Amber Tamblyn
Amber Rose Tamblyn is an American actress and author. She first came to national attention at the age of 11 for her role as Emily Quartermaine on the soap opera General Hospital. From 2003 to 2005 she starred in the prime-time series Joan of Arcadia, portraying the title character, Joan Girardi, for which she received Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. Her feature film work includes roles such as Tibby Rollins from the first two The [Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (film series)|The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants] films and Megan McBride in 127 Hours, as well as appearing opposite Tilda Swinton in Stephanie Daley, which debuted at The Sundance Film Festival and for which Tamblyn won Best Actress at The Locarno International Film Festival and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. In 2016, she made her directorial debut with the film Paint It Black starring Alia Shawkat, based on Janet Fitch's 2006 novel of the same name. In 2021, she starred opposite Diane Lane in FX's Y: [The Last Man (TV series)|Y: The Last Man].
Tamblyn is a published author and cultural critic at large. She has published seven books across genres, and writes for The New York Times and other publications on issues of gender inequality and women's suffrage.
Early life
Amber Tamblyn is the daughter of singer/artist Bonnie Tamblyn and actor Russ Tamblyn. Her paternal grandfather, Eddie Tamblyn, was a vaudeville performer. Her uncle was Larry Tamblyn, the keyboardist in the rock band The Standells. She attended the Santa Monica Alternative School House. At age ten, she played Pippi Longstocking in a school play; her father's agent, Sharon Debord, was attending as a family friend and convinced her father to allow Tamblyn to go on auditions.Career
Television
Tamblyn's first TV role was Emily Bowen on the soap opera General Hospital, a role she played for six years. She also starred in "Evergreen", the pilot episode of the second The Twilight Zone revival in 2002. Tamblyn became better known playing Joan Girardi, a teenage girl who receives frequent visits from God, on the CBS drama series Joan of Arcadia. Tamblyn's father made several appearances as God in the form of a dog walker on the show, which ran from 2003 to 2005.Early guest-starring roles include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Boston Public, CSI: Miami, and Punk'd, where Ashton Kutcher and his crew members tricked her into losing someone else's dog. In 2007, she starred in the pilot for Babylon Fields, an apocalyptic comedic drama about the undead trying to resume their former lives. CBS excluded the show from its fall programming lineup, since it would have competed with the network's other undead-themed drama, Moonlight.
In 2009, Tamblyn starred in The Unusuals as NYPD homicide detective Casey Shraeger. The show was canceled after its first season. The same year, she had a recurring role alongside her future husband David Cross in the IFC sitcom The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret.
From November 2010 to April 2011, she starred as medical student Martha M. Masters in the seventh season of the Fox medical drama series House. She returned for the series finale in 2012.
In August 2013, Tamblyn was cast as Charlie Harper 's long-lost lesbian daughter, Jenny Harper, on the sitcom Two and a Half Men, opposite Ashton Kutcher and Jon Cryer. Her first appearance was on the season 11 opener, September 26, 2013.
She has appeared on numerous episodes of Comedy Central's Inside Amy Schumer. She has also guest starred on IFC's Portlandia and Comedy Bang! Bang!, as well as numerous shows on Adult Swim, including The Heart, She Holler and Metalocalypse.
In 2021, Tamblyn starred opposite Diane Lane in the critically acclaimed FX television series Y: The Last Man, based on the graphic novel.
Films
Tamblyn launched her film career playing bit parts in her father's movies Rebellious and Johnny Mysto: Boy Wizard. She also appeared in 1995's Live Nude Girls. Her first major film role was in 2005's The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants as Tibby Rollins, co-starring Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera, and Blake Lively. She reprised the role in the 2008 sequel, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2.Her horror film career began with the opening scene of 2002's The Ring. Tamblyn also appeared in the Japan-set The Grudge 2. The film, which co-stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, was released on October 13, 2006, and debuted in the #1 spot at the North American box office. In August 2010, she won the Bronze Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival for her performance in the title role of Stephanie Daley. The film, which also won an award at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, features Tamblyn as a 16-year-old who kills her baby moments after giving birth in the bathroom of a ski resort. She was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the 22nd Independent Spirit Awards. The film co-stars Tilda Swinton and Timothy Hutton.
In January 2008, Tamblyn appeared in the Hallmark film The Russell Girl, as Sarah Russell, a woman suffering from disease and mental anguish. Also in 2008, she starred in Blackout. She appeared in the 2009 film Spring Breakdown, also featuring Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch, and Parker Posey. Tamblyn appeared alongside Orlando Bloom, Colin Firth, and Patricia Clarkson in the 2010 film Main Street, a drama set in North Carolina. That year, she also had a role in the drama 127 Hours, with James Franco.
In 2012, Tamblyn starred alongside Wes Bentley and Vincent Piazza in the indie feature 3 Nights in the Desert directed by Gabriel Cowan, written by playwright Adam Chanzit and produced by John Suits. In 2015, she starred opposite Bob Odenkirk in the Netflix original film Girlfriend's Day. The same year, Tamblyn made a cameo appearance with her father Russ in the Spaghetti Western Django Unchained.
In 2016, she made her directorial debut with the film Paint It Black starring Alia Shawkat and based on Janet Fitch's 2006 novel of the same name. Tamblyn optioned the rights to the book in 2012 with the idea of producing the movie and starring as the lead character with Courtney Hunt directing. By 2014 Tamblyn had taken on writing and directing duties herself and had cast Shawkat in the lead role. Filming was completed in December 2014. Rotten Tomatoes has given it a 88% rating based on reviews from 25 critics.
