The Schneider's Bakery Child Stars - Where They Are Now?
Nickelodeon is known for having child stars who tend to be more stable than Disney Channel stars when they grow up as adults. However, there are some exceptions to the rule as we all know the stereotypes of child stars having a troubled adult life after their childhood. But I’m starting to notice a pattern - most of the Nick stars that had gotten into trouble or some sort of controversy was associated with Dan Schneider, who has become a hot topic when it comes to the work environment. This journal will take a look at which child stars from Schneider’s shows is faring right now. I’m not counting former stars from All That and Kenan & Kel as he didn’t created the shows. But most of them have either faded to obscurity or still have an active career in entertainment.
The Amanda Show
Amanda Bynes
The former All That star had a great successful post-Nick career that would last until 2010. Her next television show was What I Like About You, which aired on the WB from 2002-2006. She mostly did movies, like Big Fat Liar, What a Girl Wants, She’s the Main, Sydney White. Her last acting role was on Easy A. Since then, she has sadly retired to take care of her mental health. I’m a big fan of Amanda, and it bums me that she won’t be getting a Lindsay Lohan-esque comeback any time soon. Before 2012, for the longest time, she was looking to avoid that curse of popular Nick/Disney girl not going crazy only to subvert that. I hope it’s not too late for Amanda to truly get her stuff together. I blame her ex Paul Michael for not improving her mental health because it's like we're back to square one again (minus the drugs). I think we need all of her former costars to support her because she isn't getting the help she needs, even after her freedom.
Raquel Lee
The only person of color cast member of The Amanda Show. She was only on the first season of the show, before getting hired (most likely for racist reasons, knowing Dan’s attitude with women and Poc). Like Alisa Reyes, Raquel ended up voicing a character for The Proud Family, a show from Disney Channel (ironically, it was supposed to be a Nick show but rejected). She was not a bad actress, but like Angelique Bates, she deserved better and could’ve stayed if it wasn’t for Dan’s racism.
Drake & Josh
Drake Bell
Both Drake & Josh were former Amanda Show cast members, and their outstanding performances led to their own show. After Drake & Josh ended, Drake actually did work for the ICarly theme song. He even made cameo appearance in iCarly and Victorious. Then, he got cast as Timmy Turner for the live-action Fairly OddParents movies. Yeah, he didn’t got much of a post-Nick adult career, as they kept him around a little longer. Thankfully, he was able to branch out beyond Nick and become the voice of Peter Parker/Spider-Man for the animated shows that aired on Disney XD. However, once his time as the spider hero was done, he hadn’t done much work since then. Eventually, Drake has gotten into some hot water, and sadly he joins Amanda as another cast member from a Schneider show who has a troubled adult life. Unlike Amanda, who I show concern every time something bad happens to her, I have lost respect for Drake and while I still love Drake & Josh, it might be hard to rewatch the show now because of his actions lately.
Josh Peck
Both Drake & Josh were former Amanda Show cast members, and their outstanding performances led to their own show. Before he joined the cast for The Amanda Show, he was on Snow Day. Unlike Drake, Josh was able to branch outside of Nick. He was casted as the voice of Eddie the possum for the Ice Age movies. He has a good amount of movie roles as well. His latest film role is Kenneth Bainbridge on Oppenheimer. Like Drake, Josh did had a couple of post-D&J role on Nick. He was the voice of Casey Jones on the 2012 reboot of TMNT (Nick’s first show for the franchise). And many years later, he reunited with his costar Miranda Cosgrove on the ICarly revival. You can tell Josh has a more successful career than Drake ever did because he was able to still show up on tv. He has main/guest/recurring roles for shows such as The Mindy Project, Grandfathered (a short lived FOX show), Fuller House, Turner & Pooch, and How I Met Your Father (which stars former Disney star Hilary Duff). So, if Drake wasn’t able to live a stable life as an adult, then I’m glad Josh hasn’t gone off the deep end…for now. He was always the funnier titular character for Drake & Josh.
