title: Islamic terrorism

text: Deportation (expulsion) of suspects who are foreign nationals has been the cornerstone of Italy's preventive counter-terrorism strategy against jihadists. Deportees are prohibited from re-entering Italy and the entire Schengen Area for at least five years. This measure is particularly effective because in Italy, unlike in other Western European countries, many radicalized Muslims are first-generation immigrants without Italian citizenship. As elsewhere in Europe, prison inmates show signs of radicalization while incarcerated. In 2018, 41 individuals were deported upon release. Of the 147 people deported from 2015 to 2017, all were related to Islamist radicalization and 12 were imams. From January 2015 to April 2018, 300 individuals were expelled from Italian soil. The vast majority of the deportees come from North Africa, with most of the deportees come from Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt. A noted group came from the Balkans, with 13 individuals from Albania, 14 from Kosovo and 12 from Macedonia. A smaller group were from Asia, with Pakistanis constituting the largest group.


title: Islamic terrorism

text: In 2012, two men were sentenced in Oslo to seven and a half years in jail for an attack against Mohammad-cartoonist Kurt Westergaard. This was the first sentence under the new anti-terror legislation. A third man was freed from the accusation of terrorism, but was sentenced for helping with explosives and he received a fourth-month prison sentence.


title: Islamic terrorism

text: In 2015, the terrorist threat level was zero, on its scale which has four levels plus the "zero level". About 20–40 Polish nationals had travelled to the conflict zone in Syria-Iraq.


title: Islamic terrorism

text: Politically and religiously motivated attacks on civilians in Russia have been traced to separatist sentiment among the largely Muslim population of its North Caucasus region, particularly in Chechnya, where the central government of the Russian Federation has waged two bloody wars against the local secular separatist government since 1994. In the Moscow theater hostage crisis in October 2002, three Chechen separatist groups took an estimated 850 people hostage in the Russian capital; at least 129 hostages died during the storming by Russian special forces, all but one killed by the chemicals used to subdue the attackers (whether this attack would more properly be called a nationalist rather than an Islamist attack is in question). In the September 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis more than 1,000 people were taken hostage after a school in the Russian republic of North Ossetia–Alania was seized by a pro-Chechen multi-ethnic group aligned to Riyad-us Saliheen Brigade of Martyrs; hundreds of people died during the storming by Russian forces.


title: Islamic terrorism

text: Since 2000, Russia has also experienced a string of suicide bombings that killed hundreds of people in the Caucasian republics of Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, as well as in Russia proper including Moscow. Responsibility for most of these attacks was claimed by either Shamil Basayev's Islamic-nationalist rebel faction or, later, by Dokka Umarov's pan-Islamist movement Caucasus Emirate which is aiming to unite most of Russia's North Caucasus as an emirate since its creation in 2007. Since the creation of the Caucasus Emirate, the group has abandoned its secular nationalist goals and fully adopted the ideology of Salafist-takfiri Jihadism which seeks to advance the cause of Allah on the earth by waging war against the Russian government and non-Muslims in the North Caucasus, such as the local Sufi Muslim population, whom they view as mushrikeen (polytheists) who do not adhere to true Islamic teachings. In 2011, the U.S. Department of State included the Caucasus Emirate on its list of terrorist organisations.


title: Islamic terrorism

text: In 2010, Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, an Iraqi-born Swedish citizen, attempted to kill Christmas shoppers in Stockholm in the 2010 Stockholm bombings. According to investigations by FBI, the bombing would likely have killed between 30 and 40 people had it succeeded, and it is thought that al-Abdaly operated with a network.


title: Islamic terrorism

text: In April 2017 Rakhmat Akilov, a 39-year-old rejected asylum seeker born in the Soviet Union and a citizen of Uzbekistan, drove a truck down a pedestrian area in Stockholm and killed five people and injured dozens of others in the 2017 Stockholm truck attack. He has expressed sympathy with extremist organizations, among them the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).


