Whatever Happened to Amy Smart?
If you came of age in the '90s and early aughts, chances are you grew up watching Amy Smart on TV or at the movie theater. After all, the actress was a household name during the Y2K era, thanks in part to her many comedy and rom-com roles.
According to her profile on IMDb, Smart's first credited role was as an extra. She played Girl #1 in a 1996 TV mini-series called Seduced by Madness: The Diane Borchardt Story.
Don't get it twisted, though — Smart was meant for more than just background work.
The next year she appeared alongside Keanu Reeves and Adrien Brody with a bit part in The Last Time I Committed Suicide. This time her character had a name: Jeananne. Look at that growth!
Smart paid her dues in the industry, and it wasn't long before she earned her turn in the spotlight. In 1999 she found breakout success playing Jules Harbor in Varsity Blues.
Then along came a recurring role on what Time dubbed one of the "100 best TV shows of all time": Felicity. Smart appeared as Ruby alongside the likes of Keri Russell and former Pink Power Ranger Amy Jo Johnson (a certified '90s legend) from 1999 through 2001.
When she wasn't working on Felicity, Smart landed roles in some of the era's most distinctive comedies. For example, she starred in the rowdy college comedy Road Trip in 2000 and Rat Race the following year.
Her star continued to shine as she took on projects such as 2004's The Butterfly Effect with Ashton Kutcher and 2005's Just Friends alongside co-stars Ryan Reynolds and Anna Faris.
But all that just barely scratches the surface of her impressive resume.
Let's put it in perspective: Amy Smart worked on more than 20 movies between 2000 and 2010 alone. Meanwhile, she continued to make headway on TV where she landed roles in shows such as Scrubs and Robot Chicken.
Smart stayed booked and busy through the following decade, too. The Hollywood mainstay appeared in the likes of TV shows Shameless and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and pushed her artistry in new directions on the big screen in The Single Moms Club and Hangman.
And though she has kept working as an actor, Smart's career has taken some unexpected turns in recent years.
Read on to find out where Amy Smart is today.
She married a star carpenter
At the height of her career success, Amy Smart also had a lot of luck in love. She met her now-husband Carter Oosterhouse in the late '00s. If Oosterhouse's name sounds familiar, you might recognize him from TLC and HGTV. The carpenter achieved celebrity status working on shows such as Trading Spaces and Carter Can.
The duo met when they took on a project for the Environmental Media Awards, according to People. Both Smart and Oosterhouse were in relationships at the time, but they felt a spark and maintained a friendship. That friendship morphed into something more shortly after, and they wound up getting married in 2011.
The pair are still together today. In fact, they recently celebrated their 10th anniversary! Smart also marked Oosterhouse's 45th birthday with a sweet post on Instagram, which you can check out below.
She embraced motherhood
First comes love, then comes marriage — and then the baby carriage! Amy Smart and Carter Oosterhouse expanded their family with the birth of their daughter Flora in December 2016.
Smart celebrated the happy news with a sweet post on Instagram. "Amen and Thank You God for this special new life," she wrote in the heartfelt caption.
Shortly after, the actor opened up about her challenging experience with fertility and, in a post on Instagram, revealed that Flora was born via surrogate. "After years of fertility struggles I give thanks today to our kind, loving surrogate for carrying her," she wrote in the accompanying caption.
Smart got candid about the couple's path to parenthood in a 2018 interview with People.
“Years went by and we were just on this roller coaster," she said about their attempt to start a family. "Nothing was working. We started to wonder if we were ever going to be parents.”
“We are so grateful we are parents and that we have a beautiful, healthy daughter,” she added.
She also explored other business ventures
We already established that Amy Smart continued to act through the 2010s. What you might not realize is that the actor also diversified her career and explored several other business ventures.
For starters, she teamed up with her husband and brother-in-law Todd Oosterhouse to open a vineyard and winery in Michigan. (Smart is currently listed as an owner of Bonobo Winery on the company's website.) Based in Oosterhouse's hometown Traverse City, the winery won several awards for their wines between 2016 and 2017.
Impressively, Smart managed to add a couple other skills to her already massive tool kit. In an interview with Naturally, Danny SEO, she revealed that she is a certified yoga teacher and a certified nutrition coach. During the chat, Smart spilled some tea on her secret to making it all work.
“I believe in eating organic foods and having a somewhat-clean lifestyle, but what’s more important is balance," she said. "There are times when you indulge in yummy, delicious things and times when you eat healthy greens and protein-packed smoothies.”
Balance must be the secret to life for the star. That's the only way to explain how she does it all, because believe it or not, Smart took on another unexpected job in 2018. That's when she became a spokesperson for USA Pears, according to The List. Yup, you read that right. The Road Trip actor is an advocate for fruit farmers.
That's still not it. The List also noted that Smart worked with her husband to create a business called Smarthouse. Their entry point was designing eco-friendly mattresses, but the company has since expanded to sell other bedroom essentials such as pillows and bedding.
Then along came Stargirl
Amy Smart had no issues conquering the world with a variety of different projects, but acting clearly remained dear to her heart.
In 2019 she landed what has become arguably one of her biggest acting gigs in recent memory by entering the DC Extended Universe. More specifically, she was booked to play Barbara Whitmore in the TV series Stargirl. As Whitmore, Smart played the mother to the titular superhero.
The show premiered in 2020 and wound up being a certified hit. Smart stuck around to co-star in the second season, which aired in 2021. And she's still not done with Stargirl.
She's got more acting projects in the works
Amy Smart is showing no signs of slowing down on the work front as we move into 2022. If anything, it appears that this is shaping up to be one of her most productive years in recent memory.
For starters, Stargirl was renewed for a third season. According to ScreenRant, the entirety of the show's core cast will return for another daring on-screen adventure. Nothing's confirmed yet; however, the publication hypothesized that we'll see Smart in character as Whitmore again around the fall of 2022.
That's just a warmup, though. Smart is also due to return to the big screen in 2022. First up is a starring role in a family drama called Tyson's Run. Variety first tied her to the film in 2018 so it's safe to say that this one has been in the works for a while now. Four years later, it's set for a March 4 release.
Check out a trailer for Tyson's Run below.
According to her profile on IMDb, Smart has two additional projects in the works. She's set to star in a drama about the Dakota Access Pipeline, called On Sacred Ground, and will also appear in a baseball film called Rally Caps.
Amy Smart looks back on her past projects fondly
Her career has changed dramatically since she first debuted in the '90s. However, Amy Smart seems to have very happy memories about her earliest days in the industry. For instance, in recent years she shared a cute throwback to Just Friends on Instagram.
Perhaps even more heartwarming was a photo that she posted in 2020. This one featured another famous actor: her old Varsity Blues co-star Ali Larter. What you may not realize is that the pair lived together as roommates before hitting it big. There's something amazingly heartwarming about seeing a friendship that has weathered the years and remains as strong as ever before.