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School of Rock: Where are the former child stars now?
From major actors to lawyers, to singers and one tragic loss.
The Jack Black comedy School of Rock is 20 years old, and while it was a huge hit at the time, it has gone on to become a cult classic with a TV adaptation and stage production of the show.
It also launched the careers of many of its junior stars, as well as them making friends for life. In fact, only one person, Cole Hawkins, didn't make the 10-year reunion, and the other 'kids' still keep in touch through a WhatsApp group.
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"We have a group chat," Maryam Hassan, who played Tomika, revealed in 2021.
"We keep in touch pretty frequently and drop in our projects. I drop my music in, Miranda drops her acting projects in, stuff like that. Others have left the industry and talk about their families..."
So what did happen with those kids that made the movie so great?
Miranda Cosgrove - Summer
Like many child actors, Miranda Cosgrove started her career in commercials, but it was School of Rock that brought her acting debut. Playing Summer "Tinkerbell" Hathaway was a great first experience for Miranda, especially working alongside lead actor Jack Black.
"I think Jack Black's amazing," Miranda told People. "He's kept up with pretty much all of us from the movie since we did it." And it was because of that Miranda continued in acting.
"He's always been unbelievably nice," she says, "and I can honestly say one of the main reasons I love acting, and why I probably tried to keep doing it for so long, is because of what a great experience he made doing School of Rock."
Following her role in School of Rock, she had a lead role in Drake and Josh before going on to star in the teen sitcom iCarly.
And her acting career has gone from strength to strength. By 2012, she was the highest-paid child actor - according to the Guinness World Records - earning $180,000 per iCarly episode, a record that still stands.
But her fame wasn't all positive. Miranda had to get a restraining order against a stalker in 2014. In 2016, her stalker was waiting for Miranda to come home and, frustrated when she didn't, shot at a woman in a car before he died by suicide close to her home.
"Basically because I didn't come back that night nothing happened," she told the podcast Films to be Buried With. "But a girl who looked a little similar to me had driven by the house that night and when he heard the car go by he ran from the backyard to the front yard thinking I was coming home. He shot at her seven times and he missed."
After iCarly finished, she decided to take a break from acting, attending the University of Southern California to study psychology. "I didn't have any creative control over what I was doing," she told Forbes.
While she did return to acting, the savvy 30-year-old also moved into producing.
"I knew from a really young age how the executive producer of the show pretty much got to decide almost every aspect," she said. "Now I get to have a say in everything."
Kevin Clark - Freddy
Kevin Clark was only three when he took up playing the drums, so he was a natural to play the pint-sized rocker Freddy "Spazzy McGee" Jones in School of Rock.
School of Rock was Kevin's only acting gig, but he did continue music, becoming a professional drummer in the Chicago-based band Dreadwolf, and Jack Black even went to see his gigs!
Sadly, in May 2021, Kevin was killed when he was struck by a car while cycling in Chicago. He was 32. Jack Black remembered his co-star fondly and shared his feelings in an Instagram post.
In an interview later that year, his co-star Rivkah Reyes revealed that the ending to the cult film was actually Kevin's idea.
The original ending wasn't working, and Kevin came up with a solution.
"And the team was like, ‘What do we do about this ending?’ and Kevin is just like, ‘It would be cool if we lost and then the audience started cheering School of Rock! School of Rock! and then they bring us out for an encore.’
"So this guy at 13-years-old wrote the ending of School of Rock."
Maryam Hassan - Tomika
Maryam Hassan played the shy but ballad-belting Tomika in the film. It was by pure coincidence she ended up auditioning for the film when a family friend called to say he'd seen a casting call and they were looking for someone just like her.
She took the role because she got to do what she loved.
"I got to sing. That's my expertise, and that’s what I’d been working towards. I fell into acting, but I was born to sing," she told Vulture in 2021.
"Right after its release, I went out and tried to pursue other acting roles. I ran into some hiccups.
"After a few months I told my mother that I wasn’t interested in doing it anymore and I wanted to focus solely on music," she revealed.
After some time out of the limelight, Maryam went back to singing under the pseudonym Mayhrenate. And while she loves her career, she also appreciates the part she played in School of Rock.
"I didn't realise the impact the School of Rock had on people being that I was only 10 at the time," she wrote on Insta, "But all of the memes and people that send me, clips of them at home watching the movie til’ this day remind me of how dope this moment was."
"I'm FOREVER grateful for the experience and the friendships I gained from this," she added.
Caitlin Hale - Marta
Caitlin played cute backing singer Marta in School of Rock. After the movie, she turned her back on acting, gaining a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Public Relations before doing a second degree to become an OB/GYN certified Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer.
But the biggest shock for School of Rock fans was when they discovered Caitlin was dating her co-star Angelo Massagli, who played Frankie in the film.
The first hint came via her Instagram account when she posted a picture of the pair of them enjoying a drink and a laugh together in March 2018.
Her last post was in May 2021, when she thanked Angelo for his support after laparoscopic endometriosis excision surgery.
"And, of course, couldn't have done it without @angelo_massagli waiting on me hand and foot during my two weeks of bed rest!" she wrote.
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It is unknown if they are still together.
Angelo Massagli - Frankie
Angelo played tough guy band security guard Frankie in the 2003 hit movie and, after that, featured in The Sopranos as Bobby Jr from 2002 until the show finished in 2007.
"I acted up until I was 18," Angelo said on the Talking Sopranos podcast. "After The Sopranos, I did a couple of more small spots on different TV shows. And then when I hit 18, I was thinking to myself, 'Do I want to completely commit to acting or decide on a backup plan?'"
That backup plan was law, and Angelo went to law school and was registered as a lawyer in New York in 2020, where he works for Sony Music Entertainment. Since his relationship with co-star Caitlin was revealed, he has set his social media accounts to private.
Brian Falduto - Billy
Brian played the band's stylist Billy "Fancy Pants" in the film, but at just 10, Brian had no idea how viewers would see his character.
"I was just this flamboyant, eccentric, excited, sassy kid, and so that's what I did on screen, innocently," Brian, now 30, told People this year. But as a young kid, he was teased after the movie came out.
"I think people just instantly labelled me gay," he said. "I didn't even know what being gay was other than that you didn't want to be called it."
And while Billy may not have been in the band, instead made them look fabulous, Brian later went into music himself.
He wanted to make music that reflected his life, and it was his School of Rock contacts that helped him realise his dreams with Jack Black, the film's director Richard Linklater and School of Rock producer Scott Rudin funding his first single.
"He just wants to see us succeed," Brian said of superstar Jack Black. "I think School of Rock sat as something really important to him, so being part of that experience, we're bonded in a way."
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