iCarly will premiere June 17.
Nickelodeon is rebooting its award-winning series iCarly for the streamer Paramount+ with three of its major original stars reprising their roles and adding rising Afro-Latina child actor Jaidyn Triplett to the cast.
Ten-year-old Jaidyn (Black-ish) is joining returning stars Miranda Cosgrove (Carly Shay), Jerry Trainor (Spencer Shay) and Nathan Kress (Freddie Benson). In the original series, Carly and her best friends hosted a teen webcast and dealt with everyday issues and adventures of people their age. The series ran from 2007 to 2012 winning a dozen awards, including four Kids’ Choice Awards in the USA and another three in Australia, as well as seven Primetime Emmy nominations.
In the new iCarly, the teen webcasters are all grown up. The 13-episode season picks up nearly 10 years after the original show ended, and finds Carly and her friends navigating work, love and their family in their twenties.
Jaidyn, the youngest member of the main cast, plays Millicent Benson, Freddie’s snarky and social media-obsessed step-daughter. She is a master at manipulating her dad in order to get what she wants, and despite only having a few subscribers on her web channel, Millicent sees Carly as a direct competitor.
“Being on the iCarly set has always felt like a second home to me and it’s so awesome to be back with my pals Jerry and Nathan,” says Cosgrove. “We served up spaghetti tacos over 10 years ago, and I can’t wait to show you what we’re cooking up next with Nickelodeon for Paramount+!”
In preparation for her role, Jaidyn has said in media interviews she binged on the original series and later was pleased to meet the stars of the original show as they started working on the series revival.
When the new iCarly intro was recently unveiled, Jaidyn apparently liked what she saw and heard. She posted the video on Instagram: “Don’t you just love the theme song? I Can’t get it out of my head.” The tune, titled “Leave It All to Me,” is sung by Cosgrove and Drake Bell, another Nickelodeon star who starred in The Amanda Show and Drake & Josh.
iCarly adds another prominent credit to Jaidyn’s growing career. The 10-year-old actress was born in Ohio to Nory Triplett, who is Puerto Rican, and Joshua Triplett, who is African American. The Tripletts move to Los Angeles when shortly after 2-year-old Jaidyn started her acting career, starring in national commercials. She slowly broke her way into Hollywood, amassing a dozen TV credits and another dozen in film. Jaidyn has been featured in Showtime’s The Affair, ABC’s Station 19 and Black-ish and Netflix’s Family Reunion. She has appeared in the films Major Deal and A Stone Cold Christmas.
The original iCarly series was created by Dan Schneider.
The new iCarly series is produced by Nickelodeon Studios and Awesomeness (To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, Trinkets, PEN15). The pilot was written by Ali Schouten (Diary of a Future President, Champions, Merry Happy Whatever), who also serves as executive producer, and Jay Kogen (Nickelodeon’s School of Rock, The Simpsons, Frasier). iCarly’s Cosgrove also serves as executive producer and her co-star Trainor serves as producer along with Alissa Vradenburg. The pilot was directed and executive produced by Phill Lewis (One Day at a Time, The Neighborhood). The original iCarly series was created by Dan Schneider.
Production of the new iCarly series for Nickelodeon Studios and Awesomeness is overseen by Shauna Phelan, senior vice president of live-action scripted content, and Zack Olin, senior vice president of live action.
Featured Photo: Actress Jaidyn Triplett (Credit: Jeremy David Creative) / ‘iCarly’ Poster (Credit: Nickelodeon)
