Ariana Grande is the epitome of a child star success story. She’s managed to do what many young aspiring stars only hope to achieve, building an impressive career that only seems to be getting more financially lucrative by the minute.

When Victorious premiered on Nickelodeon in 2010, young audiences got their first glimpse of a then-unknown Grande playing Cat Valentine.

A year after the series wrapped in 2013, TMZ unearthed the budding starlet’s first-ever entertainment contract and discovered that Miss Ari had been raking in serious money since her early teens. As the documents revealed, a 16-year-old Grande was making $9,000 per episode, and that’s just for the first season, which had 19 episodes. That’s $171,000 right there.

TMZ learned that she was also getting paid more for writing music for the series, including $4,000 for its theme song, $3,000 for another track that appeared in multiple episodes, and $1,500 for a 20-second piece. What’s more, while on the show, she also snagged a music contract promising her $50,000 for her debut album with the option of recording four more after that, with increasing rates.

#ArianaGrande #Ari #ThankUNext

Nickelodeon kickstart | 0:15
Smooth transition | 1:17
$30K in an hour | 1:45
Dangerous Woman payday | 2:57
Moving that merch | 3:26
High-profile partnerships | 3:45
Money in the bank | 4:14