Jennette McCurdy: Life After iCarly, Books, and LDS Departure

Books written: 2 (memoir + novel) · Net worth (estimated): $5 million · Age as of 2026: 33 · Years on iCarly: 6 (2007–2012)

Eight facts, one pattern: McCurdy’s public identity has moved steadily from performer to writer since 2021.

Why is Jennette McCurdy not in New iCarly?

When Paramount+ revived iCarly in 2021, the lineup was missing its most recognizable face. McCurdy didn’t return as Sam Puckett — and the reason has nothing to do with scheduling.

Acting retirement and trauma from child stardom

McCurdy retired from acting in 2021 and hasn’t taken a scripted role since, according to NPR. Her memoir describes her mother as physically and emotionally abusive and says her mother controlled virtually every aspect of her life, as covered by Teen Vogue. She began opening up about that relationship on her podcast Empty Inside, noted by Psych Central.

The decision reads differently with that context. McCurdy didn’t leave one show; she left an industry that, by her account, turned a child’s life into a production schedule. The revival would have meant revisiting the years she was still processing, and she chose not to.

Creative differences with Nickelodeon

The result is a clean break rather than a messy one. McCurdy has been consistent in interviews since 2021: she doesn’t plan to return to acting, and the revival isn’t a wound she nurses. It’s a chapter she closed.

The pattern: McCurdy’s absence from the revival is the same decision as her retirement, just with a more famous title attached. Each time she’s asked about iCarly now, the answer is the same boundary.

The pattern: McCurdy’s answer has been consistent, and it leaves no room for speculation.

Is Jennette McCurdy still LDS?

This is the rare McCurdy question with a direct answer, because she has given it herself — in a national interview, in her own words.

Departure from the church after mother’s death

Coverage from The Salt Lake Tribune describes the LDS Church as a refuge during McCurdy’s chaotic childhood; her mother, Debra, died of cancer in 2013. Her departure from the church came in the years after her mother’s death, a sequence McCurdy has described in her own words.

The order matters. The church and the mother were intertwined in her childhood; losing one loosened the other. McCurdy has framed the break as personal grief rather than theological rebellion.

Public statements on religion

“So I grew up Mormon, or LDS, as they call it.”

Jennette McCurdy, NPR interview, January 2026

In the same conversation, she said she is no longer a practicing Mormon. For readers, that’s the whole answer: raised in the church, no longer in it.

The implication: the religion question is settled. What remains open is how she keeps writing her way through what the church years left behind.

The implication: for those seeking confirmation, she has given it plainly.

Do Jennette and Ariana still talk?

This question follows McCurdy everywhere, because the iCarly years made her and Ariana Grande a package deal. Here’s where the record stands.

Post-iCarly friendship status

McCurdy and Grande were iCarly castmates and then co-leads on Sam & Cat from 2013 to 2014, as noted by The New York Times. In her memoir, McCurdy describes the friendship as a real bond that cooled after the show ended, per Audible.

Moving apart required no scandal. Grande’s music career rose through the 2010s as McCurdy pulled back from acting, processed her mother’s death, and began therapy. Two people leaving in opposite directions don’t need a fight to lose touch.

Public comments from both

Grande’s most direct comment came in 2022, when she praised McCurdy’s memoir (more on that in the next section). McCurdy’s own account treats the friendship as real, warm, and finished — a part of her past she doesn’t revisit in interviews.

The friendship with Grande reads less like a feud and more like two people who once shared a stage and now share only a history.

How many books has Jennette McCurdy written?

Two, as of early 2026. They bracket the two halves of her public life: the childhood she survived, and the adult she became after leaving it.

I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022)

Her memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died, was published in August 2022 and became a No. 1 New York Times bestseller, as reported by Teen Vogue and ELLE. The book’s subject is her relationship with her mother and the cost of child stardom, described by Audible.

Before the novel, McCurdy built a parallel career in audio: Empty Inside, where she talked with guests about uncomfortable topics (Psych Central), and Hard Feelings, whose episode titles included shame, pressure, and bad mood (ELLE).

Half His Age (2026)

Half His Age is McCurdy’s first novel, published in January 2026, according to Apple Podcasts. It tells the story of Waldo, a 17-year-old girl, and Mr. Korgy, her 40-year-old teacher, as described by The New York Times.

Both books work the same vein: abuse, power, and the question of who gets to tell the story. The memoir reports it; the novel refracts it.

What this means: two books, one through-line. McCurdy keeps writing about what happens when adults hold all the power — first in her own life, then in fiction.

What this means: readers now have two works that explore the same themes from different angles.

What did Ariana Grande say about Jennette McCurdy’s book?

Ariana Grande has said less about McCurdy’s memoir than the internet would suggest — and what she did say was warm.

Podcast comments 2022

“I think it’s incredible… so honest.”

Ariana Grande, SmartLess podcast, 2022

Grande made the comment during a SmartLess episode in 2022 while reflecting on the book. She didn’t mention any personal fall-out, and she didn’t need to — the tone was admiration, plain and simple.

Social media reaction

The quote spread quickly through fan accounts and entertainment coverage after the episode aired, but neither woman has added anything substantial about their relationship since.

The absence of follow-up became its own story: one warm sentence, then silence, which fans have read as confirmation that the friendship stays in the past tense.

The implication: Grande’s public words were supportive but final — a single gracious moment, not a reopening of the friendship. For anyone reading the record literally, that quote is the last real data point.

How do Jennette McCurdy’s brothers feel about her book?

For a memoir this unsparing about a parent, the natural question is whether the rest of the family signed on. In McCurdy’s telling, they did.

Public support from siblings

McCurdy grew up with older brothers, and the memoir places them inside the family portrait rather than outside it. Her brothers Dustin and Scott have been publicly supportive of the book, and no estrangement has been reported.

The difference in tone is intentional. The memoir points its anger at her mother and at the industry that enabled her; her brothers are written as fellow survivors of the same household, not as part of the problem.

Contrast with mother’s portrayal

That distinction matters to how readers interpret the book. The fury is specific to her mother’s behavior and the systems that let it continue; the family as a whole doesn’t carry the same charge.

What this means: whatever the memoir cost McCurdy in private grief, it appears to have cost her nothing with her brothers. For readers, that’s a rare detail — a child-star story in which the family left behind is still on speaking terms.

In Her Own Words

A few lines from McCurdy’s public record — and one from Ariana Grande — answer more questions than any headline.

“So I grew up Mormon, or LDS, as they call it.”

Jennette McCurdy, NPR interview, January 2026

She followed it with the crucial half of the answer: she is not a practicing Mormon anymore. Raised in it, no longer in it — that’s the whole arc in two sentences.

“I think it’s incredible… so honest.”

Ariana Grande, SmartLess podcast, 2022

Grande said this while discussing the memoir on SmartLess. For fans trying to decode the friendship, it remains the most recent line either woman has offered on the record.

“I was raised Mormon. I’m not anymore.”

Jennette McCurdy, podcast interview

The shorter version of the same answer, delivered in a different venue — which is part of why the religion question is the one about which fans have the least reason to speculate. Read together, the quotes trace the shape of McCurdy’s public life: a woman explaining herself in her own words, on her own platforms, after years of being talked about by everyone else. The interviews are the medium; the boundary is the message.

McCurdy’s second act is unusual because it isn’t a comeback — it’s a transformation. She has gone from child star to author and podcast host on her own terms: a memoir that broke bestseller lists, a novel about abuse and power, and interviews where she sets the boundaries. The through-line isn’t celebrity; it’s ownership. For McCurdy, the alternative was staying inside a story she didn’t write — and that was never a real option.

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