Miranda Taylor Cosgrove (born May 14, 1993) is an American teen actress and singer. She is best known for her roles as Megan Parker in Drake and Josh, Summer Hathaway in School of Rock and as Carly Shay in iCarly. Her career began in 2001 when she was spotted by an agent who was so impressed by her singing and dancing in a restaurant called "Taste of LA" that he signed her up for a number of small roles in commercials.

Early life

When Miranda Cosgrove was three years old, she sang and danced at a restaurant called "Taste of LA." A talent agent was impressed, and signed her up for his talent agency. This led to a career in advertising soon after, as well as other roles and shows. She currently stars on Nickelodeon's iCarly and is credited with four songs on the soundtrack. She began homeschooling after she finished elementary school, at Maude Price Elementary School in Downey, California, and then enrolled in an online school program which she has been doing since 2006.

Career

Actress

In 2001 Cosgrove did her first acting role as Lana Lang at age 8 in the TV series Smallville, and after that, she had many other small roles in various television series including appearing in a starring role as Summer Hathaway in the 2003 film School of Rock. She was cast as Megan Parker in the 2004 hit Nickelodeon TV series Drake and Josh, which gained a massive following. In 2007, she was cast in another Nickelodeon TV series, iCarly as the main character Carly Shay, who makes her own web show, acting alongside Jennette McCurdy, Jerry Trainor and Nathan Kress. In other activities, Miranda participated in a charity event benefiting St. Jude's Hospital for Children.

Singer

Cosgrove made her music debut in 2007, singing the theme song for iCarly called Leave It All to Me, which features her Drake and Josh lead actor, Drake Bell and written by Drake's fellow band member. On June 10, 2008 the soundtrack to iCarly was released, including Leave It All to Me and three other songs, including the next singles, the cover of Amy Diamond's song Stay My Baby, and About You Now, originally by the Sugababes, and another track called "Headphones On".

Cosgrove's version of "About You Now" reached number forty-seven on the Billboard Hot 100. The single was later featured on the hit compilation album Now That's What I Call Music! 30.

On December 23, 2008, Cosgrove released a cover of the song Christmas Wrapping as a digital download.

It has also been revealed that Cosgrove is in the middle of recording her debut solo album, possibly with a collaboration with the band Boys Like Girls. She was helped by famous pop producers the Matrix and Dr. Luke for her debut album. The album will include songs co-written by Cosgrove.

An extended play entitled "About You Now" was released on February 3, 2009. It included two new tracks, "Party Girl" and "FYI." It also included the single "About You Now," as well as remixes of "About You Now" and the previously released "Stay My Baby."