NKD Mag - Issue #32 (February 2014)

At only 21 years old, Jennette McCurdy has already been in the public eye for seven years, though she’s been acting for even longer. The petite blonde started her career at the ripe age of eight before landing her first major role in 2007: Sam Puckett on Nickelodeon’s iCarly. The rest is history.

I met with Jennette at a friend’s house in Los Angeles during her hiatus from filming her new Nickelodeon show, Sam & Cat – a spinoff of both iCarly and Victorious co-starring Ariana Grande. It’s chilly for California, but Jennette seems comfortable in her faded skinny jeans, a white, short-sleeved t-shirt and Converse sneakers that she has doodled all over.

Jennette may not necessarily be dressed like a stereotypical television star, but she has had quite a bit of success. In June, Sam & Cat premiered to 4.2 million viewers and was ordered for 20 additional episodes (bringing the first seasons total to 40) just one month later. But Jennette also faced tragedy this past year. In September, her mother passed away after a 17-year battle with cancer. But despite the drastic highs and lows last year, Jennette remains positive, grounded and mostly just busy.

Jennette was born in Long Beach, Cali. and grew up in a small house with her parents, three older brothers, two grandparents and three dogs. “It was never short of conversation or company,” she says. Growing up, she did everything her older brothers did and began watching shows like Saturday Night Live and movies like Saving Private Ryan at a young age. Because of that, she feels like she was exposed to a lot of good entertainment very early on, and that sparked her initial interest in acting. After watching a Star Wars film at the age of six, she turned to her mom and told her she wanted to act. Being a persistent little girl, Jennette harassed her mom for two years before her mother eventually gave in and got Jennette an agent when she was eight. “I literally harassed her,” Jennette laughs.

The early years of her career consisted mostly of indie films and guest appearances on various television shows like Law & Order, but once she got involved with Nickelodeon her life completely changed. “Most of my roles were sad, now that I think about it,” Jennette recalls.

She made a few comedic guest appearances on shows like Malcolm In The Middle, but never worked on a kids show before booking a one-episode guest role on Nickelodeon’s Zoey 101. “Even from that one episode I started to get recognized in public,” she says, “Adults won’t come up to you and ask if you were on Law & Order, but kids have no problem running up to you.” Two years after Zoey 101, a producer at Nickelodeon remembered Jennette and wanted to cast her in their new project, iCarly. “Within six months of the show airing I couldn’t leave my house without being recognized,” she says.

When she filmed the pilot for iCarly, she sus38