Devon Werkheiser was the teen star of a Nickelodeon show. By 25, he'd 'run out of money'.

For a certain generation of Nickelodeon viewers, Devon Werkheiser is an icon.

The 31-year-old was the title character in Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, a comedy that ran from 2004 until 2007 about Ned, a middle schooler who establishes a 'survival guide' for himself and his classmates to make it through the typical struggles of tweendom.

For three years, between the ages of 12 and 15, Werkheiser spent half a year in Los Angeles filming, and half a year in Georgia where he was from. 

As you might expect, he was having the time of his life: the show itself was comedic, plus his role opened up a whole new world of stardom among teenagers.

In an as-told-to essay for Business Insider, Werkheiser said it felt like it would last forever.

But then the show ended, a new series following Ned during high school was passed on, and the teen realised that a long-term acting career would not be as easy as he thought.

He found an acting coach and took classes, and he pushed and pushed for serious roles, but nothing really took off like it had for him as a 12-year-old.

After Neds, Werkheiser led a Nickelodeon movie called Shredderman Rules, starred in a few horror films and did voice work. In 2011, he had a recurring role in Greek and the following year he starred in an episode of Criminal Minds. In 2016, he appeared in an episode of 2 Broke Girls.

But by 25, the money he'd earned and lived off since that early fame ran out, and he decided it was time to get a 9-to-5 job.

"I was never ridiculous with my money, but I would eat out or go on trips when I wanted to. I'd always be living on my savings until the next job came and refilled it, then I'd live on my savings some more," he said.

"Over the years, supporting-role jobs started paying less in the industry, and at the same time I was booking less and less. The only thing I knew to do was to go get some hourly job and start working my way out of my situation. I got a 9-to-5 for the first time in my life.

"It was a real wake-up call for me... I realised I still had a lot to learn about adult life."

In an interview with Speech Bubble, Werkheiser said he'd worked at the front desk of a Los Angeles Equinox gym, where he checked in actors and stars he knew, among other 'day jobs'.

"It's not something to cry about," he said. "It's uncomfortable growth, but no, it's normal. My dad worked day jobs since he was 13, ya know? It's not really a 'boohoo' thing, but it was painful at times."

On the flip side, these stars also don't get a normal childhood or teenage experience, as Miranda Cosgrove, who starred in Drake & Josh, during the same year's Werkheiser was on Ned's, and also played the title character in iCarly from 2007 until 2012, recalled during a September 2022 Reign With Josh Smith podcast episode.

"When I was really young, I would go in to write songs and the different people I was co-writing with would be like, 'What's the craziest thing that happened with a guy you were dating recently?' And I'd be thinking, 'I don't know,' I didn't really have any crazy stories because I wasn't really having a real high school or middle school experience."

Werkheiser attempted to get a Ned's Declassified Adulthood Survival Guide reboot off the ground, saying in a May 2021 TikTok that the goal was dead for now.

"Cookie and Moze [Ned's friends, played by Daniel Curtis Lee and Lindsay Shaw] were on board, the original creators and producers, Scott and Michelle Fellows, were on board, but we don't own the rights to Ned's Declassified. 

"So, we pitched it to Nickelodeon and Awesomeness TV, who do own the rights to it, and they passed on it and won't let us take it to sell it somewhere else."

Instead, Werkheiser launched a podcast called Growing Up With Devon which explores similar themes.

Feature image: Getty.