Why Emma From Netflix's Mother Of The Bride Looks So Familiar
Netflix's "Mother of the Bride" features a number of recognizable actors in key roles. There's Brooke Shields, who plays the titular mother of the bride and Benjamin Bratt, star of "Miss Congeniality," as the father of the groom. Fans of "One Tree Hill" will appreciate seeing Chad Michael Murray again, and then there's the bride herself, Emma, who is played by Miranda Cosgrove. If you're struggling to place why Cosgrove looks so familiar, would it be helpful to know she actually does cuss a little? "All of TikTok is like, making fun of me!" she told Entertainment Tonight when a clip of her revealing her favorite swear word went viral in 2022. Alternately, is it possible you recognize Cosgrove from her 2010 mega-banger "Kissin U" which peaked at No. 54 on the Billboard Hot 100? Okay, it's probably not that, but it should be!
It's more likely that you know Cosgrove from her starring role on Nickelodeon's "iCarly," but that's not the only achievement on the young star's extensive acting resume. "In some ways, I haven't really completely broken out of playing [Carly]. A lot of people think that that's exactly what I'm like," Cosgrove told Bustle ahead of the premiere of "Mother of the Bride." This new role sees Cosgrove stretching her acting abilities to star in her first rom-com, but it's a natural evolution that's come from years of putting in the work. Read on to see why Emma from Netflix's "Mother of the Bride" looks so familiar.
Miranda Cosgrove attended School of Rock
In Richard Linklater's modern classic "School of Rock," Miranda Cosgrove played Summer, a precocious preteen who gives Jack Black's substitute teacher character grief. Unlike many of her musically-talented classmates, Summer is aggressively tone-deaf. Apparently, that wasn't the plan for the character. Cosgrove told BuzzFeed that Summer was initially supposed to be a budding pop star, but after her audition, they decided to take the character in another direction. "They changed up Summer, and I had to be this terrible singer," Cosgrove said. "Maybe that's a knock to my singing!"
The film was Cosgrove's first major job in Hollywood, and it led to another exciting first for the young star. "I'd never been on a plane," Cosgrove told Metro. "So flying to New York. That was my first time on a plane to do the movie." She also cherishes her memories of staying at a hotel with the other child actors who formed the School fo Rock student band. "I felt a little bit like Eloise, but if she had like 10 other kids that she was best friends with, with her," Cosgrove recalled. "So that was awesome."
More than two decades after the release of the film, Cosgrove told People that Black kept in touch with his pint-sized co-stars. "I think Jack Black's amazing," she said. "I love him. He just acts [as] the most normal, nice guy. He doesn't seem like he thinks he's Jack Black at all."
She found fame as the troublesome Megan on Drake & Josh
The year after Miranda Cosgrove starred in "School of Rock," "Drake & Josh" premiered on Nickelodeon. Her co-star Drake Bell told The New York Times, "We were walking to the writers' room, and I remember hearing the pitter-patter of these little feet behind me. She was just standing there saying: 'So where are we going? What are we doing?'" That dynamic was perfect, as Cosgrove was cast as Megan, the annoying, conniving, scheming little sister of the titular Drake and Josh.
Cosgrove's character was enough of a breakout that in 2006, she was invited to speak at the National Press Club (via C-SPAN) about the budding market for entertainment geared toward children. After a child asked how she plays such an evil character, Cosgrove laughed, "I think I'm really lucky just to have such great writers on the show ... It's just a lot of fun getting to do things to [Drake and Josh]. And of course, they never really get hurt ... I think I'm lucky to get to do all these evil things on the show, and then in real life I've kind of already had my fill on TV."
She would remain on the show for three years and her relationship with her co-stars continued, even though Josh Peck and Drake Bell's relationship has gotten strained. "I'm really close with Josh [Peck]," she told People in 2023. "I think he's one of the best people ever."
iCarly made Miranda Cosgrove a bona fide star
In 2007, after "Drake & Josh" ended, Miranda Cosgrove jumped right into starring on "iCarly," the iconic Nickelodeon show that made her a bona fide star. "iCarly" also made Cosgrove a surprising amount of money. On the sitcom, she played Carly Shay, a teen girl with a hit webseries. Miranda's mother, Chris Cosgrove, told Entertainment Weekly that her daughter was able to handle the pressure of leading her own show because she'd seen her co-stars go through the same process a few years earlier. "The pilot was fun because she was ready for it," she said.