Theater
Tamblyn attended a grade school for the theatrical arts from age 5 to 14. She was discovered as an actress at age 9 when she starred in Pippi Longstocking. In 2014, she originated the role of Daisy Domergue for the live reading at the Ace Theater in Los Angeles of Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight. She was hand picked by Tarantino, a longtime friend, along with fellow cast members Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, and others. Tamblyn starred in Neil LaBute's Reasons to Be Pretty at the Geffen Playhouse in 2014, which received critical acclaim.Tamblyn serves on the board of directors for Soho Rep Theater in New York.
Writings
In 2005, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing published her debut book of poems, Free Stallion, written between the ages of 11 and 21. The School Library Journal wrote, "Free Stallion is a compilation of poetry that amounts to a portrait of the artist as a teenager... Many of the selections are appropriately self-absorbed but move beyond journalistic catharsis to real insight and stunning language for one so young." Poet Laureate Lawrence Ferlinghetti called the book "A fine, fruitful gestation of throbbingly nascent sexuality, awakened in young new language." In 2008, she was featured in the Write Bloody Publishing anthology The Last American Valentine: Illustrated Poems to Seduce and Destroy.In 2009, Manic D. Press published her second collection of poetry, Bang Ditto.
In 2015, HarperCollins published her third collection, Dark Sparkler, a hybrid of poetry and art that explores the lives and deaths of child star actresses. A critical success and bestseller, the book features original art by Marilyn Manson, David Lynch, Marcel Dzama, and Adrian Tomine. For its publication launch, Tamblyn and the band Yo La Tengo created an hour-long poetry and music show incorporating poems from the book. They performed the show in New York at Housing Works and in Los Angeles at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
In 2019, Penguin Random House published Era of Ignition; Coming of Age in a Time of Rage and Revolution, a collection of her cultural criticism and memoir essays. The book is a personal exploration of feminism during divisive times.
Tamblyn has self-published two chapbooks of poetry, Of the Dawn and Plenty of Ships, and has participated in poetry readings at various venues, particularly in California. The Loneliest, a poem book inspired by Thelonious Monk and his music, was published in 2005 and contains haiku poetry by Tamblyn coupled with collages by George Herms.
Tamblyn appeared in a poetry concert film recorded on August 4, 2002, in Los Angeles, The Drums Inside Your Chest. Beginning in 2009, she began blogging for the Poetry Foundation's blog, Harriet. Her poem "Bridgette Anderson" was one of the poems featured in Saul Williams's book Chorus, published by MTV Books in 2011.
In 2007, she co-founded Write Now Poetry Society, dedicated to creating unique and quality poetry programming. The nonprofit has a long history with The Getty Museum, curating poetry events in conjunction with art openings, such as 2011's Dark Blushing, featuring new poems commissioned by poets Patricia Smith and NEA fellow Jeffrey McDaniel based on artwork by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Blake. Since 2011, Tamblyn has reviewed books of poetry by women for the feminist magazine BUST.
James Woods allegation and Hasidic incident
In a series of September 2017 tweets later reiterated in an open letter published in Teen Vogue, Tamblyn said that actor James Woods tried to seduce her and a friend at a restaurant and offered to take them to Las Vegas when she and her friend were 16. Woods denied her allegations, calling them a "lie". Tamblyn later wrote an essay for The New York Times in which she said that Woods's "accusation that I was lying sent me back to that day in that producer's office, and back to all the days I've spent in the offices of men; of feeling unsure, uneasy, questioned and disbelieved, no matter the conversation."In March 2018, Tamblyn was criticized for tweets about New York City's Hasidic Jewish community after an incident in Brooklyn involving her daughter. Tamblyn said she was nearly struck by a van driven by a Hasidic Jewish man while walking with her daughter in a stroller. She said "this is not the first time a man from the Hasidic community in NYC has attempted to harm me or other women I know. Any woman riding a bike through South Williamsburg can attest. I hope this guy is caught." In Tablet, journalist Liel Leibovitz chided Tamblyn for "speaking so hurtfully about an entire community of underprivileged people". Tamblyn denied accusations of antisemitism.
Personal life
Tamblyn and actor-comedian David Cross became engaged in August 2011, and married on October 6, 2012. On February 21, 2017, Tamblyn announced that she and Cross had recently had a daughter.She is sometimes said to be the goddaughter of musician Neil Young and actors Dean Stockwell and Dennis Hopper, although in a 2009 interview with Parade, Tamblyn explained that "godfather" was "just a loose term" for Stockwell, Hopper, and Young, three friends of her father's who were always around the house when she was growing up and were big influences on her.
She was the writing mentee of the late San Francisco Poet Laureate Jack Hirschman.
Politics
Tamblyn supported and campaigned for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 United States presidential election. On social media, she urged voters to check voter ID requirements, citing VoteRiders as a source of assistance.She is one of the founders of the nonprofit organization Time's Up, which was created to combat workplace sexual harassment.
In October 2023, Tamblyn signed the Artists4Ceasefire open letter to President Joe Biden, calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza.
In September 2025, Tamblyn was criticized for her comments on Bluesky in response to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Referring to the Newsweek article "Trump Ally Charlie Kirk Suggests Children Should Watch Public Executions", she responded with "Wish Granted".