What Fame Cost Nickelodeon’s Child Stars, From Tylor Chase to Amanda Bynes

Nickelodeon has been a launchpad for a lot of great TV and a lot of kids who grew up on camera. It also has a trail of former child actors who, once the lights went down, ran into addiction, mental health crises, money trouble, or worse. As the latest update on 'Ned's Declassified' actor Tylor Chase ricochets around social media, that whole troubled history is back in the spotlight. The channel started in 1979, cranked out icons like 'SpongeBob SquarePants' and 'The Fairly OddParents', and really hit big in the 2000s with 'Zoey 101', 'Drake & Josh', and 'iCarly'. In recent years, the stories that have surfaced about toxic sets and the damage done to kids are hard to shake. Here are 10 former Nickelodeon names whose lives took rough turns during or after the fame.

1. Tylor Chase

   Tylor Chase, who played motor‑mouth Martin Qwerly on 'Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide', was filmed looking unhoused on California streets in a clip that hit X on Dec 21 and immediately blew up. In the video, he is in a worn grey T‑shirt and ripped, dirty jeans, looking nothing like the kid fans remember.

   His old castmates Devon Werkheiser, Daniel Curtis Lee, and Lindsey Shaw addressed it on their podcast. Curtis Lee called Chase a dear friend and said he struggled with seeing that video.

   "It was a lot to process for me. When I first saw it, I was angry, because I was like why put a camera in someone's face when they are on hard times? I feel powerless, I feel like there's not much I can do."

   Shaw opened up about her own past drug addiction, saying she has been in that kind of place herself. Werkheiser and Curtis Lee said they would help their friend however they can, but made it clear he is not coming on their podcast and the goal is to get him on a healthier path, not to make content out of it.

   Influencer LetHallAlli even launched a GoFundMe for Chase. Then Chase's mother stepped in, explaining that money would not fix what is going on and might make things worse. She said he needs medical care, refuses it, loses phones within days, and cannot manage money or his meds on his own.

2. Drake Bell

   Drake Bell was Nickelodeon royalty on 'The Amanda Show' and 'Drake & Josh'. Behind the scenes, his life fell apart. He filed for bankruptcy in 2014, lost his Los Feliz home to foreclosure for far less than he paid, and picked up two DUIs that landed him in jail for a couple of days.

   He later said a lot of the spiral started after he was sexually abused by Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck. Peck was convicted in 2003 for committing lewd acts with a child; Bell revealed he was one of Peck's victims. He went to rehab, got sober with the help of co-star Josh Peck, and tried to rebuild.

   Then came more headlines. His ex Melissa Lingafelt alleged he started dating her when she was 16 and he was 20, and accused him of physical and verbal abuse. Bell denied the abuse, telling Variety:

   "As our relationship ended — more than a decade ago — we, unfortunately, both called each other terrible names, as often happens when couples are breaking up. But that is it."

   In June 2021, Bell was arrested after police found he had sent inappropriate messages to a 15‑year‑old fan who attended one of his concerts. He pleaded guilty to attempted child endangerment and received two years' probation. The victim later also accused him of sexual assault.

3. Josh Peck

   While Drake was unraveling, Josh Peck was fighting his own battles. At 16, he lost about 100 pounds because he did not want to be stuck as the 'big, funny guy' forever. The change looked great from the outside, but he says his brain had not caught up.

   "I had lost all this weight and for the first time in my life I was in control of my eating … things were looking good for me, but my mind hadn't caught up yet."

   He turned to drugs and alcohol and realized he was trying to fix something inside that nothing external would fix.

   "I used food and drugs to numb my feelings."

   He went to rehab, got sober in 2008, then later helped Drake Bell get sober. He has said that sobriety gave him a foundation that keeps him anchored. Career-wise, he has popped up in 'Oppenheimer' and 'The Last of Us'.

4. Amanda Bynes

   Amanda Bynes was one of Nickelodeon's biggest child stars with 'All That' and 'The Amanda Show', then leveled up with movies like 'She's the Man' and 'Easy A' in 2010. Fame that young was brutal. She tried to get emancipated from her parents at 16 or 17 and reportedly ran away from home. A judge did not approve the emancipation, and the stress piled up.

   She dropped out of the comedy 'Hall Pass' in 2011 and quit acting in 2012. In a later interview, she said she started smoking weed at 16, moved to molly and ecstasy, tried cocaine a few times but did not like it, and abused Adderall to the point she felt scatterbrained. She said that drug haze wrecked her ability to memorize lines on 'Hall Pass' and fed body image issues that convinced her she should never be on camera again.

