Jamie Lynn Spears

Born in McComb, Mississippi, Jamie Lynn Spears has been in the spotlight from a young age. Growing up, Jamie Lynn was a cheerleader and basketball player who took dance and voice lessons throughout school. She would participate in school plays and perform at church during Sunday mass. However, during all of this, she spent time traveling and touring with her older sister Britney Spears.

Her acting debut came as Young Lucy Wagner in the feature film Crossroads (2002) starring Britney, and made her first television appearance that same year in the sketch comedy series for kids called  All That! playing various roles from 2002 to 2005. Her most notable role was as the lead character in the Nickelodeon show Zoey 101, a role she held from 2005 to 2008 for four seasons.

The show's end came with a slew of controversy for Jamie Lynn as she announced her pregnancy a year before the show's final season. At only 16 years old, many accused her of glorifying teenage pregnancy, and that her actions led the show to being wrapped early. Jamie Lynn herself clarified later on that her pregnancy came three months after the show wrapped, the final season just hadn’t come out yet. After this controversy, she decided to take a five-year hiatus from the spotlight to focus on being a mother.

During this time, Spears worked on comeback, a country single titled "How Could I Want More," which was released in 2013 and led to her debut EP "The Journey" in 2014. She went on to release one more single "Sleepover" in 2016 but has not kept up with her music career since.

That same year, she was the center of the TLC television documentary When the Lights Go Out, following the events of her life from her pregnancy announcement to finding herself through music. She established herself as a mother and claimed that singing had always been her true passion. She would go on to appear on shows The Talk and Double Dare as a celebrity guest before landing her next big role.

Jamie Lynn landed a role in the Netflix series Sweet Magnolias as Noreen Fitzgibbons in 2020, and has remained with the series for all three seasons. In 2023, Jamie Lynn was a contestant on Special Forces: World's Toughest Test, a competition based on military training.

Fans of the original Zoey 101 were pleased to hear the show would be returning for a reunion with the Paramount + movie Zoey 102, in which Jamie Lynn revived her original role and worked as an executive producer. The movie follows Zoey Brooks and the rest of the Pacific Coast Academy alumni as they catch up for a wedding in the present day.

In 2022, Jamie Lynn published a memoir under Hachette Book Group titled Things I Should Have Said: Family, Fame, and Figuring it Out. The publishers stated that her book aims to let the world in and hear her inspiring story in her own words for the first time. Detailing events of her family life and connection to her sister’s conservatorship struggle, the book details family matters often hidden from the media.

Filmography:

Zoey 102 (2023)
The Goldilocks and the 3 Bears Show (2008)
Crossroads (2002)