In This Article
- The Apple TV+ Series
- McCurdy's Fiction Debut
- McCurdy's Own Account of the Novel's Origins
- What to Watch
Jennette McCurdy is navigating two major publishing and screen milestones at once. Apple TV+ announced on July 1, 2025, that it had greenlit a dramedy series inspired by her bestselling memoir I'm Glad My Mom Died, with Jennifer Aniston attached to star and executive produce, according to Deadline. Months later, on January 20, 2026, McCurdy published Half His Age: A Novel — her fiction debut — through Ballantine Books, per Wikipedia's entry on the title.
The Apple TV+ Series
Apple's own press release describes the project as a dramedy starring Aniston — an Emmy, SAG, and Golden Globe Award winner already known to Apple TV+ audiences from The Morning Show — with the series inspired by, rather than a direct adaptation of, McCurdy's memoir. Deadline confirmed that McCurdy herself is creating, writing, executive producing, and showrunning the project alongside co-writer Ari Katcher. Woman's World reported the series is planned for ten episodes. The announcement was also noted by Deadline's broader survey of book-to-screen adaptations as part of a wider trend of literary properties moving to streaming. Penguin Random House's author page separately confirms McCurdy's role as showrunner on the Apple TV+ project.
McCurdy's Fiction Debut
Half His Age centres on Waldo, a seventeen-year-old high school senior in Anchorage, Alaska, who pursues a relationship with her married creative writing teacher, Mr. Korgy. Penguin Random House describes the novel as "startlingly perceptive, mordantly funny, and keenly poignant," positioning it as a character study of a young woman's drive to be seen and desired. The novel debuted as a New York Times bestseller, according to the same publisher page. Critics including Elle, NPR, and the Los Angeles Times have offered prominent notices; NPR called McCurdy "a writer able to capture some of the darkest parts of human nature with unflinching honesty and devastating humor," while Elle stated that any doubt about whether her memoir's "narrative command… might translate to fiction" should "henceforth be put to rest." For a full assessment of the book, see LuvemBooks' review of Half His Age.
McCurdy's Own Account of the Novel's Origins
In interviews, McCurdy has been specific about the book's creative and personal roots. NPR's Andrew Limbong reported that the initial idea came to McCurdy on a bullet train in Japan when she was 24 — years before the memoir was written — and that she set the concept aside to complete I'm Glad My Mom Died first. According to Wikipedia, citing a New York Times interview, McCurdy described an age-gap relationship she experienced at 18 as a "jumping-off point" for the novel, while emphasising it is not autobiographical. She told NPR that revisiting drafts helped her recognise "a lot of unprocessed anger from some of my own life experiences" as an emotional driver. McCurdy also said she deliberately avoided a moralistic framing — having Waldo initiate the relationship and portraying her as "aggressive" and "bold" — and revised early versions in which Mr. Korgy read as "too villainous" to feel believable, per Wikipedia's sourced account of those interviews.
What to Watch
McCurdy signed a two-book, seven-figure deal with Ballantine Books in 2022, as Publishers Weekly reported and Wikipedia documents, meaning Half His Age fulfils that contract. No publication timeline for a third book has been announced in available sources. On the screen side, no premiere date for the Apple TV+ series has been confirmed publicly. McCurdy's dual role — as both a novelist delivering her first work of fiction and the showrunner of a major streamer project — makes her one of the more unusual figures currently straddling literary and television development simultaneously.