Miranda Cosgrove can make a louder co-star funnier without giving up our attention. We rate her comic restraint, though Despicable Me 4 gives her too little to do with it.
Fi1m perspective
In The School of Rock (2003), Miranda Cosgrove's Summer Hathaway has no need to match Jack Black's exuberance to hold our attention. Richard Linklater allows the children to be unimpressed by him, and Cosgrove makes good use of that freedom. Summer is the ambitious band manager, with a job to take seriously even when the adult beside her is being ridiculous. We laughed at the contrast between her seriousness and his excess; she gets her share of the joke without chasing the biggest laugh. The story is predictable, but the respect for the children makes the comedy worth returning to.
The television years kept her close to precocious family comedy, first as Megan Parker in Drake & Josh (2004–2007), then as Carly Shay in iCarly (2007–2012). The danger with such a recognisable place in comedy is that casting can become a habit, regardless of what an actor might offer elsewhere. Her return as Carly in iCarly (2021–2023), also as an executive producer, sits alongside the adult romantic-comedy lead of Emma in Mother of the Bride (2024). The useful question for us is how much those parts ask of her comic timing.
Voice work has offered continuity, with the responsible eldest daughter Margo in Despicable Me (2010) and its sequels. Yet Despicable Me 4 (2024) gives her a new school and scarcely enough time for that to matter. Tiffany Hillkurtz's editing keeps scenes moving by ending them with their gags, which is efficient until we want to care about somebody. Margo's school story is one of several competing strands, alongside Lucy's hairdressing and the neighbours' heist plot. The film can be funny, but Cosgrove cannot do much with a part it keeps leaving behind.
We would like to see her given another character with Summer's determination, and enough time for that character to become awkward or demanding. There is no need to force a dramatic departure from family comedy when a sharper part within it could ask more of her. Start with The School of Rock for the pleasure of watching her hold her own beside a leading man who is hardly keeping quiet.
Biography
Miranda Taylor Cosgrove is an American actress, singer and producer. She was born on 14 May 1993 in Los Angeles, California.
Cosgrove began her career with television commercials and made her film debut as Summer Hathaway in School of Rock (2003). She rose to prominence playing Megan Parker in the Nickelodeon series Drake & Josh (2004–2007) and starred as Carly Shay in iCarly (2007–2012). She has voiced Margo in the Despicable Me animated films, including Despicable Me 4 (2024).
In 2012 she was listed by Guinness World Records as the highest-paid child actress. She has also hosted the CBS series Mission Unstoppable with Miranda Cosgrove (2019–present).
