Is Amanda Seyfried a trained singer? Exploring the Mamma Mia actor’s vocal training

10 February 2026, 11:44

Amanda Seyfried’s voice will grace our speakers once again in new film ‘The Testament of Ann Lee’. But what’s the actor’s vocal training?

When Amanda Seyfried first broke into song in the 2008 film Mamma Mia, audiences were taken aback. They knew her mostly from her 2004 appearance as the perennially stupid Karen in Mean Girls, whose main talent was predicting the weather with her breasts, so her lilting soprano voice came as something of a surprise.

But by the time she landed the role of Cosette in 2012’s Les Miserables movie, the casting seemed to make perfect sense.

As it turns out, the award-winning actor trained in musical theatre and opera before becoming a box-office smash.

Ahead of the release of her latest musical outing, The Testament of Ann Lee (2026), here’s everything you need to know about Amanda Seyfried’s vocal training and background.

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Is Amanda Seyfried a trained singer?

Seyfried already had the musical chops. She loved singing as a child growing up in Pennsylvania and dreamed of appearing in musicals. She had vocal lessons throughout her teens, moving from musical theatre into opera.

On her movies she has worked with vocal coaches but says she regrets not pursuing her operatic training further to help with her more demanding roles.

Earlier this year she wowed The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon – and the entire world – with a stunning performance of Joni Mitchell’s California on the dulcimer.

Is she really singing in all her movies?

It seems to be hard to stop the Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe and Emmy-winning actor from belting out a number in whatever film she’s in. And she does all her own singing in all her films.

Seyfried’s latest vocal outing is in The Testament of Ann Lee, out this month. The film is a semi-musical biopic of Shaker founder Ann Lee. It features the original music of the composer Daniel Blumberg – based on Shaker music – and the choreography of Celia Rowlson-Hall as well as a slew of Shaker hymns.

Read more: ‘The Brutalist’ composer Daniel Blumberg wins his first Oscar for Best Original Score

The actor has talked about how the film has helped her learn to love her voice. She told The New Yorker: “Letting go of your judgment, and the criticism that is in your ear, is so liberating. I really didn’t realize how much I hated my voice before.

“But with Ann, and with the grief she had to take on, I started connecting to my voice differently. I was relating to her, and not to my own ego.”

We also very nearly saw Seyfried as Glinda in the blockbuster Wicked movies, with the actor reportedly auditioning six times and working on the score for years before eventually losing out to Ariana Grande.

There have also been reports that she’s working on a musical version of Thelma and Louise with musician Neko Case. “I’m always, always ready to do the next musical. Always,” she told Vanity Fair this year.