Getting older can be rough; while some of us may get out of bed in the morning and face an object in the mirror whom we struggle to recognize, others may embrace their forthcoming seniority. Either way you look at it, we’re all getting older, and it can be fun and at times bizarre to dig up an old photo of ourselves or reminisce over an old yearbook and reflect on days gone by. Unless you’re a timeless deity like Keanu Reeves or Morgan Freeman who somehow manages to stay the same age forever, the face you see in that old picture likely isn’t the same one you have today.

Perhaps even more painful than the impact of the passage of time on our own bodies may be the change enacted on our childhood idols. While I certainly wasn’t a fan of her Disney persona, I still think of Miley Cyrus as an annoying pre-teen with a penchant for shovelling out dreadful country pop clunkers.

But that isn’t the case anymore. Hannah Montana has long since parted with Mickey Mouse, and, after undergoing the kind of metamorphosis only Franz Kafka could conceive, we’ve been left with a 25 year old nightmare who thinks Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz sounds like a good title for an album.

Naturally, this same rule applies to everyone’s favorite ex-Nickelodeon stars. Josh Peck is no longer the well-meaning foil for Drake Bell, and Jamie Lynn Spears has long since departed from Pepperdine University. Even Timmy Turner has been forced to team up with a magical baby and a talking dog. With these facts in mind, we count 20 Nickelodeon stars who look totally different today than they did when they first debuted on the network.

20 Miranda Cosgrove

Miranda Cosgrove 2018 Comparison
It's been a little while since iCarly, but Miranda Cosgrove doesn't look wildy different form her tech-savy late 2000's counterpart.

We all remember Miranda Cosgrove as meddling, maniacal sister of Drake and Josh Nickels, or perhaps as Carly Shay, a third of the trio of teens that made up the fictional pre-Twitch livestream hit iCarly. Few really know what she’s been up to as of late, but she’s managed to land a pretty notable voice acting gig as Margo, one of Gru’s adopted daughters, in the Despicable Me series of animated films. She’s also been associated with rapper Lil Pump in one of the more bizarre celebrity rumors this year.

As a side note, if the world weren’t completely inundated with minions, the Despicable Me franchise would get a lot more respect.

While lots of us would like to see Miranda offered the opportunity to reprise her role in Nick classics like Drake and Josh or iCarly, it’s nice to know that she has found a new medium through which to entertain and impact a new generation of kids.

19 Jennette McCurdy

Jennette McCurdy 2018 Comparison
via: thefamouspeople.com

Known best as Carly Shay’s best friend on Nickelodeon’s smash hit series iCarly, she also starred as one half of a bewildering teen duo on Nick’s Sam and Cat, on which she was somewhat upstaged by her ludicrously famous co-star Ariana Grande. From what I can remember, Sam and Cat was something of a spiritual successor to both iCarly and Victorious, with McCurdy portraying her same character from the earlier show.

I can’t help but think that the legacy of the program can be boiled down to Ariana enjoying herself way too much during a water gun battle.

Anyway, outside of a few risky photos which may or may not have been faked, McCurdy is best known these days for starring in Between, a television series which is so far removed from iCarly that it isn’t even funny.

18 Emma Roberts

Emma Roberts 2018 Comparison
I think I've seen We're the Millers about 400 times.

Emma Roberts is something of a household name these days. While not as well known as some actresses in her age range, most notably women like Emma Watson, she’s become more and more recognizable with each subsequent rewatch of 2013’s We’re the Millers.

However, it isn’t exactly common knowledge that Roberts got her start on Nickelodeon in the 2004 series Unfabulous. The show focused on 13 year-old Addie Singer, played by Roberts, who dealt with her teenage problems by writing cringeworthy acoustic guitar songs.

"Does Jake like me? Am I getting a zit? I hate my parents!" Yeah, not really revolutionary TV.

The show managed to get three seasons, with the final episode debuting in 2007. Hardly a footnote in the history of children’s entertainment juggernaut Nickelodeon, but it did help Emma to expand her acting career. As a side note, Roberts is also famous for her 2013 arrest following the altercation with her boyfriend.

17 Kenan Thompson

Kenan Thompson 2018 Comparison
I would totally eat at a Good Burger.

Tons of regular late night television viewers will recognize this name; Kenan Thompson has been sending Saturday Night Live fans into laughing fits since 2003—it’s almost hard to believe that he’s been on that show for so long.

Nearly 40 years old now, Thompson has definitely made a mark on the American television landscape, and he’s been gracing the world of cinema since his appearance in 1994’s oddball film D2: The Mighty Ducks. His best film, however, might be 2006’s Snakes on a Plane in which he played a hapless passenger named Troy who happened to learn how to fly a plane via a PlayStation 2 flight sim.

Thompson first came to the attention of kids everywhere thanks to his role in Nickelodeon's All That. After that, he co-starred in Nick’s comedy series Good Burger with Kel Mitchell. So, in a roundabout way, he went from flipping burgers to delivering jokes on everyone’s favorite Saturday night program.

16 Victoria Justice

Victoria Justice 2018 Comparison
I wish I had watched more Zoey 101 when I was growing up.

I have never seen Nick’s show Victorious, but I have trouble believing it was actually intended for young children. With Victoria Justice, an actress already famous for her looks and Ariana Grande, who, at that time, was much the same, the visual appeal of the show probably won over more creepy adults than it did teens.

I’m don’t understand what the network was thinking with this show. 

The target demographic was likely too young to be reeled in by the actress’ looks, and an older audience wouldn’t be able to stomach all of the schlocky high-school drama.

Regardless, the show managed to stay on for four seasons, and helped to propel Ariana Grande into superstardom. Today, Justice has garnered a modest following as a musician, and she’s probably best known for her role as Janet in the Rocky Horror Picture Show revival. She’s also starred in MTV’s spooky Eye Candy series.

15 Nathan Kress

Nathan Kress 2018 Comparison
Not the same baby face we all remember.,,

The third of the iCarly trio to be mentioned on this list, Nathan Kress rose to prominence for his portrayal of Freddy in Nick’s hugely popular live action series. It’s funny to think just how accurate the internet culture portrayed in that show was. iCarly predicted that we’d all eventually be glued to our laptop and phone screens instead of the tubes in our TVs. At any rate, it isn’t difficult to imagine that, in the near future, sites like Twitch and YouTube will outpace more traditional means of media consumption.

Homegrown content producers will have just as much influence over popular culture as network executives.

Yet, when stuff like that hits the real world, Nathan Kress won’t be a teenage media renegade. He’s now a 25 year old father of one most notable for his role in director Steven Quale’s film Into the Storm.

14 Butch Hartman

Butch Hartman 2018 Comparison
Then I, Mr. Crocker, will finally have Timmy Turner's FAIRY GODPARENTS!!!

Here’s a face you might not recognize, but that’s because some may not have seen it before. Butch Hartman is famous for creating iconic Nickelodeon cartoon staples like The Fairly OddParents and Danny Phantom. Beloved though he may be, most of his works have either been canceled or lived long enough to see themselves become grotesque shadows of their former selves.

To some extent, it seems that Hartman must have known that it was time to move on, as he has recently left the network.

With him gone, the future of the show is uncertain, though there is a rumor floating around that Dinkleberg had something to do with his departure. For those interested in hearing his take, he hosts a podcast on his YouTube channel called Speech Bubble on which he’s discussed his reasons for stepping away from the show.

13 Lindsey Shaw

Lindsey Shaw 2018 Comparison
If it's been declassified, that means that Ned's school survival guide was once a government secret...

In 2004, I considered myself to be something of a Nickelodeon purist. I loved shows like SpongeBob SquarePants and Invader Zim and I couldn’t stand some of the live action shows at the time. I hadn’t warmed up to Drake and Josh, I hated Unfabulous, and Zoey 101.

Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide changed my young mind.

I could really relate to all of the stupid teenage drama going on. Pre-teen me also had kind of a thing for Ann “Moze” Mosely, a series main character portrayed by Lindsey Shaw.

While she seemed very mature at the time, today, she acted like some of the kids in the American school system do—she kept her head down, and, for the most part, focused on her education. Shaw’s penchant for seriousness has carried over to her modern-day acting career, which has seen her take on roles in the Pretty Little Liars television series, as well as a bizarre new series called Hers and History.

12 Jerry Trainor

Nickelodeon fanatics will undoubtedly identify this guy as either Crazy Steve from Drake and Josh or Spencer Shay from iCarly. In both of these shows, he was kind of a goofball. In the latter, he was the goofy yet lovable older brother of Carly Shay. In the former, he was a neurotic movie theater attendant known for shouting at everyone with which he spoke.

I think we can all reminisce about the Drake and Josh where he yelled at Dora the Explorer on a hand crank-powered TV.

Today, he’s found success working as a voice actor on Butch Hartman’s T.U.F.F. Puppy. Outside of television, he is the co-founder of the alternative rock band Nice Enough People, which might be the most appropriate name for a band I’ve ever heard. While he has dropped off a little since the heyday of Nickelodeon, it is nice to know that he’s been able to keep doing what he loves for a living.

11 Keke Palmer

Keke Palmer 2018 Comparison
Aren't you a little young to be the VP of a fashion company?

I don’t know why, but I don’t really remember True Jackson: VP. I suppose it’s buried beneath all of the other dumb Nick shows I have embedded in my mind. I recognize her name, but that’s because she has been in a ton of Nickelodeon stuff. A quick glance at her IMDb page will reveal that she’s been in everything from Jump In to Degrassi.

The show’s bubblegum intro give me a headache, though, so maybe that’s why I blotted the program from my brain.

That said, Keke Palmer has released some music of her own, most notably a single featuring Quavo titled Wind Up. She’s also been in an unbelievable amount of recent stuff like a live adaptation of Grease, and the TV series Scream Queens. It’s nice to know that so many former Nick stars have gone on to do bigger and better things!

10 Nat Wolff

Natt Wolff 2018 Comparison
Let's be honest, The Naked Brothers Band is a pretty bad name for a music group.

While I may not recall Keke Palmer’s Nickelodeon debut, I do, for whatever reason, remember Nat Wolff’s weird foray into the world of children’s entertainment. It was a show very much in the vein of shows like Jonas and Big Time Rush, and Nat himself was very young when the show premiered.

Late 2000s America had really convinced itself that TV shows about boy bands were a big deal, I guess.

The Naked Brothers Band was famous for generating really repetitive, awful folk rock songs. Can you remember hits like Crazy Car, If That’s Not Love, or Banana Smoothie? Yeah, me neither.

Today, while we’re all waiting for Nat to get back in the studio with his brother, he’s been keeping his acting career alive, most notably with his appearance in the 2005 film Paper Towns.

9 SpongeBob SquarePants

Spongebob Squarepants 2018
The show was originally going to be called Spongeboy Ahoy!

My therapist keeps telling me that SpongeBob SquarePants isn’t actually a real person, but, in fact, a fictional, anthropomorphic sea sponge. His yellow mug has been drilled into my brain so hard that I could recognize him more easily than I could recognize my own parents, so I don’t know what to believe.

Longtime series fans have likely recognized a change over the show’s lifetime.

SpongeBob’s jump from cel-based animation in the late 90s to full digital production. His colors are more vibrant, his edges much sharper and his adventures crazier.

Seriously, if you haven’t watched an episode of Nickelodeon’s titanic series SpongeBob SquarePants in a while, I wouldn’t recommend diving back in. Nickelodeon may have order the continuation of the series through 2019, but the show’s creators have stated that SpongeBob’s first silver screen performance should be thought of as the canonical end of the saga.

8 Drake

Drake 2018 Comparison
Started from Degrassi, now we here.

Aubrey Graham, better known by his stage name Drake, is one of the few ex-Nickelodeon stars to rival the ubiquity of the network’s famous yellow sponge.

Everyone knows who Drake is.

He is a mainstay of modern Billboard charts, even your out-of-the-loop mom bobs her head when Hotline Bling comes on the radio. His fame may have eclipsed his earlier achievements, but fans of the longrunning Teen Nick show Degrassi: The Next Generation will probably remember his portrayal of Jimmy Brooks: an up-and-coming basketball star whose career was cut short when an altercation with a classmate left him physically disabled.

Drake first got his start with the show in 2001, which vastly predates his stardom as a musician. In 2009, Drake left Degrassi when the show’s producers forced him to choose between the show and music production.

7 Amanda Bynes

Amanda Bynes 2018 Comparison
I would be down for an Amanda Bynes Show reunion.

Today it’s almost impossible to think of Amanda Bynes as anything short of crazy, but, just about 20 years ago, she was the darling of Nickelodeon with starring roles in The Amanda Show and All That. Those shows may have been somewhat eclipsed by later network productions, but, in the late 90s these programs were nearly inescapable for young viewers.

Bynes, who often came off as little more than obnoxious to older generations, actually got her start with Nick at the age of seven.

It would be nice to keep thinking of Amanda Bynes as the quirky preeteen from those old Nick shows, or perhaps as Frankie Muniz's adolescent cohort in the film Big Fat Liar. Her career reached its zenith with 2010’s Easy A film, but a 2012 risky driving arrest and a 2014 hospitalization following extremely erratic behavior have more than tarnished her credibility.

6 Jamie Lynn Spears

Jamie Lynn Spears 2018 Comparison
Malibu campus life must have been tough.

You can be forgiven for forgetting that Britney Spears’ younger sister had a brief stint as a TV star. Like most Nick stars of the era, she got her start on All That, but she’s best known for her leading role in Zoey 101. Here’s a fun fact for you: that show was nominated for an Emmy in 2005.

