Miranda Cosgrove

In the movie, she played Summer Hathaway, a young girl with great ambition and discipline who finds herself adjusting to the free-spirited nature of the new teacher by becoming band manager of the classroom's rock band. School of Rock was both a box office hit, grossing over $131,282,949 worldwide, and critical success, receiving a 91 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. Cosgrove's acting on the film was praised, with David Ansen of Newsweek describing it as "spot on". She said of the experience of working with Jack Black: "The first week it was like, 'Oh, my God, that's Jack Black,' but two weeks later it was fine. He's really funny. Sometimes the director would say, 'Jack you can't make them laugh so much.'" She cited the scene as trying to sing wrong as very difficult. Cosgrove stated that "I got a 45-minute lesson from Jim O'Rourke of Sonic Youth on how to sing badly. I've been taking singing lessons for about five years, so getting to sing badly was new. The director kept saying, 'Try to sing even worse, Miranda,' so it was weird." She is grateful she was in School of Rock, as it exposed her to classic rock songs she was unfamiliar with. "After the movie," said Cosgrove, "I discovered Led Zeppelin and I've taken up the electric guitar". Read Less

The extended play featured the title track, a remix of it, and a remix of "Stay My Baby", as well as two new songs, "F.Y.I." and "Party Girl". To promote the 2009 animated film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Columbia Records released a single entitled "Raining Sunshine" with an accompanying music video in August 2009.

Since July 2008, plans for a debut album have been active. In an interview with MTV News, Cosgrove discussed the forthcoming album. Cosgrove reported to be "co-writing and getting really into" the album, contrasting with the iCarly soundtrack in which she "just picked songs that meant a lot to her, that she really liked." She also described the album as "still pop rock fun" in comparison to her previous work on the iCarly soundtrack, though "a little more mature". Themes for the album are "love songs and just fun songs about hanging out with your girlfriends". When releasing About You Now, Cosgrove further elaborated on the album's concepts. She described working with producers and songwriters The Matrix and Dr. Luke as "definitely different". Cosgrove also worked with songwriters Leah Haywood and Daniel James, and said that "most of the songs are fun, pop, rock-girl empowerment". She noted that "there's one ballad that's kind of sad" and that "it's called 'What Are You Waiting For?' It's about a girl who likes a guy he doesn't feel the same way". Read Less