Let’s be real. If you grew up in the early 2010s, you couldn't escape Fred Figglehorn. Whether you loved the high-pitched screaming or it made you want to put your head through a drywall, Lucas Cruikshank changed the internet forever. But when Nickelodeon decided to turn a YouTube gimmick into a full-blown sitcom, things got weird. The cast of Fred: The Show was this bizarre cocktail of established character actors, future superstars, and teen idols trying to navigate a world that looked like it was saturated in neon-colored highlighter fluid. It wasn't just a show; it was an experiment in whether a three-minute digital sketch could survive the 22-minute television format.
Honestly, it shouldn't have worked. Most people think it didn't. Yet, when you look back at who was actually in this thing, it's kind of a "who's who" of that specific era of cable TV.
The Man, The Myth, The Squeak: Lucas Cruikshank
Everything starts and ends with Lucas Cruikshank. By the time Fred: The Show premiered in 2012, Lucas was already a veteran of the character. He wasn't just some kid with a webcam; he was the first person to hit one million subscribers on YouTube. That’s easy to forget now when toddlers have ten million followers for unboxing eggs, but in 2008? That was tectonic.
On the show, Lucas played Fred with the same manic energy, but the stakes were higher. He wasn't just talking to a camera in his bedroom anymore. He had to interact with actual humans. Cruikshank has been pretty open in recent years on his own YouTube channel about how exhausting that period was. Imagine screaming at the top of your lungs for ten hours a day on a soundstage. He’s since moved away from the character, coming out as gay in 2013 and transitioning into more lifestyle-based content, but his DNA is baked into every "influencer" show we see today. He was the blueprint.
Jake Weary and the Art of Being the Bully
You've probably seen Jake Weary lately in Animal Kingdom or the horror hit It Follows. He’s a serious actor. He has range. He’s moody. But back in 2012, he was Kevin.
Kevin was Fred's arch-nemesis, the guy next door who existed solely to make Fred's life a living hell. Weary played the role with this perfect level of "I am way too cool to be here" that actually made the dynamic work. It’s a classic trope, sure, but Weary brought a physicality to it. In the YouTube videos, Kevin was mostly an off-screen threat or a passing mention. In the show, he became a physical obstacle. Seeing Weary go from being Fred’s bully to playing complex, gritty roles in prestige dramas is one of those "wait, that was him?" moments that makes the cast of Fred: The Show so fascinating to track.
Siobhan Fallon Hogan: The Comedy Veteran
This is where the casting gets genuinely high-brow in a weird way. Fred’s mom, Hilda Figglehorn, was played by Siobhan Fallon Hogan. If you don't recognize the name, you definitely recognize the face. She’s been in Saturday Night Live, Seinfeld, Men in Black, and even heavy-hitting Lars von Trier films like Dancer in the Dark.
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Why was she here? Because she’s a pro.
She played Hilda as this permanently exhausted, somewhat checked-out mother who clearly didn't know how to handle a son with the energy of a nuclear reactor. Her presence gave the show a weird bit of "legitimacy." She wasn't just a "Nickelodeon Mom." She brought a dry, absurdist humor that actually appealed to the parents who were forced to watch the show with their kids. She’s still working constantly today, often writing and producing her own independent films like Rushed.
The Daniella Monet Connection
Before she was hosting everything on Nickelodeon and starring in Victorious, Daniella Monet stepped into the Fred-verse. Now, specifically in the movies, she played Bertha. In the show, the role of Fred’s best friend shifted around, but Daniella is the one people remember most fondly.
Bertha was the "cool girl" who wore weird clothes and actually liked Fred for some reason. Monet brought a much-needed groundedness to the cast. Without Bertha, the show would have just been Fred screaming into a void. You needed that one person to look at the camera and acknowledge how crazy everything was. Daniella has since pivoted into being a huge advocate for veganism and plant-based living, proving there is very much life after the orange splat logo.
Supporting Players and Surprising Cameos
The show didn't just rely on the core four. Because Fred was such a massive brand at the time, the guest stars were frequent and often strange.
- Rachel Crow: Coming off her run on The X Factor, she played Starr, a character who matched Fred’s intensity but with incredible vocal pipes.
- Gracie Dzienny: She played Holly, the unachievable crush. Dzienny has since moved on to much darker fare, including Netflix's First Kill and The Terminal List.
- Pat Knighton: He played the father of Kevin, adding more layers to the neighborhood rivalry.
What most people get wrong about this show is thinking it was just a bunch of random kids. The casting directors were actually pulling from a pool of really talented comedic performers. They were trying to create a live-action cartoon. If you watch it through that lens—less of a sitcom and more of a "Tex Avery" short come to life—the performances make a lot more sense.
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The Weird Reality of the Production
The show only ran for one season, consisting of 24 episodes. It was fast, loud, and cheap to produce. But the impact on the cast was lasting. For many of the younger actors, it was a bootcamp in green-screen acting and timing. Because so much of the world was "Fred-vision," the actors often had to react to things that weren't there or play to camera angles that felt unnatural.
Cruikshank has mentioned in interviews that the transition from being a solo creator to having a crew of 50 people tell him how to be "Fred" was jarring. It’s a common story in the creator economy: the "thing" that makes a person popular is often diluted when a big network tries to polish it.
Why We Still Talk About Them
The cast of Fred: The Show represents a specific hinge point in media history. It was the moment traditional TV tried to swallow the internet whole. It didn't quite digest it properly, but it changed how networks scouted talent.
If you look at the career trajectories of the cast today, they’ve all taken wildly different paths:
- The Indie Route: Siobhan Fallon Hogan continues to be a darling of independent cinema.
- The Drama Route: Jake Weary is a staple of gritty TV.
- The Entrepreneur Route: Daniella Monet is a business mogul in the wellness space.
- The Legacy Route: Lucas Cruikshank remains a digital icon, occasionally revisiting Fred for a nostalgic laugh but mostly living his best life as a commentator on the very industry that made him famous.
The show was polarizing. Critics hated it. Adults found it grating. But for a certain demographic, it was the peak of comedy in 2012. The cast took a bizarre, high-concept premise and ran with it, even if they were running into a wall.
How to Track the Cast Today
If you're looking to catch up with the crew, skip the Nickelodeon reruns.
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Check out Lucas Cruikshank’s YouTube channel for a more authentic, adult look at his life. He often does "react" videos to his old Fred content, and his self-awareness is refreshing. For the actors, follow Jake Weary’s work in film if you want to see just how much he was holding back while playing Kevin.
The lesson here is simple: don't pigeonhole actors based on their most "annoying" roles. Everyone in that cast was doing a job that required an immense amount of energy and a complete lack of ego. That's a rare combination in Hollywood.
If you want to dive deeper into the history of YouTube-to-TV transitions, start by looking at the production credits of Fred: The Show. You’ll see names that went on to produce some of the biggest hits on Disney and Nick. The show was a training ground. It was messy, it was loud, and it was undeniably influential.
Next time you see a TikToker get a Netflix deal, remember Fred. He did it first, he did it louder, and he did it with a cast that was way more talented than they ever got credit for.
Check out Lucas's "More Lucas" channel for the most direct link to the Fred legacy—it's the best way to see the human behind the voice.