Why Is this Former Nickelodeon Star Returning to the Spotlight?

Imagine going from a suburban kid in the early 2000s watching the iconic Nickelodeon TV lineup to starring in them—that’s Christina Kirkman’s story. After competing in R U All That?: Nickelodeon’s Search for the Funniest Kid in America, Kirkman landed her big break and was cast on All That at just 10 years old. Now, the self-declared “washed-up” child actor has returned to Hollywood, but this time, on her own terms.

What drives her to perform? “Literally, since I was a kid, I have been chasing that feeling of making people laugh. It is quite literally the best feeling. There’s nothing that I feel to this day that compares to making people laugh,” Kirkman says. 

If you have ever been curious about life as a Nickelodeon kid, Kirkman offers an inside look on The Squeeze. She opens up about what it’s like as a childhood actress, leaving Nickelodeon, and the identity crisis that ensued after. From bullying to burnout to a career pivot to a second pivot back to acting, Kirkman holds nothing back. 

Christina Kirkman on Life After Nickelodeon and Acting as a Child

Breaking into television 

In 2003, Kirkman auditioned for R U All That?: Nickelodeon’s Search for the Funniest Kid in America after seeing a commercial during Spongebob, her favorite show at the time. She remembers the audition like it was yesterday. Her dad grabbed the camcorder, and they recorded her self-tape audition and submitted it online. 

Her audition included several sketches—acting out meeting Jay Leno (she had no idea who he was at the time), portraying a rapping DJ who break danced, and impersonating Spongebob. After making the top five, she flew to Los Angeles to audition in-person with the All That cast. 

She recalls auditioning with Jamie Lynn Spears, Taran Killam, Lisa Foiles, and Kyle Sullivan: “I was scared sh*tless. I had never been shy my entire life—horrified. I’m an only child, and I’m very theatrical. I had no fear of doing anything, until I walked on set that day. All of my idols—Amanda Bynes, Taran Killiam, Jamie Lynn Spears—are just sitting there.”

Kirkman landed the gig at All That. Her mom quit her job in Boston, and they moved out to Los Angeles to work for what was then the biggest children’s show on television. 

Leaving Hollywood and struggling to find identity after childhood fame

Kirkman was on All That from 2010 to 2012, a time when all the Nickelodeon shows were interconnected, which meant there was crossover between all the shows. “During that time, if you weren’t shooting an episode, you were doing some sort of press, promo, or swapping and going on someone else’s show.”

Despite having a good experience as a child actor, at 13, Kirkman came home to Boston and decided not to go back. She wanted to be home. “Being on the show was the first time I felt seen. The weirder you are, the better at your job you are. It was celebrated to be weird,” she says. 

While Kirkman desired to just be an ordinary girl (cue the trending Hannah Montana song), she was instantly labeled “the All That girl” upon returning to high school. To transition from being on the biggest kids’ television show to being thrown back into suburbia was hell: “I marched to the beat of my own drum, and I always kind of knew who I was at a really young age, which confused a lot of kids. Coming back home was pretty brutal for me. I had a hard time finding friends. It was really terrible, and it made me really resentful.”

Kirkman struggled back at public school. Wherever she went, she was labeled, and she struggled writing her own narrative because people wrote it for her. “I couldn’t shake it, and for the next chunk of my life, I tried to detach from it and create a new identity,” she explains. 

Making her return to the limelight years later 

Kirkman resented acting for a long time and promised herself she’d never return. She later attended Emerson College and studied broadcast journalism because she felt really safe on camera. An internship at Comedy Central eventually led her back to acting. During her internship in Los Angeles, she had the epiphany after watching comedians’ reels—she was funnier than most of them: “I thought, ‘What am I doing? I need to do this.’ I decided I was going to finish the internship and my last semester of college and move back out to L.A.”

Kirkman understands now that her resentment toward acting is actually tied to the negative attention, including angry online comments, school bullying, and even voice memos with death threats. 

“I was so insecure. So to be wildly insecure and to have everybody constantly looking at you and saying things and making judgments about you, it’s hard. I was not my authentic self and was giving people a false representation of who I was because essentially, I was going through it, and I was just trying to stay alive,” she says.

Self-care and learning to love herself 

Kirkman has learned that she needs alone time to process and recharge. Regarding social media and the anxiety it can trigger, she admits that she is still learning to set boundaries. 

“I think people would be shocked to hear that I am a very anxious person and that I get easily overwhelmed. I’ve wanted to do everything all at once at the highest level. I measure my purpose and my worth through my work—I’m constantly in a state of anxiety,” she explains.

After some self-reflection, Kirkman has a better understanding of her anxiety: “As a sensitive person, the internet is really hard. It’s on a day-to-day basis. When people write things that are not true or go against my character, it’s hard not to defend myself. But I’m learning that if you get in the habit of defending yourself, now you’re vulnerable. I have to know who I am, and accept that people can write whatever they want,” she says.

What’s next for Kirkman: content creation and comedy

Kirkman recently launched her new podcast, Life’s a Joke with Christina Kirkman, which she says is helping her reconnect with herself in an honest way. It’s a mix of comedy, wit, and her life as an internet-famous dog mom turned content creator. Before leaving Nickelodeon, all Kirkman ever knew was acting, which fueled her belief that only acting in a traditional capacity could offer the high and the passion she longed for. “To be able to achieve that by doing content creation or a podcast—I’ve found other ways to achieve it and feel that fulfillment,” she says. 

Reflecting on her journey from content creation to acting, Kirkman says, “If you figure out what aspects you love, you can find other avenues to achieve it.”