Zoey 101
Jamie Lynn Spears
Before Zoey 101, she was a main cast member for All That (which came back after a year hiatus, and retooled with a new younger cast). Before that, she was simply known as Britney’s little sister. Nepotism at its finest. I'll be honest, after what we know about her, JLS is among one of Nick's worst stars. Not because she's Britney's sister or anything, but her acting came off as flat throughout Zoey 101. Her character was the weakest as a result (though Austin Butler wasn't as memorable as well). And the show's ending coincided with Britney's conservatorship coming into effect after her public breakdown, meaning she and JLS weren't on good speaking terms. When it comes to the debate of freeing Britney, JLS shows no support to her big sister whatsoever and that caused me to sour my opinions on her. I'm sorry, but Jamie Lynn is just shady and I really hope she doesn't ruin Zoey 102 too much. On the topic of her career, she went to become a stay at home mother for a while, until she came back in the spotlight as a country singer and ended up marrying a man with the same name as her (so basically Jamie Squared). She has returned to acting starring in a Netflix show called Sweet Magnolias.
Alexa Nikolas
Sharing the same birthday as Jamie Lynn, Alexa played Nicole Bristow, who became Zoey's best friend. See the irony in that? She was only in the first two seasons until she was written off the show, for being boy crazy. In reality, her actress had a nasty incident behind the scenes, all thanks to family matters (yes, Britney was there the day Alexa was fired from the show), and based from what she recalled, everyone were bullying her, and that's how the feud between her and the rest of show cast started. Since 2019, Alexa has become vocal on the situation and will try to do anything to expose the cast of Zoey 101 for the way they treated her. Of course, it wasn't a surprise when the sequel movie got announced and she was not happy about it happening. While she did eventually patched things up with Britney, it's look like JLS and the rest of the Zoey 101 cast members are Alexa's worst enemies forever...
Kristin Herrera
She was only a cast member in one season. Kristin played Dana, and I honestly forgotten about her (but she is still more memorable than James, Austin's season 4 character). I remembered her and Nicole not getting along at first, but that's about it. Like JLS, her performance came out as flat, and I feel like the reason for my low opinions on season 1 is because of her. No reason is given on why Kristin left the show after the first season, but some might say her age played a factor. She was the oldest main cast member at the time. Despite this, the cast somehow still remembered her and reunited with her many years later for the All That revival.
Erin Sanders
Erin played my favorite female character on the show, Quinn who was a science nerd. Her acting talents were good enough for Nick to cast her in another show, Big Time Rush, in which coincidentally, her character dates someone named Logan. She's so unrecognizable nowadays that in the sequel movie, Quinn's hair is blonde and no longer wears glasses. Then again, Quinn had some of the best character development for Zoey 101.
Sean Flynn
Sean hadn't done much acting (that I'm familiar with), so I won't comment too much. His character was alright, but the whole “will they or will won’t” situation between him and Zoey wasn’t going anywhere so they had to write him off the cast during the final season. Just watch the season 4 premiere (or was it Goodbye, Zoey?) and you know what I mean
Matthew Underwood
Like Sean, Matthew didn’t really do much acting before and after the show (although he was also on an episode of Avatar The Last Airbender whose character he voiced was similar to his Zoey 101 character). With that said, he was still memorable performance wise, although I’m not too fond of Logan myself as he was rather jerkish for most of the show’s run.
Christopher Massey
JLS isn’t the only cast member to be related to a famous person. Here, we have the older brother of Kyle Massey, playing Michael Barret, who is one of my favorite characters on the show. Like with most of the cast, Chris hasn’t done much acting elsewhere, limited to just guest appearances (including one episode of That’s So Raven).
Austin Butler
Ah, yes, we have the guy who was omnipresent on Nickelodeon and Disney back in the day. You should see his resume, he was really everywhere. He was in Ned’s Declassifed, Hannah Montana, ICarly, Out of Jimmy’s Head, you name it. For Zoey 101, he actually played a character in a season 3 episode before getting a main role for the final season, replacing Chase. Not gonna lie, James was not that memorable of a character and he was as bland as Zoey. But I’m not surprised that one of the actors for the least interesting characters on the show has ended up being a big star with Elvis being the role that Hollywood finally took notice of his talents. We deserved more famous Nick stars.
