandy Moore wasn’t satisfied with only vocal roles. She wanted to be on the big screen and did so by grabbing her first feature film role in the 2001 hit The Princess Diaries. In it, she played the mean, popular girl who is the rival to Anne Hathaway’s Mia Thermopolis. She definitely made an impression because it wasn’t long before Moore got her first lead role.

Mandy Moore landed the plum lead role in A Walk to Remember, a feature based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks. The film, as well as Moore and co-star Shane West, received glowing reviews and Moore also had a single, Cry, which she released to help promote the Nicholas Sparks tearjerker.

The acting bug bit. Mandy Moore found herself in front of the camera more often than not while also continuing her music career and lending her vocal talent to the occasional animated film.

After A Walk to Remember, Moore appeared in features such as How to Deal, Chasing Liberty, Saved!, and American Dreamz. During this time, she also lent her voice to Racing Stripes and Disney’s Brother Bear 2.

Musically speaking, Moore slowed a bit, only releasing one album during that timeframe, her fourth titled Coverage. 2007 was a big year for Mandy Moore on the big screen. Her popularity was rising as was the number of movies she was in.

In 2007 alone Moore starred in four films – Because I Said So, License to Wed, Dedication, and Southland Tales. Moore also released her fifth album, Wild Hope, keeping her a very busy young lady.

SHE STEPPED AWAY FOR A BIT BEFORE LANDING THE LEAD IN DISNEY’S HIT FILM, TANGLED

Perhaps Mandy Moore spread herself too thin in 2007 because, for the next couple of years, she stepped way back from the spotlight. Moore didn’t make any movies for two years though she was hard at work on her sixth studio album. This one, titled Amanda Leigh, was not released until 2009 and would be her last album until 2020’s Silver Landings.

In front of the camera, Moore was not seen again until she pulled down a recurring role in 2010 on the hit ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy. This would also be the year that Moore would deliver her most popular vocal role.

In 2010, Mandy Moore’s talent to voice animated movies came to a head. Having already worked once with Disney, they knew who and what they were getting when Moore was brought on to voice Rapunzel in the hit animated film Disney’s Tangled.

Her success in the role would see her return as the voice of Rapunzel in Tangled Ever After and Ralph Breaks the Internet as well as the animated television series Tangled: Before Ever After and Tangled: The Series.

But it wasn’t only Disney that employed Moore’s vocal talents. She was heard on episodes of The Simpsons, in Tron: Uprising, the animated series High School USA!, an episode of The Family Guy, and a long run on Sheriff Callie’s Wild West.

MANDY MOORE STARS ON NBC’S HIT SERIES, THIS IS US

So, what exactly is Mandy Moore doing when she isn’t using her vocal talents for animated films or climbing up Mount Everest? Well, the talented actress has been starring in an NBC TV series some of you may have heard of. For the past six seasons, Moore has been one of the leads on the very popular series This is Us, appearing in every episode to date.

In it, she plays Rebecca Pearson, wife to Jack (played by Milo Ventimiglia). The story focuses on Rebecca and Jack’s three children but uses both stars well in flashback scenes showing their lives before and after the children came into their lives.

Speaking of children, Mandy Moore gave birth to her first child, a son, in February 2021, and then in October 2022, Moore had her second son. She is raising her boys with husband and musician Taylor Goldsmith, with whom she’s been married for almost five years.

AFTER SIX SUCCESSFUL SEASONS, THIS IS US ENDS

For the past six years, Mandy Moore has been one part of the hit series, This is Us. Fans of the series were very unhappy to learn that the sixth season would be its finale, one that would wrap up all storylines while deciding the fate of Moore’s Rebecca Pearson. There has been a lot of heartache in those six seasons, but also a lot of laughs, and ultimately a lot of hope.

In those six seasons, Mandy Moore, who is now 38 years old, has aged from 16 to 80 and it hasn’t been an easy task. While Moore and her hair and make-up team knew there would be some challenges, they were not prepared for the time it was going to take to properly age Moore. Just to get her hair right, for whatever age the script called for, took an easy hour.

The various aging makeup was another nearly three-hour process and then you also had to count the time it took to remove everything after a long day’s work. This process went anywhere from 60-90 minutes. All in all, if you were to include the time that Mandy Moore would spend in the makeup chair, her days would routinely last 18 hours.

The long days were not something that Moore had an issue with. “Most of the time I embraced it,” she said to Variety. “You’ve got to lean in and go, ‘OK, this is what it is.’ And you have to submit and go I am here for the next three hours. Let’s do this.”

Although she kept herself busy professionally during her time on This is Us, much of that work revolved around voice roles or music videos. Much of her vocal roles centered around Disney’s Rapunzel, voicing Tangled: Short Cuts, Ralph Breaks the Internet, and Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure, but even with her busy vocal schedule, Moore was in each and every of the 106 This is Us episodes.

WHAT IS MANDY MOORE DOING NOW THAT THIS IS US IS COMING TO AN END?

Fans of This Is Us are undoubtedly sad that the series is coming to an end. This doesn’t mean, though, that you have seen or heard the last from Mandy Moore. As she is wrapping up six seasons with This Is Us, she is also going to be seen in season 2 of Dr. Death, the true story about neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch, here played by Joshua Jackson, who was given the moniker for his dirty deeds permanently mutilating patients and causing the death of two of them.

Also on Mandy Moore’s agenda are two vocal roles, one for Clone High and the other for #1 Happy Family USA. Moore also recently released her seventh studio album, In Real Life, so if it is music you want to hear from her, there is plenty