Martin Short played a kid in a movie and Gabrielle Carteris played teen on BH90210. What about Saved By The Bell cast? My point is some teens don't look like teens. Look at the actress that played the youngest daughter on 7th Heaven!
~I'm not bad I'm just drawn that way~

You said, Nikki is to old to be playing at teen, right! Sac Efron is a yr older than her and was playing a teen.so your point is moot!

Its commonplace for girls in their early 20s to play teenagers in both movies and television. They seldom use actual teens in roles unless they started out on a show as a child and grew up over the seasons.

Charisma Carpenter was 27 when she played the 15 years old Cordelia in "Buffy The Vampire Slayer", by the way. And she is not the only example.

OK I don't know who you're looking at, but she definitely looks like a teen. You don't have to actually be a teenager to play the role of a teenager, in fact in movies it's better if you're older because then you can stay on set longer and it's easier for a 22 year old to do certain scenes than a 15 year old. People in their 20's play younger all the time, as long as they look young enough then they can play the part. Not all 16 year old girls are as confident in their skin as Nikki is, for the character it was important that she be a take no prisoners kind of girl who loved herself for who she was, and since she's still relatively well known from Hairspray they were using that2000 to their advantage.
Now that the show's been aired and finished, hopefully you'll see that she was perfect for the role and you'll stop judging actors based on their age and instead on their talent
http://someoneneedstotellyouthatyourestupid.blogspot.com/

She won't even be 22 till November. She is funny and smart and she deserves this role if it makes her happy. The show is interesting of sorts because watching it makes you relize that this is what your kids go through if they are overweight. And everyones definition of curvy is different. She is what the abc execitives wanted and without working there you don't know they didn't watch all the tapes and online summissions. She was also very cute when she did hairspray with John Travolta as her mother. Know what your talking about before you post something as what you write could hurt someones feelings.

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The actress that played Regina in "Mean Girls" (don't know why I can't think of her name) was almost 30 playing a 16 year old.

You know that most teens on TV shows are played by people in their mid-to-late 20s, right?
And that she is comparatively young to be playing a teen?

Michael Steger (sp) on 90210 is about 29/30 playing a 17(?) year old, and the guy on Hannah Montana, (I think you mean her brother), he's about 25 if I remember correctly. You're right, It happens all the time. Its so common now that in real life teens actually appear to be younger to us than they are. I was watching Dr. Phil the other day (I'm still out of college for summer you see), and it was an older episode about some junkie young mother and she had two kids they kept mentioning, and I couldn't help thinking how sad it was that she was a teen mother with so many problems. Till the Doc said she was 28. And she wasn't even someone who was particularily young-looking.
Its just a Hollywood thing. Actors who are in their 20s play teens, 30s play 20s, 30s, and 40s. Its really only kids who play according to age.
"You sir, are a braggard and a nincompoop, fly Augustus!" - Russell Howard

TrangPak, she looks like a teen so yeah, she can play one just fine. And that Edith woman's skin looks red/tan, aged, wrinkled, and scarred, whereas Nikki looks quite nice with smooth, porcelain, youthful, skin. They look nothing alike. And that Edith woman is much larger. I think you're exaggerating because you're bias and dislike Blonski, perhaps among other things, for being fat.
I met Cinderella once she's actually kind of a bitch.

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Yeah but Eric Christian Olsen, Justin Chon and the guy from Hanna Montana are not 4 feet and weight 320 pounds, I'm sorry but if a film were ever made about Edith Massey, Nikki could easily slip into the role with very little make-up, Hell she could play the cheated on Mom in a remake of She-devil!
No way could she play a teen, Mother of teen, yes! cafeteria Lady, yes! Teen, NO!

Eric Christian Olsen played a high school student on
Fired Up!
and Justin Chon is doing the same thing on the
Twilight
movies and you have the guy on the
Hannah Montana
show (don't know his name right off) so this is quite common.

your wrong. she isnt 24 or 25 she was born in 88

So find a link to the interview where she said that she was 24-25 and post it.

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And why is the OP calling Nikki Curvy? There is nothing curvy about Nikki.

I agree ABC could've found another girl and there's no way she's 21 . in an interview she said she was 24 or 25 or something not that long ago, her age was changed so she came across as closer to the role's age.

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I really loved her in this part. And she was very much the 'teen' they needed for the role.