Featured Image Credit: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images, Presley Ann/Getty Images for Netflix
Topics: Netflix, Los Angeles, Crime, Celebrity, Film and TV
Emily Brown
Topics: Netflix, Los Angeles, Crime, Celebrity, Film and TV
Miranda Cosgrove has opened up about her experience with a stalker and how he ended up lighting himself on fire in her front yard.
Cosgrove is back on our screens this week with a starring role in Netflix's new movie Mother of the Bride, in which she plays the bride herself.
The former iCarly actor features in the movie alongside Brooke Shields, who plays her mom, and in honor of its release she sat down with Bustle to talk about her rise to fame and what happened after she entered the spotlight.
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Cosgrove, who's now 30, got used to a life on camera from a very young age thanks to her roles in titles like School of Rock and Drake and Josh.
In spite of her fame, she's managed to avoid 'any crazy scandals' that sometimes surround child-stars - but she's still experienced some of the darker elements of fame.
When she was in her early 20s, Cosgrove experienced being stalked by a man who knew where she lived in Los Angeles.
On one occasion, the man shot at a woman who looked like Cosgrove as she drove around in the area.
Cosgrove later ran into the woman who'd been the target of the man's actions at an event for Kitten Rescue LA.
Recalling the encounter, she said: “This girl came up to me, and she was like, ‘I didn’t know if I should tell you this here or how to say this, but I’m actually the girl that was at your house that got shot at'.
"She seemed like she processes things in a similar way that I do.
"She said she’d just gone through a breakup the night before and was going to her friend’s house because she was so distraught.
"When they brought her into the Hollywood Police Station to ask what he looked like and how it all happened, the detectives were like, ‘Start from the very beginning. What happened?’
"And she was like, ‘Well, he broke up with me last night,’ and she started telling them all about her breakup.”
Though Cosgrove is able to look back at that particular moment through a more lighthearted lens, the situation only became more sinister when the stalker lit himself on fire and fatally shot himself in the front yard of Cosgrove's home.
The actor discussed the long-lasting impacts of the experience as she said: "That’s another reason why I go back and forth to my parents’ house so much. I just don’t feel super safe in that house.
"For two years after it happened, I wouldn’t really stay there. Then I got into a relationship and because that person was there with me, I was less scared. But I don’t really like being there on my own that much.”
Cosgrove is now focusing on a goal of finding a new home where she can feel 'really safe' and start a 'new chapter'.
If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact the VictimConnect Resource Center on 1-855-4VICTIM (855-484-2846), available weekdays.