What Actually Happened To The iCarly Cast After The Show Ended
People keep sending me links to a thing called "The Icarly Cast A Behindthescenes Look At The Lives And Careers Of Jennette Mccurdy Miranda Cosgrove And The Rest" and asking if it's worth watching. It's a YouTube documentary-style video that came out a few years back and covers where everyone went after Nickelodeon wrapped production. It's fine. It's not groundbreaking, but it's accurate enough for casual viewing. The video traces the post-iCarly trajectories of the main cast members. Miranda Cosgrove went into music, released two albums, and did some voice work. Jennette McCurdy moved into writing and directing, published a memoir called "I'm Glad My Mom Died" which became a bestseller, and stepped back from acting almost entirely. Nathan Kress directed episodes of several TV shows and has been building a behind-the-camera career. Madison Pettis, who joined later, went to college and stayed out of the spotlight. Jerry Trainor continued with occasional acting gigs and voice work but never really rebuilt the same level of visibility. One thing the video handles decently is showing how child actors on long-running Nickelodeon shows tend to hit the same wall. You get famous at twelve, you stay famous until eighteen, and then nobody knows what to do with you. It's not unique to iCarly. Same pattern played out with Drake and Josh, Victorious, and basically every Nickelodeon show from that era.
I watched the thing last month after someone tagged me in a group chat. It runs about forty minutes. The production quality is decent for a YouTube documentary. No fancy reenactments or anything. Just interviews, clips, and some narration that actually sticks to the facts instead of speculating. That's more than I can say for most of these things. Where it falls short is in the deeper career analysis. It touches on McCurdy's pivot to writing but doesn't really dig into why the industry side was so hostile to her leaving acting. There's a whole section on Cosgrove's music career that could have been twice as long if they'd actually looked at the chart performance and touring revenue instead of just listing album titles. And the segment on Trainor feels like an afterthought. He gets maybe four minutes total. If you're looking for something more detailed on any single cast member, the memoirs and published interviews outperform this video by a wide margin. McCurdy's book alone covers more ground than the entire documentary. But if you just want a general overview without spending money on a book or sitting through three hours of podcast episodes, this is adequate.
There's also a 2024 iCarly revival on Paramount+ that the original video doesn't cover since it predates the reboot. The revival casts the original actors again but adds a younger generation of characters. Some people liked it. Some people didn't. The critical reception was mixed, and ratings were okay but not spectacular. Nickelodeon seems to think it'll continue, but those renewals are never guaranteed. Search for it on YouTube. It's free. No download needed. Just type the title into the search bar and click the top result. Most of the mirrors and reposts out there are just re-uploads with ads layered on top. The original uploader has it up themselves. The broader point here is that these behind-the-scenes career retrospective videos have become kind of a genre now. You see them for every 2000s kid show. The formula is always the same: quick intro, individual cast member segments, a few photos of them now versus then, some dramatic music bed. It's filler content for people who miss that era. The iCarly one is middle of the road within that category. Not terrible. Not essential either.
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