Child actors hold a special place in our hearts as we watch them grow up on screen, often facing pressures and hardships from being in the limelight at such an early age. Many flourish into global powerhouse celebrities while others turn away from the spotlight as adults.
There's an endless number of shows on Nickelodeon but these two captured the imagination of teens across the globe before the stars moved on from their roles into their adult lives. Some of these you might even recognise more for their later work and forgot about their Nickelodeon start.
We look back at the careers of child stars from 00s hits like Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide and Zoey 101 to see where they are now.
Jamie Lynn Spears
Younger sister of the iconic singer Britney Spears, Jamie Lynn Spears landed the lead role as Zoey Brooks in Zoey 101 in the summer of 2004. She had starred in a variety of roles on sketch show All That before her deal to develop a show with Nickelodeon.
Zoey 101 ran from 2005 to 2008, and focused on Pacific Coast Academy boarding school and the teens that attended. When it ended amid Spears' pregnancy announcement at just 16-years-old. Nickelodeon decided to air the fourth and final season, despite protests from parents, and stood by the young actress publicly.
She took a step back from acting to raise her daughter Maddie, who she had with 18-year-old boyfriend at the time Casey Aldridge. The couple got engaged and move in together before separating in 2009 then reconciling and splitting again the following year.
Spears has since married Jamie Watson, a businessman who owns communications service Advanced Media Partners, and in 2018 she gave birth to a second daughter.
Her acting career has been sparse since her time on Zoey 101 but Spears is a series regular on Sweet Magnolias and she reunited with her Zoey 101 cast mates for a sketch on All That in 2020.
The now 31-year-old released a memoir in January 2022, titled Things I Should Have Said which fuelled long standing issues with her sister.
Spears has been publicly feuding with pop sensation Britney, 41, since the late 2010s but it came to a head in 2019 when the mother of two hit back against the Free Britney movement. She then denied attending a Free Britney rally which took place in 2021 and later said her silence on the conservatorship was due to wanting her sister to have a voice first.
During the conservatorship battle, Britney said she wanted to sue her family without naming any specific names. Although Jamie Lynn distanced herself from the conservatorship, Britney appeared to strike out at her sister multiple times throughout the legal battle.
After being freed from her conservatorship in November 2021, Britney appeared to unfollow her sister on social media. Jamie Lynn's book mentioned an incident with a knife that Britney publicly denied and things eventually settle again when she writes an open letter saying she still loves her sister.
In January 2022 things sparked again as Britney said she should have "slapped" her mother and Jamie Lynn as well as threatening them with legal action. Since then the sisters have been estranged publicly and rumours of a secondary conservatorship for Britney have begun to swirl.
Sean Flynn
Best friend to Zoey and eventual boyfriend was Chase Matthews, played by Sean Flynn who had been performing in commercials before Zoey 101. He was almost cast as the younger brother of Lizzie Maguire for the Disney show at 10-years-old but lost out to Jake Thomas.
Flynn starred as Chase until the show ended and returned to the character for a reunion sketch in 2015. After leaving Zoey 101, he starred in films The Last of Robin Hood and Return of the Killer Shrews but has now left the world of on screen acting behind him.
In 2009, Flynn released music, including a debut album but now the 33-year-old is a producer at an entertainment company called Donatello Arm, based in Atlanta, Georgia. He also streams on Twitch under the name of SeanRio.
He began dating Lyndsey Monconduit in 2014 and the pair wed in March, 2022. Flynn posted a picture of the loved up couple on his Instagram with the caption "We did it love" - fellow Nickelodeon star Victoria Justice commented three hearts on the picture.
Reportedly, his Zoey 101 co stars Christopher Massey, Matthew Underwood, and Jack Salvatore all attended the wedding but there is no word on whether any other cast members were invited.
Matthew Underwood
Bad boy Logan Reese was known as the rich kid out of Zoey's friendship group who wasn't always the nicest to be around. The character was portrayed by Matthew Underwood who was only 14 when he took on the role and 17 when the show ended.
After his time on the show, Underwood landed in legal trouble in 2012 as he was found in a bedroom in Port St. Lucie, Florida in possession of weed. In the room with him was a 17-year-old girl - he was in his early 20s at the time but there is no information on the nature of their relationship.
The actor was arrested and put on probation for 12 months but he violated this by attending a hookah bar. He spent the night in jail but was released and served the rest of his probation without issue.
Underwood chose to lay low after this incident, until in 2017 he rescued a four-month-old baby from a car crash. The now 32-year-old happened to be near the scene when the female driver passed out behind the wheel from a reported heroin overdose.
The baby's father was said to be asleep in the back next to the unsecured car seat when Underwood removed the baby and had his brother call 911.
Since this, the actor has moved behind the camera and has directed multiple short films such as The Unicorn Sisters, The Alien, and The Golden Stars. His co-star and friend Sean Flynn has made cameo appearances in some of these movies.
Christopher Massey
Rounding out the three main male characters on the show is Christopher Massey, who played Michael Barret. When he took the role, he already had starred in commercials and as young Simba in a live performance of The Lion King, for which he won an award.
He is the older brother of Kyle Massey, who is known for his role on Disney Channel's That So Raven and made a cameo appearance on the show before Zoey 101. Since the show ended Massey has not continued to act beyond some small roles in TV shows but has released music with his brother.
In 2015, the star was robbed and assaulted by rapper Lil Twist in his brother's LA home. Lil Twist pleaded no contest to burglary, grand theft, making criminal threats, battery, and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to one year in prison.
The following year TMZ reported that Massey had been accused and charged with domestic violence due to an incident involving his girlfriend at the time Cassalei Jackson. He denied the charge and said Jackson had fallen down during an argument between the two of them.
The 32-year-old was then granted a restraining order against Shar Jackson, the mother of his ex-girlfriend and claimed that while in the care of her mother and grandmother, his daughter Mariah had been struck and injured. Jackson denied this accusation of abuse.
Massey has two children, a daughter named Bella and a son named Carter, with Bria Miller as well as daughter Mariah. He is now thought to be married to a woman named Tatyana Tutson.
He describes himself as an actor and musician on Instagram and regularly posts throwback pictures with stars like Raven Symone and Miley Cyrus.
Erin Sanders
13-year-old Erin Sanders won over hearts as quirky, science obsessed Quinn Pensky who was roommate to Zoey in Zoey 101. She secretly starts dating bad boy Logan, despite the pair pretending to hate each other throughout the show.
After Zoey 101 ended, the actress went on to appear in a number of shows like Weeds, Mad Men, CSI: Miami and Melissa & Joey. Most notably she starred as Camille Roberts, an aspiring actress and love interest of another Logan, on Nickelodeon show Big Time Rush.
Along with her TV roles, the 31-year-old has starred in a number of independent films, including the lead role of Traci in television film Guilty at 17.
She is now a yoga and meditation instructor, according to her Instagram, and holds classes both in person and over zoom. Sanders describes herself as "the multi-hyphenate of your dreams", saying she is still an actor, director and writer.
More recently she came out as bisexual through a series of Instagram stories, acknowledging that she was aware of her "straight passing privilege" but still wanted to celebrate her identity.
Alexa Nikolas
One of the youngest cast members for Zoey 101 was Alexa Nikolas, who was just 12 when she joined the show. Nikolas played Nicole Bristow in the first two seasons of the show but left after reports of numerous fights with lead Spears plus an incident with Britney Spears, which the singer later apologised for.
After her exit from Zoey 101, Nikolas made appearances on shows like The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, Judging Amy, Criminal Minds, and Heroes. She also starred in The Walking Dead and had a voice role in Family Guy and appeared in film Red State in 2011.
The now 30-year-old founded the Eat Predators movement in 2022, which has set up protests across LA to call out predators and abusers within the industry. She has been vocal about her own experiences calling out Nickelodeon for failing to protect her as a young child.
Particularly, Nikolas has claimed she never felt safe around show creator Dan Schneider, who was the creator behind many Nickelodeon shows during that time. Fans of shows like iCarly, Victorious, and Zoey 101 have reflected on scenes as adults and found them to be inappropriate or uncomfortable viewing.
ViacomCBS, Nickelodeon's parent firm, completed an internal investigation and found that Schneider had been difficult to work with but no evidence of sexual misconduct. In August 2022, Insider alleged multiple accusations against the showrunner including gender discrimination and "ask[ing] for massages from adult female colleagues" - which has not been substantiated.
In her private life the actress was married to Mike Milosh, a musician, for four years before they split in 2016. Nikolas announced in 2020 that she was pregnant with her first child with boyfriend Michael Gray and gave birth to daughter Nova in November 2020.
The pair wed on July 26, 2021 at Crystal Lake in Angeles National Forest in Southern California. She shared the happy day on her Instagram and called Gray "the love of [her] life".
Devon Werkheiser
An often overlooked but cult classic Nickelodeon show was Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, in which Devon Werkheiser took the titular role of Ned Bigby.
Werkheiser and his family had moved to LA to pursue acting in 2003 after landing a small role in We Were Soldiers and a leading role in the TV film Recipe For Disaster. His biggest role was in Ned's Declassified which ran until 2007 and had even signed on for a cancelled spin off that would follow Ned through high school.
After the show ended, the now 31-year-old went on to lend his voice to the 2010 film Marmaduke along with a variety of other horror and comedy movies. He also has appeared in TV shows like 2 Broke Girls, Criminal Minds and the Halloween special Scared Shrekless.
He has also released music throughout the years with three EPs and multiple singles, the latest of which 'Chapter One' was released in 2021.
The actor was cast in the film Rust in 2021 but production on Rust was suspended when a prop gun that lead Alec Baldwin was holding unintentionally discharged., resulting in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Filming is set to continue in 2023 and it's believed Werkheiser will return.
More recently, Werkheiser has been advertising a Ned's Declassified Podcast with co-stars Lindsey Shaw and Daniel Lee Curtis. They haven't announced a date for the return but in an Instagram post he wrote: "Ned's not dead" along with the hashtag coming soon.
Lindsey Shaw
One of the busiest actors since appearing on Ned's Declassified is Lindsey Shaw who played Jennifer Mosely, known as Moze. She was sporty, smart and her chemistry with co-star Werkheiser was evident with the pair dating off screen as well as on.
The 33-year-old starred in the short lived sitcom Aliens in America as Claire before landing the lead role as Kat Stratford in the 10 Things I Hate About You TV series.
In 2011, Shaw shot to stardom in hit series Pretty Little Liars as Paige McCullers, on and off again girlfriend of Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell). The star has spoken about her experiences on the show on TikTok but one particular video in which she talks about Paige's infamous red bob hairstyle went viral.
Shaw discusses how she was so excited to get her hair done by the professional team on Pretty Little Liars and the stylist suggested a red bob. She said: "I started to know what I had really done when I walked past Ashley Benson and she said 'do you like it?'"
She added that that hair department left the show two weeks later and the new team told her that she would just need to wait for it to grow out.
After her stint on Pretty Little Liars, she appeared in films like Teen Spirit and 16-Love as well as the third and final season of Suburgatory.
Her acting career continues and Shaw has starred in TV series Faking It as Sasha Harvey and starred in an episode of the popular Neil Gaiman adaptation Lucifer.
Daniel Curtis Lee
Completing Ned's trio was Simon Nelson-Cook, portrayed by Daniel Curtis Lee who had had minor roles in First Monday and The Shield before the Nickelodeon show. Cookie was a tech genius, often getting into and out of scrapes using his computer knowledge.
Once Ned's Declassified had ended, Lee went on to take a main role in Disney series Zeke & Luther as friend and rival of the protagonists, Kojo. During this time he also appeared on Good Luck Charlie and provided a voice for the 30 minute special Pixie Hollow Games.
The 31-year-old starred in multiple episodes of the smash hit musical series Glee as Phil Lipoff. He has also been in episodes of Crazy Ex Girlfriend, 9-1-1, and also a limited run comedy competition show called Game On: A Comedy Crossover Event.
Nowadays, Lee is a director for music videos and short films. He is returning to the Ned Declassified podcast along with his co-stars.
Christian Serratos
On and off again girlfriend for Ned was Susan Grabgrass, played by Christian Serratos. Perhaps one of the most successful Nickelodeon stars ever but most people don't even realise she was on the show.
Serratos was a promising young figure skater with her coaches talking about the Olympics before signing on to a modelling agency at seven-years-old. She then landed the role on Ned's Declassified as well as a small part in Disney Channel Original Movie Cow Belles in 2006.
She appeared in episodes of Hannah Montana and Zoey 101 before Hollywood called her name and the actress was cast as Angela Weber in the Twilight series. The 32-year-old has appeared in all five of the films as friend of protagonist Bella Swan, played by Kristen Stewart.
This propelled Serratos into the limelight and she was cast in zombie classic The Walking Dead two years after the final Twilight wrapped. As Rosita Espinosa, the actress has starred in 94 episodes of the show, moving from a recurring character to a main role from season four to 11.
After The Walking Dead, she got the lead in Selena: The Series as singer Selena which ran for two seasons on Netflix.
She is set to appear in HBO's new pilot series More as Londyn Lorenz but there is no release date for this yet.
In 2017, Serratos gave birth to daughter Wolfgang with her boyfriend and musician David Boyd. When discussing the name to Jimmy Kimmel in 2020, saying: "[The name Christian] gave me something to be, I guess, strong about and I wanted my daughter to be strong. So, I gave her a unisex name."
