Highlights
- Jason Bateman's career has had a successful comeback, from child star to Emmy Award-winning actor on "Ozark".
- Jason's wife, Amanda Anka, also comes from a show business family and had her own acting career in the 1990s and 2000s.
- While Amanda took a step back from Hollywood to focus on their family, she has worked as a producer and may continue her career in the future.
Jason Bateman is an actor who has had a successful comeback story. From starting off his career as a child star where no one expected him to become a good actor to partying too hard and almost completely throwing his career away to winning multiple Emmy Awards for his work on Ozark, Jason's professional life could not be better. And as luck would have it, his personal life is pretty spectacular as well.
Jason has been married to his wife, Amanda Anka since 2001. The two have two children and live a life of domestic bliss. While Jason comes from a show business family with his father, Kent being a producer and sister, Justine an actress, Amanda does as well. Her father, specifically, was part of the golden age of entertainment. As such, while Jason may be a name everyone knows now, he has a long way to go to achieve the level of fame his father-in-law has.
Who Is Jason Bateman's Wife?
Amanda may now be better known as Jason's wife, but when she was younger, she was trying to make a name for herself in Hollywood. And during the 1990s to early 2000s, she did a great job of doing just that with the number of television shows and movies she had roles in.
In the decade or more that Amanda worked in front of the camera, she appeared on shows such as Beverly Hills, 90210, which was filled with its fair share of catfights, Renegade, ER, Diagnosis Murder, and more. She also was in the movie version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Taxi.
While Amanda did not find herself starring on a hit television show, she was the epitome of a working actor. But when she and Jason got together and decided to have kids, Amanda took a step away from Hollywood for a while. This did not mean that Amanda was done with Hollywood though.
In 2019, Amanda was a producer on The Morning Show. And while she has not produced anything else since that time, Amanda may just be waiting for the perfect project to jump in on to continue her career behind the camera.
Amanda Anka Grew Up With A Famous Dad
When Amanda was growing up, she knew what it was like to be around some of the crème de la crème of the entertainment industry both in music and on the big and small screen. That is because her father was involved in these mediums from the time he was a teenager and still continues to do so today. Amanda's father is none other than Paul Anka.
Starting at the age of 14, Paul began to make a name for himself as a singer. In just a short time, songs like Put Your Head On My Shoulder and Diana were bona fide hits. Perhaps not as well known, while in his early twenties, Paul "composed the song for Johnny Carson's Tonight Show."
While Paul is best known for his pop music, he also tried his hand in front of the camera. Capitalizing on his fame in the 1950s to mid-1960s, Paul had roles on both the big and small screens. But where Paul would make his money is by writing songs for soundtracks and performing live in Las Vegas.
It is his love for performing that has made it so that the 81-year-old has decided to embark on an "11-date concert tour" in 2023. There is no slowing down for Paul, who is a true entertainer at heart. And it is because of this that he and Jason get along so well.
Amanda Anka Met Jason Bateman As A Teen But Wasn't Interested In Him
Amanda and Jason first met when they were teenagers in 1987. While the locale they met at was completely neutral given that it was a Los Angeles Kings hockey game, it was there that Amanda realized that Jason was not boyfriend material, and it was not because Jason was not a nice guy.
It was because the two were at very different places when it came to how much they partied on the social scene.
"I just wasn't into where he was at," Amanda explained.
Where Jason was at was in his twenties and living it up because his parents were not around a lot of the time. With money to burn that they left him while on their excursions, Jason partied hard.
"It was like Risky Business for 10 years," Jason explained. "My parents were out of town, they left me a bunch of money, the car, and the house, and I didn’t know when they were coming home. I’d worked so hard that by the time I was 20, I wanted to play hard. And I did that really well."
Amanda and Jason may not have dated then, but they stayed in touch over the years. And 10 years after they met, Jason had to prove he had settled down to earn a chance to date Amanda. Fortunately, Amanda saw him in a new light and the two started dating. That led to getting married in 2001.
While they are a Hollywood goals couple when it comes to the longevity of their marriage, it almost was not that way. Jason was still drinking and struggling with drug use after the first few years of marriage to Amanda.
It was not until after Amanda gave Jason an "ultimatum" that he finally decided to get his life in order. Since that time, the two have been in a solid relationship, where they now have two daughters, Francesca and Maple.
What Is Amanda Anka Doing Now?
While Amanda did step back into the world of entertainment to become one of the producers on The Morning Show, she has not been involved in anything since that time. This is likely because she and Jason wanted someone to be home with their girls to give them a schedule they can count on, especially when Jason was out of the house for six months at a time when filming Ozark.
Does that mean that Amanda is done with all aspects of television and film? Probably not. This is because over the years she has done several projects as a voice-over actor. Between that and her behind-the-scenes work, it is likely that Amanda will return in some fashion or another.
But while Jason is taking the big-money jobs, those opportunities may have to wait just a bit long until Francesca and Maple have grown.
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