Miranda Taylor Cosgrove (born May 14, 1993) is an American actress and singer-songwriter. Cosgrove's career began at the age of three when she appeared in television commercials. Her film debut was in 2003, as Summer Hathaway in School of Rock. Cosgrove appeared in a number of minor television roles over several years before coming to prominence on the Nickelodeon TV series Drake & Josh. A few years later, Cosgrove landed the role of Carly, the lead character in the Nickelodeon TV series iCarly. As of May 2010, Cosgrove earned US$180,000 per episode of iCarly, making her the second-highest-paid child star on television. She was listed in the 2012 edition of Guinness World Records as the Highest Paid Child Actress for iCarly. Following the success of iCarly, a soundtrack album was released in June 2008, in which she performed four songs. Cosgrove's debut album Sparks Fly was released on April 27, 2010.

Cosgrove is currently attending the University of Southern California and will be majoring in film.

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Cosgrove was born in Los Angeles, California, to Tom, who owns a dry cleaning business, and Chris (née Casey), a homemaker. She is of English, Irish, and French descent. At the age of three, she was discovered by a talent agent while singing and dancing at the Los Angeles restaurant Taste of L.A. Cosgrove stated that when the agent walked up to her and her mom for modeling, she had "never really thought of being an [actress]" and "was lucky". After choosing to take the offer, she appeared in television commercials for McDonald's and Mello Yello, and also modeled. At the age of seven, Cosgrove decided that "[she] loved doing it" and auditioned for theater and television roles.

Cosgrove's first television appearance (aside from commercials) was in 2001 as a 5-year old Lana Lang in the pilot of Smallville. Cosgrove then made her film debut with the 2003 film School of Rock. In the movie, she played Summer Hathaway, a young girl with great ambition and discipline who finds herself adjusting to the free-spirited nature of the new teacher by becoming band manager of the classroom's rock band. School of Rock was both a box office hit, grossing over $131,282,949 worldwide, and critical success, receiving a 91 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes.  Cosgrove's acting on the film was praised, with David Ansen of Newsweek describing it as "spot on".

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