Amy O'Neill

Amy O'Neill is an American actress. Starting her career as a child actress in 1984, she appears in several sitcoms and is best known for her role as Molly Stark on The Young and the Restless in 1986 as well as high schooler Amy Szalinski in the 1989 Disney film Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and its 1992 sequel Honey, I Blew Up the Kid. In the 1990s she joined a circus-style entertainment troupe, appeared in documentaries about her childhood roles, and returned to acting with two short films and a television episode in the late 2010s.

Early life O'Neill was born in Pacific Palisades, California, the daughter of Virginia, an art school director, and Thomas O'Neill, a Los Angeles construction company owner.

Career O'Neill began auditioning for parts at age ten with her siblings.

O'Neill reprised the role of Amy Szalinski in the 1992 film Honey, I Blew Up the Kid, albeit only in the opening scene where she leaves for college. The reason for this is that the film was originally a standalone story unrelated to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, and when the plot was changed to include the Szalinski family, there was no parallel character that O'Neill could replace. She later appeared in the television film, White Wolves: A Cry in the Wild II as Pandra, one of the young adults stuck in the Cascade Mountains, having to fend for themselves. In 1994, she appeared in the National Lampoon film, Attack of the 5 Ft. 2 In. Women as a "German Skater". She quit her acting career in the same year after getting scripts that required nudity.

She returned to television to appear in a 2005 Channel 4 documentary with her Honey, I Shrunk the Kids co-star Thomas Wilson Brown in The 100 Greatest Family Films. In 2008, she appeared as an officer's wife in an independent film, The Japanese Sandman. In 2013, O'Neill was further working to produce a film tentatively titled Burn Down the Night, based on the 1982 book of the same name by Craig Strete, about the life of Jim Morrison before he joined The Doors.

Personal life After temporarily shifting from her regular acting career in the mid-1990s, Amy O'Neill is active in the performance art community of Los Angeles as one of the trio Girls on Stilts, a circus-style troupe. She once described circus learning as challenging and once resulted in a black eye facial injury, though she eventually later mastered the skills after several practices.

Filmography Films Year Film Role Notes 1989 Desperate for Love Cindy I Know My First Name Is Steven Jody Edmondson Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Amy Szalinski The Making of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Herself Documentary short film 1992 Honey, I Blew Up the Kid Amy Szalinski cameo 1993 White Wolves: A Cry in the Wild II Pandra 1994 Attack of the 5 Ft. 2 In. Women German Skater 2005 The 100 Greatest Family Films Herself Documentary film 2008 The Japanese Sandman Mom & Officer's Wife Short film 2019 The Follower Mom Short film 2024 The Character Series: Amy Szalinski - Shrinking Good Fun Herself Documentary film

Television Year Title Role Notes 1984 Mama's Family Young Ellen Harper Episode: "Mama's Birthday" 1984 Matt Houston Rosie Episode: "Vanished" 1985 Night Court Jenny Reader Episode: "Walk, Don't Wheel" 1985 Highway to Heaven Sue Episode: "The Secret" 1985 The Twilight Zone Blonde Girl Episode: "The Shadow Man" 1986 Family Ties Brenda Episode: "The Disciple" 1986 The Young and the Restless Molly Stark 30 Episodes 1987 Second Chance Jane Pfeiffer Episode: "Plain Jane" 1989 Star Trek: The Next Generation Annette Episode: "Evolution" (uncredited, scenes cut) 1990 Where's Rodney? Lisa Barnes Unsold pilot 1990 Room for Romance Unknown Episode: "A Midsummer Night's Reality" 1990 The Young Riders Jennifer Tompkins Episode: "Pride and Prejudice" 1991 Gabriel's Fire Ginny Episode: "The Great Waldo" 1991 Murder, She Wrote Susan Hartley Episode: "A Killing in Vegas" 2016 Baskets Arlequin Episode: "Picnic" 2020 Prop Culture Herself Episode: "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids"