Miranda Cosgrove

American actress Miranda Cosgrove has enjoyed a second career as a singer-songwriter. She first came to prominence as a child actress and had the distinction of being the second highest paid child on TV earning a reputed $180,000 per episode for her role as the lead character in the US teen sitcom 'iCarly'.

A soundtrack album of music from the series was released in 2008 which featured Cosgrove on four of its tracks. The success of the album paved the way for Cosgrove to kickstart her singing career and in 2009 she released her debut EP 'About You Now'. The follow-up to the EP was her debut studio album 'Sparks Fly' released in 2010. Cosgrove was only 14-years-old when she began working on the album which was two years in the making and she received writing credits for just two of the album's 12 tracks. Although 'Sparks Fly' spent a week in the Billboard top ten the album received very mixed reviews with critics calling it "formulaic" and "painfully predictable". A second EP followed the release of the album and although it was only moderately successful in the charts, the critical reviews were more positive than her earlier efforts.