Austin Butler Had More Than 40 Appearances In A Classic Nickelodeon Sitcom

Before he was The King, Austin Butler was just a kid in the back of Ned Bigby’s classroom.

Butler, who has emerged as one of this decade’s rising film stars in films like “Elvis,” began his acting career on television thanks to regular work as an extra on children’s sitcoms. He appeared in numerous Nickelodeon series, including “Unfabulous,” “Drake & Josh,” “iCarly,” and “Zoey 101,” the latter of which he was part of the main cast for in its final season. However, viewers tuning into Nickelodeon during the mid-2000s may have seen him most prominently on “Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide,” where he appeared as little more than an extra for more than 40 episodes.

Butler played Zippy Brewster, one of Ned’s many classmates, making his debut in the Season 2 premiere, “Survival Guide to: New Semester and Electives.” He would go on to make 41 appearances throughout the show, all the way up to the series finale, “Survival Guide to: Field Trips, Permission Slips, Signs and Weasels.” But despite having appeared in about three-fourths of the show’s 54 episodes, viewers hardly ever heard him speak.

From 2004 to 2007, “Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide” followed the lives of a trio of kids dealing with the typical highs and lows of middle school life, namely Ned Bigby (played by Devon Werkheiser), Simon “Cookie” Nelson-Cook (Daniel Curtis Lee), and Jennifer “Moze” Mosely (Lindsey Shaw). The fictional James K. Polk Middle School featured a student body of memorable supporting characters, including Suzie Crabgrass (Christian Serratos), Billy Loomer (Kyle Swann), Coconut Head (Rob Pinkston), and Lisa Zemo (Rachel Sibner), among others. 

Meanwhile, Austin Butler’s Zippy only had a few notable moments on the show. Zippy’s most significant appearances were in the Season 3 episodes “Money and Parties,” where he took part in a game of spin the bottle, and “Making New Friends & Positives & Negatives,” where he is shown with a flock of doves, attempting to help Moze feel romantic sparks with her boyfriend, Faymen (Vinicius Machado) when they kiss.

In recent years, Butler has committed primarily to film, but he’s shown up on the small screen from time to time. He hosted an episode of “Saturday Night Live” in 2022, where he honored his late mother in his monologue, and also headlined the Apple TV+ original miniseries “Masters of the Air.” Alas, he has not returned for any Nickelodeon series’ recent Paramount+ revivals like the “iCarly” sequel series and the made-for-streaming film “Zoey 102.”