Childhood TV shows can shape our personalities and humour while stars can feel like distant relatives or even friends we once knew. Nickelodeon's show iCarly was hugely popular and ran from 2007 to 2012, garnering a huge fan following in the process.
It featured three best friends who ran a web series together full of sketches and "random dancing". While the show had a relatively small cast, it was an instant hit with young teens across the globe - and now it has been given a modern spin-off.
The new series follows the life of adult Carly Shay, played by Miranda Cosgrove, but what's happened to the cast over the past decade? Here we take a look at the show's biggest stars...
Miranda Cosgrove
Do you remember iCarly? Let us know in the comments...
At just 14-years-old, Cosgrove joined iCarly as the titular Carly after her popularity on Nickelodeon's Drake and Josh and standout performance in School of Rock (2003). She had been acting since the age of seven in various commercials and minor television roles.
Cosgrove's performance as Carly won her four Kids Choice Awards along with several other accolades, although she admitted on the Reign with Josh Smith podcast recently that she felt there was "pressure" and would seek out negative comments about herself online.
While still on the show, Cosgrove also released music starting with the show's soundtrack then branching out into her debut studio album, Sparks Fly in 2010. At 19, she left iCarly and went to study at the University of Southern California but continued acting during this time.
The now 29-year-old is still best known for her role as Carly but has also done voice work for the popular Despicable Me franchise - in which she voices Margo.
Since 2021, Cosgrove has returned to her roots and is starring in the iCarly spin-off with some of her old co-stars. She is still friends with co-star and love interest Nathan Kress and posted a throwback picture for his birthday on her Instagram on November 18, 2022.
The caption read: "This pic is from the very first day I met @nathankress. We were 12. Happy Birthday! Here's to 18 more years of friendship". Kress responded: "That 2006 drip thank you! This really puts into perspective the fact that you're one of my oldest friends. Holy c**p we're old now."
Jennette McCurdy
Best friend to Carly and her sidekick on their web series, Jennette McCurdy played Sam Puckett in the popular show. McCurdy started acting at the age of eight and had already appeared in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Malcolm in the Middle, Zoey 101, Will & Grace and a handful of films by the time she landed the iCarly role.
While on iCarly, the now 30-year-old actress cameoed in a variety of other Nickelodeon shows such as Big Time Rush and True Jackson VP. She also appeared on Victorious in a crossover episode, which would lead to her spin-off show with Ariana Grande called Sam & Cat.
McCurdy also produced, wrote, and starred in her own web series, 'What's Next for Sarah?' in this time as well as launching a music career. In 2017 she quit acting completely, only to return in 2020 for a one-woman show called I'm Glad My Mother Died - which would later be the name of her best-selling memoir.
The actress has been very vocal about the trauma and abuse she faced at the hands of her mother, who died in 2013. Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when McCurdy was around three and underwent numerous surgeries and chemotherapy but the cancer returned in 2010.
McCurdy has opened up about the controlling way her mother pushed her into acting and forced her to become a star, which she was never comfortable with. She has a deeply troubled connection to her mother and speaks of emotional and sexual abuse throughout her time as a child actor.
While on iCarly, she suffered from an eating disorder and alcoholism from which she is now recovering. She published her memoir in 2022 and unveiled the true extent of the suffering she faced as a young star.
She is one of the only stars to turn down returning to her iCarly character for the reboot and has previously said she felt "ashamed" of the roles she had played in the past.
Since releasing her memoir, McCurdy has signed a two book deal with Penguin Random House but has no plans to return to acting.
Nathan Kress
Rounding out the big three for the iCarly cast is Nathan Kress who played nerdy Freddie Benson who was in love with Carly for many years before falling for Sam.
Kress began his acting career at just four-years-old when they realised he had a talent for memorising lines. He did lots of voice work and commercials, most notably he voiced two characters in Babe: Pig in the City before leaving acting to attend school at six.
Thanks to a small role on Drake & Josh, Kress landed the role on iCarly and solidified him as a household name for teens in the 2000s and early 2010s. Like is co-stars he made cameo appearances on a variety of Nickelodeon shows before leaving to pursue films.
On the set of his feature film Into The Storm, he met future wife and mother of his children London Elise Moore, the pair became engaged in 2015 and now have two daughters together.
Recently, he worked on a show called Pinky Malinky for Nickelodeon before returning to the iCarly reboot in 2021. Kress, now 30, has his own podcast called RadioActive Dads and is working on a PhD in philosophy as well as doing lots of philanthropic work for various charities.
Noah Munck
Recurring cast member Noah Munck played Gibby, a friend of the trio who had a penchant for taking his shirt off. Gibby was so popular a spin off centred around the character was in the works in 2013 but never made it to the screen.
Munck did appear in the Sam & Cat spin-off but has not returned for the show reboot. He is also known nowadays for his character Naked Rob in hit comedy The Goldbergs, which started in 2014.
The now 26-year-old released electronic dance music (EDM) under the name NoxiK on Youtube and SoundCloud, although this has been inactive since 2017. He has more recently released similar music on another SoundCloud account, named SadWorldBeats, which is connected to his experimental sketch comedy YouTube.
Emily Ratajkowski
One of the guest stars on iCarly was an unknown Emily Ratajkowski, who played Gibby's girlfriend Tasha in two episodes of the show. She was already signed to a modelling agency at this point but had been auditioning for acting roles too.
Ratajkowski has steered away from acting since, appearing in few roles over the years including the critically acclaimed Gone Girl (2014). She also starred in the controversial Blurred Lines music video, which she initially defended as a feminist standpoint but backtracks on this in her memoir.
Since her iCarly days, the 31-year-old has become one of the world's best-known supermodels, walking on runways across the globe for many high-profile fashion brands. In her private life, she gave birth to her son in early 2021 and then split with husband Sebastian Bear-McClard in late 2022.
Jerry Trainor
Brother to Carly and ex-law student turned artist, Spencer Shay was portrayed by energetic Jerry Trainor. He studied acting and appeared in minor roles in Donnie Darko and Bring It On Again before landing his role as Crazy Steve on Drake & Josh.
His breakout role on iCarly is still his best-known work and he returned to the role of Spencer in the reboot.
Outside of acting, Trainor also plays bass in his band Nice Enough People, which features Drake & Josh co-star Allison Scagliotti on guitar.
Reed Alexander
Nevil Papperman, archenemy of Carly on the show, despite only appearing in eight episodes became one of the series' most iconic recurring characters. The character was portrayed by Reed Alexander, who had starred in Will & Grace and also in 2009's Ace Ventura Jr.: Pet Detective.
Alexander moved away from acting into politics and attended the first inauguration of Barack Obama after helping out grassroots campaigns. He instead chose to pursue a career in journalism and is now a financial news reporter at Insider Inc.
As of 2022, Alexander started a new position as a Lecturer for Journalism Studies at the University of Miami.
BooG!e
Groovy Smoothie worker T-Bo was an eccentric man but seemed to get on well with Carly and her friends in later series of the show. Played by BooG!e, the character would stack items on a stick to sell - from bagels to tacos with varying degrees of success.
In the reboot, it is revealed that the Groovy Smoothie shut down due to a giant rat problem but nobody knows what happened to T-Bo.
Information on the 41-year-old actor himself is similarly as vague, he appears to have stopped acting in 2007 with some of his final credits including an uncredited performance in Step Up 2 the Streets as Dj Sand.
BooG!e posted a few duets on TikTok in 2021 relating to his iCarly character but has been silent on the platform since. He also reposts videos on his Instagram without caption or context - one as recently as December 7, 2022, claimed to be a UFO sighting.
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