Amanda Thornton Congdon (born August 4, 1981, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

) is an American former video blogger. She began her on-screen career as the first anchor of the online daily news show, ''

Rocketboom Rocketboom was a daily vlog produced by Andrew Baron in the format of a newscast with a comedic slant. Since 2004 Rocketboom has presented oddities, vlog excerpts, social and political commentary. The Rocketboom weblog and Apollo Pony featured s ...

'', which she hosted and produced until June 23, 2006.

Involvement with Rocketboom

Congdon began as Rocketboom's anchor with the show's October 26, 2004, debut. The show went from an initial 700 viewers in 2004 to 70,000 viewers in the first ten months. ''

BusinessWeek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

'' labeled it "the most popular site of its kind on the Net". More viewers visited Rocketboom after an June 11, 2006, interview with Congdon on

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

. Rocketboom's audience continued to increase, going from 100,000

vlog A video blog or video log, sometimes shortened to vlog (), is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded i ...

viewers at the end of 2005 to 300,000 by the spring of 2006. On July 5, 2006, Congdon released a video statement on her

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

, announcing her departure from the show.

Andrew Baron Andrew Michael Baron (born 1970) is the creator of Rocketboom, Know Your Meme, the video aggregator site, Magma and Humanwire. Baron has taught undergraduate and graduate classes at Parsons and was teaching IDTech at M.I.T. when he came up with ...

, majority stakeholder of Rocketboom, stated she was leaving the show to "pursue opportunities ... in Hollywood" and

Joanne Colan Joanne Colan is the former VJ for MTV Europe and former anchor of the vlog Rocketboom. She is an actress, known for ''Know Your Logic'' (2012), ''Any Given Latitude'' (2005), and ''Themes from a Rosary'' (2012). She was on Discovery's show ''De ...

stepped in as Congdon's replacement. Congdon claims that she was fired.Amanda UnBoomed: For the Record
/ref>

Amanda Across America

Congdon's first endeavor after Rocketboom was AmandaAcrossAmerica.com, a blog based on Congdon's travels through America in a

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...

vehicle. The journey took a circuitous route with stops in New York,

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

and

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. Now living in California, Congdon and her husband, Mario Librandi, opened a restaurant called Vegan Mario's. The restaurant serves vegan food for lunch daily, upon which Congdon initially planned to create a website series.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Congdon, Amanda 1981 births Living people American women bloggers American bloggers American women comedians Actresses from New York City Northwestern University alumni American reporters and correspondents Video bloggers Women video bloggers Participants in American reality television series Journalists from New York City Comedians from New York City American women non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American comedians 21st-century American women writers