Actors - Amanda Congdon

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	Actors - Amanda Congdon

Amanda Congdon is the host and anchor of Rocketboom, the daily three-minute online newscast which Salon ranked as "one of the most popular video blogs on the Web." As the show's anchor, she does her own reports, often with a comedic slant, while also introducing segments from Rocketboom's ten correspondents in the United States and Europe.

As Rocketboom went from an initial 700 viewers in 2004 to 70,000 viewers in its first ten months, the success of Congdon and her videocasts was noted by CBS Evening News, Wired, the Associated Press and others. BusinessWeek labeled it "the most popular site of its kind on the Net." The New York Times (12/11/05) described Congdon as "a big star on really small screens," noting three months later (3/11/06) that she was reaching over 200,000 viewers.

Congdon also is the show's co-scripter with producer-director Andrew Baron. In the Monday-through-Friday productions, she presents video oddities and animations, reports on robotics and other technologies, samples vlog excerpts and offers a coverage of emerging social movements, such as freeganism and parkour. She sometimes performs monologues and occasionally leaves the studio to do interviews.

Born and raised in Manhattan, Congdon graduated Magna Cum Laude from Northwestern University. In New York theater, she did lead roles in Waafrika (Red Room Theater) and Independence (Manhattan Theatre Source). During the second season of the NBC's reality series The Restaurant, she appeared as the coat check girl in Rocco's restaurant. Her other television credits include CSI, The Chris Rock Show (HBO) and a Showtime pilot, Cake Presents. She can also be seen in a Northstar music video, which aired on MTV2, FUSE and VH1's My Coolest Years.

She began as the anchor of Rocketboom when it debuted on October 26, 2004, and the show's unpredictable content resulted in an increase to 100,000 vlog viewers by the end of 2005. Congdon also appears in various Manhattan locations, talking to store managers and people on the street. For the April 15, 2005 episode, she stood in Washington Square Park and posed the question to anyone walking past. Eight months later, she returned to the same spot to ask,

The rise of Rocketboom and Congdon's catapult to fame was noted in the January 9, 2006, issue of Newsweek: :It helps, of course, to have talent and some youthful, Web-savvy insouciance. Amanda Congdon has both, and her daily videocast, Rocketboom, is another breakout Web hit. Congdon, 24, was a struggling actress in late 2004 when she answered an Internet ad by Web entrepreneur Andrew Michael Baron, who was looking to start a newsy Webcast. Today their edgy two-minute episodes, starring and co-written by Congdon, riff off things ranging from White House scandals to the new Web-browser wars. With 130,000 daily viewers, Congdon is now getting approached by book and TV agents. "One of the best pieces of advice I ever received from an acting coach was to go out there and create your own vehicle," she says. "The Internet allows you to do that."

Rocketboom sometimes goes on the road. One memorable episode showed Congdon dancing in various locations throughout St. Petersburg, Russia, and she has also performed her frenetic signature dance in the streets and parks of Austin and other cities. Rocketboom's flexible format allows her to display her abililties as an actress, unleashing a variety of comedy characters, both male and female.

Rocketboom's "Comments" message board indicates that more than a few tune in just to see Congdon. Many messages remark on her physical appearance, and requests for dates are posted occasionally by her male admirers. In a reference to Laura and Amanda Wingfield of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie
, someone labeled that group of viewers "Miss Amanda's gentlemen callers."

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Amanda Congdon ]

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