ICarly
Miranda Cosgrove
Before Nickelodeon, Miranda was on School of Rock starring Jack Black. Then, she got casted as troublemaker Megan Parker on Drake & Josh. As divided as her character was, Miranda’s performance was outstanding enough to be casted as the lead role of Carly Shay for ICarly, which would become Nickelodeon’s most popular sitcom while having some guest appearances of various Nick sitcoms throughout the years. As a result, Miranda became the highest paid child actress. While I wasn’t too fond of her performance as Carly (the show is when Schneider and co-writers started to emphasis on loud humor), Miranda was a main cast member for Nick for nearly a decade, which was impressive for someone her age (she was around 9 when she was first casted as Megan and already became an adult by the time ICarly ended). Once her time at Nick was up, she went to college for a while and took a break from acting (though, she was already voicing Margo on Despicable Me movies when ICarly was still in production). She eventually returned to TV on a short lived show called Crowded (funnily enough, the same time her former costar Josh Peck was on another short lived sitcom). Several years later, after appearing in some music videos and other stuff, she would return to her most iconic role with the ICarly revival for Paramount+. While Miranda is no means my favorite Nick star, she’s among the most iconic of them all and I’m glad she’s still doing well because you don’t see many child stars living long enough to live a stable life.
Jennette McCurdy
At the time ICarly was big, Jennette was just an actress who was doing her job and have a dedicated fandom. Her character Sam Puckett was proven popular that she and Cat Valentine from Victorious were given their own spin-off series. But one day, Jennette and Ariana weren’t getting along and it led to the cancellation of the show, despite being a success. It’s just to show you that just because your show is a hit doesn’t mean it’s immune from behind the scenes controversies. And many years later, we finally found out that Jennette didn’t have a strong passion for acting because it’s all thanks to her now decreased mother pushing her to be an actress at such a young age. As you can tell, Jennette has quit acting to become a bestselling author. Last year, she published a memoir about her life and why she’s glad about her mother being dead. I won’t go into details, but if you have the memoir, it will sum up what she’s been up to since Sam & Cat concluded.
Nathan Kress
Seeing how his character on iCarly was a director for the webseries, it was only fitting that once the show ended, Nathan himself became a director for Schneider’s next shows (Henry Danger and Game Shakers). He even appeared in a Game Shakers episode, addressing the whole shipping wars on ICarly. Acting wise, he haven’t done much of importance, other than voicing one of the main characters on Pinky Malinky. So yeah, technically, Nathan has never left Nick after all these years, even before he reprised his role as Freddie for the revival.
Victorious
Victoria Justice
Prior to Victorious, she was Lola Martinez on Zoey, joining during the second season. Then, she went on to play a main role for a tv movie called Spectacular. She was popular enough to be cast as the lead role for Victorious as well making various appearances at Nick (including a theatrical movie that was rated PG13). Once the show wrapped production, Victoria went to do a short lived series for MTV. She had a few more television appearances before moving on to focus on movies. Not gonna lie, I wish Victoria made it as big as Ariana because her fans are insufferable whenever Victorious gets brought up. And only because she one of my favorite actress/singer to come out of Nick. But as you read the Victorious section, you’ll notice this show had the most successful cast as they barely went through shady situations.
Daniella Monet
She was already an adult when the show premiered but prior to that, she guest appeared on Zoey 101 as Rebecca in three episodes. She had various of roles pre-Victorious, including a main role in a short lived sitcom during 2004. But it wasn’t until Victorious that she became more well known. Like Victoria and Miranda, Daniella was pretty much everywhere at Nick, also making a bunch of appearances (whether it was main or guest). She was the live action version of Tootie for the Fairly OddParents tv movies (remember those?) She was Bertha in those Fred movies (and even appeared in the show itself). Even after Victorious was long over, she was still appearing on Nick, her biggest role was being the host for Paradise Run. Her most recent acting role was Cousins for Life, another Nick production. Since then, she has became a mother and is now focusing more on motherhood.
