Amanda Crew: Langley-born, best known as Silicon Valley's Monica

Amanda Crew was born in Langley on June 5, 1986. Her TV Insider biography says so, and so does Wikipedia, citing TV Guide. Neither says much more about her Langley childhood, and we’d rather tell you that than invent a school.

What TV Insider does say is that it started with a Grade 4 play. She had the lead, liked it, and began booking local commercials. As a teenager she was a regular face on the Vancouver production scene, with guest spots on shows shot around the Lower Mainland, including Smallville and Life As We Know It.

Getting noticed

The break was 15/Love, a Nickelodeon teen series in which she played tennis player Tanis McTaggart from 2004 to 2006. That led to the CTV mystery series Whistler (2006–2008), which won her a Leo Award, BC’s film and TV prize, for best lead performance by a female in a dramatic series in 2007. Her feature debut came in Final Destination 3 (2006), and her first lead in a movie was the road-trip comedy Sex Drive (2008).

From there it was a steady run of film work:

• Charlie St. Cloud (2010), opposite Zac Efron
• Repeaters (2010), a sci-fi thriller; the photo above is from its world premiere at TIFF in September 2010
• Sisters & Brothers, which brought her a second Leo Award in 2012
• The Age of Adaline (2015)
• Freaks (2018), a sci-fi thriller Wikipedia calls her biggest critical success
• Tone-Deaf (2019) and Some Other Woman (2023)

Silicon Valley

For most people she is Monica Hall from HBO’s tech-startup comedy Silicon Valley, a role she played from 2014 to 2019 and the one Wikipedia calls her best known. Wikipedia notes that role also earned her Golden Maple Awards, which honour Canadians working in American TV.

Where to follow

Her full filmography is on IMDb. For other actors and artists with Langley roots, see actors, artists and writers from Langley.