When you think Mandy Moore, early 2000s probably comes to mind.
She was everywhere. Mandy popped up in The Princess Diaries, tore our hearts out in A Walk to Remember, made us laugh in Saved! and even got a little raunchy in her arc on the HBO hit series Entourage. Needless to say she a successful actress and singer. Mandy released hit songs such as "Candy," "I Wanna Be With You" and "Stupid Cupid," officially making her a double threat in Hollywood.
But as quickly as Mandy rose to new Millennium fame she just as quickly faded into the abyss, unable to maintain such a streak of hits. She appeared in License to Wed and Because I Said So, both rom-coms that didn't really perform up to box office snuff.
Eventually she decided that she wanted to give the small screen a try, landing character arcs on Grey's Anatomy and How I Met Your Mother. Unfortunately, the roles didn't get her access to other, larger roles.
The former teen pop star, however, didn't give up. Mandy, 32, managed to sign on to several TV pilots, including an original comedy from ABC that was going to star the actress (it fell through entirely), an ABC remake of the British series Pulling and a CBS legal drama that never got off the ground. Pulling ended up dropping Moore after the show decided to rebrand itself, and Advocates never made it to air.
As Mandy knows, though, slow and steady wins the race. After what seems like several rejections in a row, the brunette beauty seemingly has found success with NBC's new hit show This Is Us.
The dramedy, which also stars Sterling K. Brown and Milo Ventimiglia, centers on a couple (Mandy and Milo) and their three kids, all of who grow up to lead very different yet tangled lives. With 10 million viewers tuning in to watch the premiere, it's safe to say Mandy found her mojo.
Trying to be the next Parenthood, This Is Us' premiere brought people a dramatic twist, tearful moments and scenes to aww-inducing that many were still crying. Suffice it to say, Mandy's patience paid off, and she knows it.
"I don't feel like it's any coincidence that my life was sort of in transition and I read this script and it ended up coming to fruition," she told E! News, referring to her divorce from Ryan Adams. "I feel like I'm really at a point in my life where I'm able to pour all of myself into it, which I don't think I necessarily would've been able to do that or willing to do that a couple of years ago, but I'm just appreciative of the opportunity."
(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)