Acting In 2000, at the age of eight, McCurdy started her acting career on the adult comedy sketch show Mad TV. She then appeared in several television series, including CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Malcolm in the Middle, Lincoln Heights, Will & Grace, Zoey 101, True Jackson VP, Law and Order SVU, Medium, Judging Amy, The Inside, Karen Sisco, Over There, and Close to Home''. In 2003, she acted in the feature film
Hollywood Homicide. In 2005, she was nominated for a
Young Artist Award for "Best Performance in a Television Series – Guest Starring Young Actress" for her performance in drama series
Strong Medicine. She also appeared in a commercial for
Sprint Corporation. From 2007 to 2012, she starred as
Sam Puckett in the Nickelodeon TV series
iCarly. In 2008, she was nominated for a Young Artist Award for her work on the series and her performance as Dory Sorenson in the TV movie
The Last Day of Summer. She was nominated for a 2009
Teen Choice Award in the Favorite TV Sidekick category for her work on
iCarly. She played Bertha in
Fred: The Movie, a movie based on a YouTube series about
Fred Figglehorn. McCurdy starred alongside
Ariana Grande in the Nickelodeon series
Sam & Cat, reprising her role as Sam Puckett, with Grande reprising her role as
Cat Valentine. The series' plot centers on the girls becoming roommates and starting their own babysitting business. It premiered on June 8, 2013. In 2014, McCurdy was absent from the
Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. Explaining her absence, McCurdy stated that Nickelodeon put her in an "uncomfortable, compromising, unfair situation" where she had to look out for herself. The network placed
Sam & Cat into hiatus. The network initially stated that the hiatus was planned and that the series was not cancelled. On July 13, 2014, Nickelodeon announced that after one season,
Sam & Cat was cancelled. In an interview on
Entertainment Pop, McCurdy mentioned that she later made up with Grande. In McCurdy's 2022 memoir ''I'm Glad My Mom Died
, she describes incidents at Nickelodeon, such as when she was photographed in a bikini at a wardrobe fitting, and being encouraged to drink alcohol while underage by a person she identified as "the Creator". She stated that after the cancelation of Sam & Cat'', Nickelodeon later offered her $300,000 to agree not to discuss her experiences at the network; she turned down the offer. On August 13, 2014, McCurdy launched the online show ''What's Next for Sarah?
. She served as the star of the series as well as the writer of the show, along with duties as executive producer and editor. McCurdy says that the show is based loosely on her life and that the character she plays, Sarah Bronson, is based on her. In 2015, she began starring in the Netflix drama series Between. While critics acknowledged McCurdy as "one of the few cast members who can act" on Between
, the show was not renewed for a third season. It was also announced in 2015 that she would star in the teen comedy Little Bitches'' alongside
Virginia Gardner and
Kiersey Clemons. In August 2016, McCurdy signed a deal with digital production company Canvas Media Studios to develop projects and further utilize her social media connections with fans. She also starred as Claire in the psychological thriller film
Pet. McCurdy expressed on her website that she felt ashamed of 90% of her résumé. Once a very active user of
Twitter,
Facebook,
Snapchat, and
Instagram, McCurdy deleted all her past social media posts and set all her past videos and
vlogs to "private" on YouTube and
Vimeo. In 2018, McCurdy wrote and directed her first short film,
Kenny, a
dramedy inspired by the death of her mother; the film also featured an all-female crew.
Kenny was featured in
The Hollywood Reporter and on Short of the Week. She has since released three more short films, which she also wrote and directed:
The Grave;
The McCurdys, a semi-autobiographical short based on her childhood; and
Strong Independent Women, a short that deals with eating disorders. In late 2018, McCurdy announced that she hoped to direct more films. McCurdy revealed on the
Empty Inside podcast, during an interview with actress
Anna Faris, that she had retired from professional acting. McCurdy stated she had been pushed into acting as a child by her mother, and soon became her family's primary source of income. She became "ashamed" of the roles she had played in the past, and after seeking therapy in the late 2010s, McCurdy decided to quit acting.
Music In June 2008, McCurdy announced that she was working on her debut album. The first single, "So Close", was released on March 10, 2009. On May 19, her
cover version of the
Amanda Stott song "Homeless Heart" was released. It was released in honor of McCurdy's recently deceased friend Cody Waters, who died at the age of nine from
brain cancer, and 20% of the proceeds were donated to the Cody Waters Foundation. She met Waters through
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. In mid-2009, McCurdy was offered a record deal from both
Big Machine Records and
Capitol Records Nashville. McCurdy signed to Capitol Nashville. On April 16, 2010, samples of selected songs from McCurdy's upcoming debut country album were released online. The song clips were released for fans to vote for which one they believed should be McCurdy's first radio single. "
Not That Far Away" received the most votes, and was released to country radio on May 24, 2010, and
iTunes on June 1. McCurdy's debut EP,
Not That Far Away, was released on August 17, 2010. Her second single, "
Generation Love", was released as a digital download on March 22, 2011, followed by its release to radio on April 25, 2011. McCurdy released a second EP,
Jennette McCurdy, on February 8, 2012 at the clothing retailer
Justice.
Jennette McCurdy, her debut album, was released on June 5. Shortly after the release, McCurdy confirmed that she had left Capitol Nashville citing conflicts of a new series in which she was cast. In 2022, McCurdy described her music career as "a much-regretted country music blip".
Writing In 2011, McCurdy began writing a series of articles for
The Wall Street Journal. She has written eight pieces for the paper, on topics ranging from
Shirley Temple to
body shaming and a corporate culture that she perceives as
smoke and mirrors. She has also written for
Seventeen magazine and
The Huffington Post. McCurdy composed an article titled "Off-Camera, My Mom's Fight With Cancer", which was published in
The Wall Street Journal in June 2011. It describes in detail her mother Debra's illness with
cancer, and how her family coped with the situation. The article included advice from McCurdy on living with an ill parent. Her mother died on September 20, 2013, 17 years after being first diagnosed with cancer. On August 9, 2022, McCurdy released her memoir, ''
I'm Glad My Mom Died, under Simon & Schuster. The book was ranked number one on The New York Times
Best Seller list for eight weeks following its release. Following the success of I'm Glad My Mom Died'', McCurdy signed a two-book deal with
Penguin Random House's
Ballantine Books imprint. On January 20, 2026, McCurdy released her debut novel,
Half His Age under
Ballantine Books.
Podcasts and live performance In 2020, McCurdy created and starred in a one-woman
tragicomedy show, ''I'm Glad My Mom Died'', in various theaters in Los Angeles and New York. She later had to set her show into hiatus after the onset of the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. For the first time since she opened up publicly about her
eating disorder in 2019, she posted a new video on
YouTube where she sings about her personal implications of finding herself in quarantine due to the outbreak. In September 2021, McCurdy resumed performing her tragicomedy show in Los Angeles. In July 2020, McCurdy posted a video on her YouTube channel and social media where she sings about starting a podcast called
Empty Inside that was released later that year. In September 2023, she began hosting a second podcast entitled
Hard Feelings. ==Personal life==