Following the news that Nickelodeon is currently in the process of creating a Victorious sequel series centered around Daniella Monet's character, Avan Jogia, who played Beck Oliver in the original series, weighed in on the possibility of making an appearance on the new show.
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| Adam Kudeimati |
Whilst spending an evening with Esquire's Trishna Rikhy to promote his new poetry book, Autopsy (of an Ex-Teen Heartthrob), Jogia revealed that he’s open to returning to the Victorious reboot, so long as his role is a silly one.
“There’s nothing more painful than trying to be serious about something that is truly silly,” he says. “And that’s the joy of it and it’s the levity of it. Especially in a world that is so dark. It’s nice to have levity. I know what we meant to a whole generation. I understand.”
Jogia's comments about the possibility of returning to Hollywood Arts once again follows Victoria Justice, who portrayed the titular character in the original series, also revealing that she's also open to returning for the spin-off.
In February, Nickelodeon revealed that it was in the process of developing a Victorious spinoff. The new iteration will take fans back to Hollywood Arts, but instead follow Monet's character, Trina Vega, who returns to her "old stomping grounds as the newest teacher at Hollywood’s most elite performing arts school."
Though it remains unclear if other Victorious cast members will be returning, early casting is underway with Hollywood Arts as the series' working title.
Autopsy compiles poems and narrative prose that chronicle a period of intense change in Jogia’s life: Within six months of dropping out of high school and moving to L.A. to find an acting job, he booked Victorious. At the same time, his mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She returned to Canada while he stayed in Los Angeles, left to his own devices.
“I stepped into an observer role in my life rather than a participant in my life,” he told Esquire's Trishna Rikhy. “I wrote poems throughout that entire experience, and so I thought if I reflected back on that time, I might be able to put together some semblance of what that time was like.”
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| The cast of 'Victorious'. Lisa Rose / Nickelodeon / Courtesy: Everett Collection |
Even today, Jogia knows how much shows like Victorious mean to young people. “The actors on those shows represent a warm part of most people’s lives,” he says.
And Victorious did mean a lot to a whole generation; it’s what gave Jogia fuel to show up and say his lines when he felt most disconnected from the work. He let the industry set him up as a teen heartthrob, attended the J-14 photoshoots, and did the whole charade—because none of it was about him.
“The actors on those [childhood] shows represent a warm part of most people’s lives,” Jogia said. “It represents a time when they had to take care of their brother because their parents were working all the time, or something horrible was going on at their house. They could go and watch the show where everything was fine and perfect and happy. We were a break from reality. But the cost of that is removing the reality of the lives of the people on the show, because their lives have to be perfect.”
Later in the evening, Jogia hosts a book reading to celebrate the launch of his new poetry book. “So here’s the thing about poetry,” he says. “Poetry is for healing trauma, for sure. But also I think that poetry is for telling the truth. And sometimes that is not a calm or quiet thing, and that’s what I realized when writing this book. Poetry, for me, feels a little bit more like war than it does like healing.”
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| Avan Jogia as 'Beck Oliver' and Victoria Justice as 'Tori Vega' on the set of 'Victorious'. | Nickelodeon |
During the Q&A, someone in the audience said that Jogia was the first South Asian character they saw on TV. “I went to a very white school, and I remember you being Beck was the first time anyone I ever heard white people be like, ‘Wow, brown people can be cool.’ And it just meant a lot to me.”
Earlier that day, Jogia revealed to Rikhy that representation for other brown kids was one of the things he was most proud of in his career. Jogia was one of very few Indian characters on television in the 2010s. Jogia also pointed it out, however, that he “was actually the only brown guy on television that wasn’t a geek.”
“Every brown kid I’ve ever talked to [tells me I represented them], and it makes me like, ‘Oh, that’s right, that’s why I was there,” he said. “That makes sense, that was the reason.’ Even though it sucked for me at the time.”
During the interview, Jogia also gave away a little trade secret from his time from working with Nickelodeon.
In the green room at the Strand before his book reading, 200 copies of Autopsy were stacked in front of him. He’s signed them all preemptively, so everybody who attended were able get a signed copy. Jogia signed each copy of the book at lightning speed, trying to hold conversation with Rikhy all the while, despite her insistence that she was there to observe.
“I got myself an easy signature when I was on Nickelodeon because they make you sign a bunch of stuff for, you know, purposes of selling stuff, much like I’m doing here,” he says.
In less than ten minutes, Jogia signs all 200 copies of the book.
You can read Avan Jogia's interview with Esquire's Trishna Rikhy on esquire.com.
Jogia's new book, Autopsy (of an Ex-Teen Heartthrob), is out now on physical, digital and audio.
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Originally published: March 07, 2025.