Elizabeth Gilles
One of the youngest cast members of Victorious played a moody character (who wasn’t my favorite, despite nailing at the role). Liz didn’t do as much projects as Victoria and Daniella, but she was on Winx Club (when Nick produced the dub). She would reprise the role as Jade in a Sam and Cat special, and it would be her last contribution at Nick until she did a voice role in Welcome to the Wayne of all shows. Since then, she got casted as the role of Fallon Carrington on the CW show Dynasty (yeah, the CW has became a dumping ground for former Nick/Disney stars). During her time at Dynasty, she guest starred on both Family Guy and The Orville, which were created by Seth MacFarlane. As you can see, Liz and MacFarlane have collaborated with each other several times and it’s an odd pair.
Ariana Grande
The most well known example of a successful Nickelodeon star. Before her, Kenan Thompson was arguably the most successful Nickelodeon veteran thanks to SNL. But, at the time Victorious came out, she came straight from Broadway. Little did we know in 2010, Ariana Grande was going to make it big as a pop star. During her time at Nickelodeon, she did a voice role on Winx Club and from what I heard, she was really miscasted. She was on a TV Movie called Swindle, which featured a bunch of current Nick stars at the time. Let’s be honest, the only reason why Sam & Cat came to be was because Jennette and Ariana shared a birthday and their characters were super popular among the fans. The show in particular was a hit but was cancelled once the stars got into an argument. It’s no coincidence this all happened when Ariana’s music career was taking off. Despite her busy career, she still make tv appearances. She hosted SNL a couple times (which is funny considering she gets to appear with Kenan, the most successful male former Nick star). She has guest judged on RuPaul’s Drag Rave a few times. She was on Scream Queens for a few episodes. The rest of her tv filmography are self appearances. She’s currently filming the Wicked movies as the role of Galinda Upland, so she’s taking her singing career on hold for a while. I’ll say this, I have no ill against Ariana and I’m glad to see someone from Nickelodeon made it this big, even if I’m not the biggest fan of her music (as it’s basically diet Mariah Carey). I doubt we’ll ever get someone from Nickelodeon made it as big as her again. I mean, Disney Channel already birthed out a bunch of successful pop stars.
Matt Bennett
He’s the least popular of the entire cast, but even after his time as Robbie Shapiro was over, he was still appearing on tv. He got to reunite with Ariana and Liz a few times, though. He’s one of the best aspects of Victorious, so he deserved a little more exposure. These days, if you’ve been following Matt, he’s doing some sort of comedy tour.
Leon Thomas III
Leon is without a doubt the most successful male cast member of Victorious. He did a few stuff before the show came out, most notably the voice of Tyrone from the Backyardigans. Even during his time at Victorious, he did the singing voice of Monster from Robot and Monster. Since then, his acting career has slowed down somewhat, but he’s more well known for being a songwriter. I always knew Andre Harris has it in him because his character was the only one that genuinely got along with Tori.
Avan Jogia
Before Victorious, Avan was in a couple Nick Tv movies, one of which had Victoria Justice as a cast member, so basically he met Victoria before Victorious was greenlit. He would later do another movie with Rags. After the cancellation of Victorious, he starred in Twisted, which of course was an one season show. Since then, his resume mostly consists of movies with the occasional television appearances. Beck may’ve been the least memorable character of the show, but his actor sure have a bigger career than Robbie’s.
Henry Danger
Jace Norman
Nickelodeon’s biggest star during the late 2010s. Henry Danger was proven to be really popular that they gave Jace a whopping five TV Movie between 2014-2018, one of which was given a sequel because dogs are profitable. The funny thing is, before he was on Nick, his first acting career was on Disney. But after a guest appearance on the superhero sitcom The Thundermans, I guess they saw potential in Jace so they casted him to play a superhero. Just like any other popular actor, Jace has made plenty of appearances on Nick, that it’s hard to list his non-Nick roles during his time at Henry Danger (Spark A Space Tail and another movie but he was credited under an alias). You can tell Nick won’t let the guy go when he became a producer for the DangerVerse and have his character appear on Danger Force every now and then. He’s talented, sure, but he need to expand beyond Nick. He can’t be known as Henry Hart / Kid Danger for the rest of his career.