The show was a massive success, but with all of the increased adoration unfortunately came some negative comments, too. "When I was younger, I would go through and kind of ignore all the nice comments and look for the one mean one," she confessed on an episode of "Reign with Josh Smith" (via E! Online). Speaking with People, the "iGo to Japan" star reflected on how strange it was to have gone through her teenage years in front of the camera. "Even though I remember the fun times and I can laugh, sometimes when I see the outfits I'm wearing, I just know how I felt during those moments in some of the episodes," she said. "It's so weird to think that when you're a kid growing up on TV, people are watching you go through all that awkward stuff and figuring out who you are."
You might recognize her voice from Despicable Me
If Miranda Cosgrove's voice sounds familiar, you might know her best as the voice of Margo, one of the kids in "Despicable Me." She's the oldest orphan adopted by the villainous Gru (Steve Carell), teaching him how to be a bit softer as they battle other villains and the hapless Minions who run the lab. While Cosgrove was an industry pro by 2010 when the first film was released, she told Collider that voiceover work was actually harder than performing on a live-action set. "I think it's a lot harder because I didn't have anybody with me in the room," she said. "It was just me in this little sound booth."
Instead of acting opposite other actors, Cosgrove had to use her imagination while looking at pictures of what the characters would look like. To her surprise, she found her acting choices reflected in the character's animation. "I found out that they film you the entire time you do animation, and they use your hand gestures and facial expressions," she explained, recalling her surprise the first time she watched the film. "She makes a lot of the same expressions I make and does silly things like me."
Cosgrove has since reprised the role in a number of sequels, spinoffs, and video games, including 2024's "Despicable Me 4."
She played a pop star named Sloan on The Good Wife
"iCarly" ran until 2012, but in the final years of the show, Miranda Cosgrove began to branch out into more adult roles. In 2010, she appeared on an episode of the hit CBS legal procedural "The Good Wife." She starred as a young pop star named Sloan Burchfield, a bad-girl teen singer who finds herself in a mountain of legal trouble after a drunken hit-and-run.
Cosgrove told The Wall Street Journal that she was a fan of the show, and she offered an opinion about who she thought Julianna Margulies' character should romance. "I feel totally invested in it. Everyone has someone they want her to end up with," Cosgrove said. "I want her with [her coworker] Will, I think." No spoilers for this show that's been off the air since 2016, but it seems that Alicia Florrick took Cosgrove's advice.
Fans continue to discover Cosgrove's appearance years later and are tickled by the show's in-joke about the fact that the actor was a Nickelodeon star at the time. "When she says '....climbing out of the whole Disney ghetto thing' made me literally LOL!" one fan wrote on X, formerly Twitter, in 2023.
She was the face of Neutrogena
In 2010, Miranda Cosgrove was selected as the face of Neutrogena. In a press release, Cosgrove spoke about how excited she was to link up with a brand that she actually used herself. "My friends and I have always loved the Neutrogena brand and their ability to help inspire confidence," she said (via UPI), noting that she was particularly excited to join the brand's fleet of spokesmodels. "It is an amazing honor for me to be part of this incredible group," she said.
She went on to appear in a series of television commercials for Neutrogena, touting their acne wash. In her capacity as a Neutrogena spokesperson, Cosgrove also spoke with Teen Vogue to offer some beauty tips to her fans. "Always wash your face at night to remove all your makeup and keep your pores clear," she pronounced.
Her Neutrogena partnership also involved speaking out about several important causes. Along with the brand, Cosgrove sought to educate young people about the dangers of excessive tanning. In a press release about increased risk of skin cancer, she warned, "I don't think teens realize the consequences associated with tanning" (via PR Newswire). In 2012, she hosted a Neutrogena event on Malibu Beach, telling ClevverTV, "Neutrogena Wave for Change is this really awesome philanthropic initiative. They're basically working to raise a bunch of money for educational charities." Not a bad way to give back.
Miranda Cosgrove dabbled in horror with The Intruders
After "iCarly" ended in 2012, Miranda Cosgrove took some time away from the entertainment industry to attend college. She attended the University of Southern California and studied psychology, but still, she couldn't quite escape her fame. She told ABC News, "The weirdest part is after a day at school, I'll go on Instagram or the Internet and there will be pictures of me from school that random people took and I didn't know they took. So, that can be kind of weird sometimes."
During a semester away from her studies, Cosgrove appeared in "The Intruders." The more adult subject matter represented a new area in Cosgrove's career. She told Teen Vogue that she was excited to stretch her wings, explaining, "My mom and I have watched scary movies ever since I was little. I watched 'The Exorcist,' and I remember I couldn't sleep. So I thought it was fun to be a part of something like that."
Cosgrove's co-star in the film was future Oscar nominee Austin Butler, and their roles in "The Intruders" represented a reunion of sorts. After all, Butler once played Carly's first crush on an early episode of "iCarly." "It was so funny that he ended up being in a movie with me eight years later," Cosgrove recalled. "It was just really cool getting to work with him again."
She starred in Crowded on NBC
In 2016, Miranda Cosgrove starred in the single-season NBC sitcom "Crowded." The show was about the adult children of a frustrated couple (Carrie Preston and Patrick Warburton) who decide to move back home unexpectedly, leading the former empty-nesters to resent having their kids around. The humor on the show was significantly more adult than on Cosgrove's Nickelodeon shows, which she told Showbiz Junkies was an intentional career move. "I'm real excited about this one because I feel like my friends will think it's cool," she said. "I feel like it's not a crazy jump to something completely different, but it is a lot more edgy."
Cosgrove related to her character, because at the same time she was playing a young woman who moves home on television, she was still going to college and still living mostly with her parents. In an interview with Glamour, she reflected on the fact that many people her age were doing the same thing. She said, "I could see where people might think that kids aren't working hard enough, but all my friends live at home and go to college and are working towards something, and they still love being with their families."
Unfortunately, the show was not a hit, and it was canceled after one season.
She starred alongside a dog in Marshmello and Bastille's music video for Happier
If you're a fan of DJs who cover their faces with elaborate masks, you might recognize Miranda Cosgrove from the music video for "Happier." The song is a collaboration between Marshmello and the British band Bastille. It's an upbeat-sounding song with downer lyrics; the singer breaks up with someone by wishing, "I want you to be happier." It makes sense, then, that the video is a total tearjerker. Cosgrove plays a young woman whose adorable golden retriever gets sick, and she gets to flex her acting muscles in a depressing sequence where the dog has to be euthanized. "So proud to get to be a part of this video," she wrote on X.
In a statement to Rolling Stone, Marshmello explained that the video's concept came from real-life loss. "Recently I lost my dog which was really hard for me. I wanted the video to embrace the pain that we feel losing someone close to us and the cycle of life," the DJ said. "This is what made me happier."
While "School of Rock" and "iCarly" were obviously massive hits, the "Happier" music video might just be one of Cosgrove's most-seen acting roles. In 2022, Billboard noted that the clip joined YouTube's rarified Billion Views Club, meaning a whole lot of people have seen Cosgrove crying over her dog.
She brought iCarly back for Paramount+
For a moment, Miranda Cosgrove's career quieted down. As she explained in an interview on "Live with Kelly and Mark" in 2024, "iCarly" was off the air and hadn't yet been added to streaming. Then, the show hit Netflix, and she started to get recognized out in public more frequently. One young fan approached her in a Target after staring at her. "He kind of kept following me around," she remembered. "I thought he was going to say he watched. Instead, he was like, 'You got old!'"
Cosgrove had indeed gotten older, which meant the time was right for an "iCarly" reboot. The show came back in 2021, this time airing on Paramount+ as a more adult version of the hit kids' show. "Getting to do things on the show that we would've never been able to do in the original series has been really fun," she told MTV Australia. "For instance, Jerry Trainor's character, Spencer, accidentally hires a sex worker for Freddie's character. That would never happen on the original show." She also noted that in the years since the show was originally on air, many more young people are online creators than when Carly Shay started her web series.
The reboot was canceled after three seasons, but Cosgrove told ET that she wants to revisit Carly still. "I feel like it would probably be more along the lines of maybe a movie," she pitched. "That would kind of wrap it all up."