Spears’ acting career was cut short in 2007 when it was revealed that, at the age of 16, she had gotten pregnant. 

However, years after her pregnancy news, she has continued to further her career in the entertainment industry by pursuing a career as a musician. Britney’s younger sister has found moderate success with her 2014 album entitled The Journey, and, in 2016, she performed at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, and, in December 2017, she announced that she was pregnant with her second child.

5 Drake Bell

Drake Bell 2018 Comparison
You callin' me a liar?

We all think of Drake as the dopey yet charismatic brother of Josh in the famous production that bore both of the actors names. And, sure, that may go down as his most prestigious acting credit. While he, like so many others, got his start on Nickelodeon’s All That, he went on to be one of the more recognizable names in the world of pre-teen entertainment.

Drake and Josh was funny, and it honestly still holds up pretty well today. 

You may remember Bell belting out the song’s intro at the beginning of every half-hour time slot, and some will also know that he had a hand in iCarly’s intro. Now, a decade after his success as an actor, Drake Bell spends most of his time working as a musician, and he released an EP in September of last year. Unfortunately, he’ll always be thought of as the second most successful ex-Nickelodeon star named Drake.

4 Nick Cannon

Nick Cannon 2018 Comparison
I'm not sure if I've ever actually listened to a Nick Cannon song.

Nick Cannon has one of the most impressive resumés of anyone on this list; he’s an actor, a musician, an entrepreneur, a television host, a radio host, a record producer, and the list goes on and on. Of course, like any burgeoning 90s actor worth his salt, Cannon ignited his career as an actor on Nickelodeon’s All That. Before that he actually had generated a respectable following as a musician, and he performed with Steve Groves under the name “Da G4 Dope Bomb Squad.”

Nick eventually went on to work with MTV, and is now best known for his role as the host of America’s Got Talent.

Beyond that, well, like I said, the guy has found success in just about everything he’s tried. His romantic life is even pretty notable as he’s married to uber-famous popstar Mariah Carey. He’s so famous that it took me a while to dig up what he did for Nickelodeon.

3 Emily Ratajkowski

Emily Ratajkowski 2018 Comparison
Way to go, Gibby!

This one is actually pretty insane. Alright, so everyone remembers Gibby from iCarly, right? I don’t actually remember what he did on the show, but I guess he served as the comic relief on a show that didn’t have near enough drama to justify having a comic relief character.

In two episodes of Nick’s famous TV show, Emily Ratajkowski played Tasha, Gibby’s girlfriend; the joke being that she was way, way out of his league.

While her acting credits may be slim to none, her modern-day work makes her appearance on iCarly seem really bizarre. Today, she’s a model, and she’s best known for appearing in Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines music video.

Ratajkowski also works as a model, and she’s been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit Edition. I never thought I would say this, but I wish I could be Gibby.

2 Josh Peck

Josh Peck 2018 Comparison
I ain't calling you a truther!

"It’s spherical! Spherical!!"

One of my personal favorite ex-Nickelodeon actors, he was downright lovable in Drake and Josh, and, though it might sound ridiculous, he portrayed the type of teenager I wanted to be. While Drake was rebellious and charming, Josh was serious and hardworking—a great role model for the kids!

Peck first appeared before audiences in the 2000 film Snow Day, and later landed a recurring gig on Nickelodeon’s The Amanda Show.

From there, he reached a primetime television audience with his previously mentioned role in Drake and Josh. After that, he had a somewhat perplexing role in a reboot of the famous fictional war story Red Dawn, and as a voice actor in the Ice Age series of films.

Today, he appears as a voice actor in various forms of media from television to video games, and he also runs a successful YouTube channel which is nearing the one million subscriber mark.

1 Ariana Grande

Ariana Grande 2018 Comparison
I do remember her voice getting a little irritating at times...

Much like internationally-recognized recording artists Drake, Ariana Grande’s reputation precedes her. She did star in some Nick shows when she was younger, but those days are long gone, and her fame has grown to eclipse the very network for which she used to work.

Literally everyone knows who Ariana Grande is, and, at this point, she’s probably more famous for licking a donut in 2015 than for her appearances on Victorious or Sam and Cat.

I guarantee that plenty of her fans aren’t even aware that she was a Nick kid.

She technically got her start in 2008 with a role in a Broadway production of 13, but she’s spent so much time on the Billboard Hot 100 at this point that her days as an up-and-coming child actress seem very distant. I’d bet that just about everyone reading this list expected to see Ariana on this list, and I wouldn’t want to disappoint!