Taran Killam praises ‘very important relationship’ with Amanda Bynes

Saturday Night Live alum Taran Killam has credited Amanda Bynes with helping to launch his career amid a “very important relationship” to his personal and professional development.

The actor appeared on a recent episode of David Spade and Dana Carvey’s Fly on the Wall podcast, where he cited his work with Bynes on Nickelodeon as a launching pad for his on-screen future.

“It was my first job, literally the last week of high school I got cast on her show,” the 43-year-old said of Bynes’ variety series that ran from 1999-2002. “We worked together for three weeks then. I went away to college, I didn’t have an agent anymore, I was focused on school. They called me back to do more, they helped me get an agent.”

He said that “being on The Amanda Show started my grown-up acting career,” and that the dynamic he built with Bynes led to other work shortly thereafter.

“We were friends, we did a movie together, Big Fat Liar. She was the best,” Killam continued. “It was a very important relationship to me in my life.”

Killam praised Bynes as “one of the most talented people I’ve ever met,” before Spade also jumped in to praise the former child star.

“I think she’s one of those people everyone pulls for, like Britney [Spears],” Spade observed, referencing Bynes’ more recent obstacles, including struggling with substance abuse and a conservatorship that began in 2013 and was terminated in 2022.

“It’s a very tough world out here, showbiz,” Spade said, before Killam praised Bynes once again, comparing her to Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett. “She’s truly one of the best,” Killam finished.

Other Nickelodeon stars who previously worked with Bynes have also publicly supported the star, including Kenan Thompson, who appeared with Bynes on the Nickelodeon sketch comedy series All That throughout the 1990s.

“I unfortunately haven’t spoken to Amanda since she was really, really young,” Thompson said in a March 2024 interview on Tamron Hall. “Like when she was doing her first movies. I think the soccer movie [2006’s She’s the Man] was around that time, was the last time I actually saw her. I’m just rooting for her from afar.”

Though she starred in several successful films in the early aughts, like She’s the Man and Hairspray, Bynes hasn’t appeared in a major Hollywood production since 2010’s Easy A.

In April, the 39-year-old announced she joined the OnlyFans platform, but issued a disclaimer to her followers.

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“I’m doing onlyfans to chat with my fans through dm’s,” she said. “I won’t be posting any sleazy content. Excited to join.” 

Listen to Killam reminisce about his friendship with Bynes in the podcast episode above.