Riele Downs
Prior to being cast as Charlotte Page, Riele was in a bunch of stuff as a little girl. I’ll be honest with you, Riele’s acting is good but I really dislike how her character on Henry Danger is the butt of jokes. For someone who’s the only non-white main character on the show and arguably the smartest of them all, it just comes off as racially motivated especially when your writing room is full of whites. Unlike Jace, Riele did moved on from Nick. She did a movie called Darby and the Dead, playing the titular role. And she’s also on Bel Air. And I’ll say, good for her. Let her be more than just the smart girl who was constantly abused by her peers.
Sean Ryan Fox
Around the same he got casted as Jasper, Sean was originally going to be Lincoln Loud on The Loud House, but his voice dropped (this was pilot only). He did, however, was the voice of Jake in the Disney Junior show Jake and the Neverland Pirates. So what is Sean up to nowadays? One look at his IMDb and he hadn’t been acting since Henry Danger ended. I guess he’s busy with college and stuff. You know, for a show so popular, it’s surprising to see someone fade from obscurity so quickly. And I’ll be honest, Jasper became my least favorite character during the final season because he wasn’t as useful as before.
Ella Anderson
Ah, Ella Anderson, best known for being typecasted as a spoiled brat. Even before viewers know her best as the loud and obnoxious Piper Hart, she was already playing characters that just as spoiled as her, such as Hazel on ANT Farm, Darcy Stewart on Dog with a Blog, Jenny Kenne on Liv & Maddie (all Disney Channel shows, mind you). I blame Schneider and writers for why most viewers has such sour opinions on Piper, myself included. They forced Ella to shout every single of her lines as Piper and I feel like it wasn’t good for her vocal cords. But come the fifth season, Piper has significantly mellowed out and was no longer the worst character on the show. Her tone went from shrill to just sarcastic. I’ll admit, the final season gave Ella a potential to finally break out the stigma of playing brats, but right now, she hasn’t much work since the show ended. Like Riele, I’m rooting for her to play better roles in the future that won’t be wasted by poor writing.
Game Shakers
Madisyn Shipman
Pre-Game Shakers, she was on the Peanuts Movie (this is animation so it must’ve been recorded before that show was even a thing) and was on an episode of Sesame Street. After Game Shakers was cancelled, she would later have roles for Red Ruby and Call Me Kat. I’ve been actively following her on social media, and nowadays, she’s been a singer (surprise, surprise) and a brand ambassador for Playboy of all things. The Playboy job surprised me, but hey, it’s cool to see child stars literally grow up to do adult stuff. I just wish her character Kenzie Bell was more interesting, because she wasn’t bad, but she suffered from wooden acting.
Cree Cinnicho
Out of all the Game Shakers kids, Cree’s acting career surprised me the most. She’s still active, having roles for Mr Iglesias (which featured another former Nick star in Gabriel Iglesias, who was briefly on All That), the Sex and City continuation series, Stay Awake, Robot Chicken (that show attract so many actors), and Big Sky. It’s a shame her Game Shakers character is only remembered for having a strange name (Babe isn’t kid friendly). As I mentioned, the kids all suffered from poor scripts, leading their performance to come off as flat, so I hope Cree’s acting has improved since then.
Benjamin Flores Jr.
Henry Danger didn’t reused any cast member whatsoever, but Benjamin is among the two veteran cast members for Game Shakers (the only being his tv dad, Kel Mitchell). He was on The Haunted Hathaways and a couple of tv movies for Nick. During his game as Triple G, he was cast to be the new voice of Gerald from Hey Arnold for the Jungle Movie. After the cancellation, he’s still doing work, although it’s hard to tell if it’s the same level as Cree.
Thomas Kuc
He played the least important character on the show. One look at his IMDb shouldn’t be a surprise that he done so little with his career. He was in a Nick seasonal special, some random movie, and since the cancellation of Game Shakers, he has only showed up in some random short film, a music video, and a teen show. Calling it now, just like Sean Ryan Fox, he’s going to fade from obscurity pretty soon.
