Carly Shay in the original series (2007-2012)
Carly Shay in the revival series (2021-present)
Carly Shay is the protagonist of the Nickelodeon sitcom iCarly, portrayed by Miranda Cosgrove. She is a teenage girl who, along with her best friends Sam Puckett and Freddie Benson, create a web show called iCarly, which stars Carly and Sam (with occasional guest stars) as they do lots of wacky sketches.
Carly lives in Bushwell Plaza in Seattle, Washington with her older brother Spencer Shay, who is in charge of her as their father is overseas in the navy and their mother is absent. Carly and Spencer are also protected by their grandfather (who they refer to as "Granddad"), who lives in Yakima. Once he thought that Spencer was too irresponsible to care for Carly, so he decided to have Carly move to Yakima with him. However, when Grandad realized how much Spencer cares for his little sister, he decided to let Carly stay with her brother in Seattle.
The web show iCarly has made Carly, Sam, and Freddie very famous, and it changed their lives. The trio won an award, got to meet Michelle Obama, guest-starred on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon (which turns into trouble for the iCarly webshow after a wardrobe malfunction involving their crazy friend Gibby Gibson), and many more adventures. The trio also got kidnapped by a crazy fan. Twice, actually.
The adventures of the iCarly members ended in 2012 with the series finale special iGoodbye. In the episode, Carly is excited to meet with her father to go to a special dance, but she is upset when she realizes that he cannot come anymore. Spencer volunteered to take Carly to the dance instead, but he gets a fever, leaving Carly with no one to go to the dance with. Freddie and Gibby offer to take Carly to the dance, although that only made Carly burst into tears. Just as she was telling everyone how she didn't want to the go to the dance anymore, her father walks into the apartment. Carly gets very excited, and she has the night of her life when she finally gets to go to the dance.
With Colonel Steven Shay in town, Carly has plenty of fun stuff planned with her father, but she gets upset when her father tells her that he has to leave that night to go to Italy. When Carly tells Mr. Shay that she misses him and wants to spend more time with him, he asks Carly if she would like to come to Italy with him. Carly asks all of her friends if she should really go, and they all say yes. Even Spencer. After doing a quick web show with Sam telling the viewers that they are taking a break for a while, Carly packs up, bids farewell to her friends (including giving Freddie what he always wanted: a goodbye kiss), and leaves with her father on an airplane.
Carly returns as the protagonist of the 2021 iCarly revival series, exclusive to the Paramount Plus streaming platform. She returned from Italy and is now roommates with a new friend named Harper, but she remains in the same apartment building as Spencer and Freddie (the latter who moved back in with his mom and has a step-daughter named Millicent). The series focuses on Carly restarting her webshow as well as tackling other adulthood issues. Sam has a new life somewhere else, and Gibby is seemingly not in their lives anymore.