Amanda Schull | Rotten Tomatoes (2024)

Amanda Schull followed a unique but glamorous vocational path: she segued from an established career as a professional ballet dancer into that of a much sought-after actress. A native of Honolulu, Schull was born in 1978 and attended the co-educational Punahou prep school in her hometown. While still in high school, the flaxen-haired Schull rigorously trained at the Hawaii State Ballet under the tutelage of its founder, John Landovsky, and then received a full-ride ballet scholarship to Indiana University in Bloomington in the mid-1990s. Schull exhibited such deftness on stage that she elicited a post-graduate invitation from the San Francisco Ballet Summer Initiative to extend her studies for a year. This, in turn, led to an opportunity to join the bayside company full-time, initially with an apprenticeship, then as a member of its corps de ballet. Around 2000, Schull began concurrently appearing as an actress in various projects, straddling the worlds of film and television with equal aplomb, often in prominent roles. Big screen projects included Nicholas Hytner's teen drama "Center Stage" (2000), Bruce Beresford's China-set ballet-themed saga "Mao's Last Dancer" (2009), and Clint Eastwood's searing biopic "J. Edgar" (2011). Meanwhile, on television, Schull's work included a recurring dual role as Sara Evans and Katie Ryan on "One Tree Hill" (WB/CW 2003-2012), and another ongoing turn as Meredith Sorenson on "Pretty Little Liars" (ABC Family 2010- ). In 2015, Schull embarked on her first starring role on a television series, as Dr. Cassandra Railly on the science fiction drama "12 Monkeys" (SyFy 2015- ), adapted from Terry Gilliam's 1995 feature of the same name.