   Her legal messes stacked up: a misdemeanor DUI after hitting a cop car, allegedly tossing a bong out a window, reckless endangerment, and marijuana possession. Her parents took control via a conservatorship in 2013. With their help, she stabilized and the conservatorship ended in 2022.

5. Darris Love

   Darris Love, Ray Alvarado on 'The Secret World of Alex Mack', kept working through guest roles on 'Angel', 'Shameless', and 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' before quietly stepping back in 2017. In 2018, things went sideways when Glendale police arrested him at gunpoint at the Galleria while he was shopping with longtime girlfriend Ayesha Dumas, believing he matched a suspect in a burglary from earlier that day.

   Love said they were just shopping, that he was detained for hours with force, and that he was racially profiled. He was later cleared. In 2022, police were called to his property after Dumas alleged he struck her on the back of the head. He was charged with misdemeanor domestic violence and released after posting $20,000 bail.

6. Jackson Odell

   Jackson Odell, who played Gumbo the bully in an 'iCarly' episode, died at 20 in 2018. He was found unresponsive in a sober living facility where he was getting help for addiction. The coroner ruled his death an accidental overdose of cocaine and heroin, noting he had a history of heroin addiction and that full toxicology is standard when drugs are suspected.

   His family confirmed the cause and used their statement to call out what they described as a pandemic of addiction, insisting Jackson was much more than his illness and that the addiction 'won' despite his short struggle. Odell also appeared on 'Modern Family', 'Arrested Development', and 'The Goldbergs', and wrote songs for the movie 'Forever My Girl'.

7. Jansen Panettiere

   Jansen Panettiere, Hayden Panettiere's younger brother, starred in Nickelodeon's TV movie 'The Last Day of Summer' as Luke Malloy and later moved into adult roles, including 'The Walking Dead' in 2019. He died in 2023 at 28 from an undiagnosed heart condition that caused cardiomegaly, or an enlarged heart.

   His family described him as warm, charming, deeply creative, and someone whose spirit would live on in the people he touched. Hayden has said she still feels him with her, and their father had spoken to Jansen on the phone the night before he died.

8. Johnny Lewis

   Johnny Lewis popped up on 'Drake & Josh' as Scottie, Drake's bandmate, for four episodes, and later on 'Sons of Anarchy' and 'Smallville'. His death is one of the most disturbing stories on this list. He assaulted his landlady, Catherine Davis, killing her, then fell to his death from the roof of his rented Los Angeles apartment.

   A probation report before his death flagged possible drug addiction, mental health issues, and unstable housing, calling him a threat to the community. 'Sons of Anarchy' creator Kurt Sutter called it a tragic end for an extremely talented guy who had lost his way.

9. Aaron Carter

   Aaron Carter got famous fast, opening for his brother's band at 10, showing up as a guest on Nickelodeon's 'Figure It Out', voicing a role on 'Rocket Power' in 2001, and performing music that lived on both Nickelodeon and Disney Channel. He was found dead in his bathtub in November 2022 at 34. A toxicology report found sedatives and difluoroethane inhalant in his system, and the cause of death was ruled accidental drowning.

   His record with police included a 2008 stop for speeding that led to a marijuana possession detention and a 2017 arrest for DUI and marijuana possession. After that 2017 arrest, Nick Carter tweeted public support and an offer to help; Aaron snapped back that if Nick truly cared, he would reach out privately instead of making it a public moment. The brothers later reconciled. Aaron's final album, 'Blacklisted', dropped two days after his death.

10. Jennette McCurdy

    Jennette McCurdy's run as Sam on 'iCarly' looked like a dream job. It was not. She says she was mistreated on set and pressured by her mom, Debra, to put up with it because she was the family's breadwinner. She later publicly accused showrunner Dan Schneider of sexual harassment and said he went on verbally abusive rants at her.

    She also wrote about being pushed into obsessive dieting. In a 2019 essay, she said she was fixated on food, measuring her thighs every night, and exercising compulsively. After her mom died of breast cancer in 2013, McCurdy left acting, fell into alcohol to cope, and then spent years in therapy to claw back her life. Her memoir, 'I'm Glad My Mom Died', became one of 2022's best-sellers. A series based on the book is in the works at Apple TV+, with Jennifer Aniston set to play McCurdy's mother.

It is a lot. And it is not a coincidence that so many of these stories trace back to childhood careers built on sets that were not built to protect kids. Some got sober and found new footing. Some never got that chance. If the industry keeps revisiting this history without changing how it treats young performers, we are going to keep revisiting these headlines too.