title: Islamic terrorism

text: Historians have said that militant Islamism first gained ground among Kurds before its appeal grew among ethnic Turks and that the two most important radical Islamist organizsations have been an outgrowth of Kurdish Islamism rather than Turkish Islamism. The Turkish or Kurdish Hizbullah is a primarily Kurdish group has its roots in the predominantly Kurdish southeast of Turkey and among Kurds who migrated to the cities in Western Turkey. The members of the İBDA-C were predominantly Kurds, most members if not all are ethnic Kurds like its founder, as in the Hizbullah. The İBDA-C stressed its Kurdish roots, and is fighting Turkish secularism, and is also anti-Christian. The Hizbula reestablished in 2003 in southeastern Turkey and "today its ideology might be more widespread than ever among Kurds there". The influence of these groups confirms "the continuing Kurdish domination of Turkish islamism". Notable Kurdish Islamists include also(an Iraqi Kurd born in Sudan) co-founder of the Islamist terrorist network al-Qaeda. There is a strong Kurdish element in Turkish radical Islamism. Kurdish and Turkish Islamists have also co-operated together, one example being the 2003 Istanbul bombings, and this co-operation has also been observed in Germany, as in the case of the Sauerland terror cell. Political scientist Guido Steinberg stated that many top leaders of Islamist organizations in Turkey fled to Germany in the 2000s, and that the Turkish Hizbullah has also "left an imprint on Turkish Kurds in Germany". Also many Kurds from Iraq (there are about 50,000 to 80,000 Iraqi Kurds in Germany) financially supported Kurdish-Islamist groups like Ansar al Islam. Many Islamists in Germany are ethnic Kurds (Iraqi and Turkish Kurds) or Turks. Before 2006, the German Islamist scene was dominated by Iraqi Kurds and Palestinians, but since 2006 Kurds and Turks from Turkey are dominant.


title: Islamic terrorism

text: Hezbollah in Turkey (unrelated to the Shia Hezbollah in Lebanon) is a Sunni terrorist group accused of a series of attacks, including the November 2003 bombings of two synagogues, the British consulate in Istanbul and HSBC bank headquarters that killed 58. Hizbullah's leader, Hüseyin Velioğlu, was killed in action by Turkish police in Beykoz on 17 January 2000. Besides Hizbullah, other Islamic groups listed as a terrorist organization by Turkish police counter-terrorism include Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front, al-Qaeda in Turkey, Tevhid-Selam (also known as "al-Quds Army"), and Kalifatstaat ("Caliphate State", Hilafet Devleti). Islamic Party of Kurdistan and Hereketa İslamiya Kurdistan are also Islamist groups active against Turkey, however unlike Hizbullah they're yet to be listed as active terrorist organizations in Turkey by Turkish police counter-terrorism.


title: Islamic terrorism

text: The area that has seen some of the worst terror attacks in modern history has been Iraq as part of the Iraq War. In 2005, there were more than 400 incidents of suicide bombing attacks, killing more than 2,000 people. In 2006, almost half of all reported terrorist attacks in the world (6,600), and more than half of all terrorist fatalities (13,000), occurred in Iraq, according to the National Counterterrorism Center of the United States. Along with nationalist groups and criminal, non-political attacks, the Iraqi insurgency includes Islamist insurgent groups, such as Al-Qaeda in Iraq, who favor suicide attacks far more than non-Islamist groups. At least some of the terrorism has a transnational character in that some foreign Islamic jihadists have joined the insurgency.


title: Islamic terrorism

text: Hamas ("zeal" in Arabic and an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya) grew in power and began attacks on military and civilian targets in Israel at the beginning of the First Intifada in 1987. The 1988 charter of Hamas calls for the destruction of Israel. Hamas's armed wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was established in mid 1991 and claimed responsibility for numerous attacks against Israelis, principally suicide bombings and rocket attacks. Hamas has been accused of sabotaging the Israeli-Palestine peace process by launching attacks on civilians during Israeli elections to anger Israeli voters and facilitate the election of harder-line Israeli candidates. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist group by Canada, the United States, Israel, Australia, Japan, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and Human Rights Watch. It is banned in Jordan. Russia does not consider Hamas a terrorist group as it was "democratically elected". During the Second Intifada (September 2000 through August 2005) 39.9 percent of the suicide attacks were carried out by Hamas. The first Hamas suicide attack was the Mehola Junction bombing in 1993. Hamas claims its aims are "To contribute in the effort of liberating Palestine and restoring the rights of the Palestinian people under the sacred Islamic teachings of the Holy Quran, the Sunna (traditions) of Prophet Mohammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and the traditions of Muslims rulers and scholars noted for their piety and dedication."


title: Islamic terrorism

text: Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine is a Palestinian Islamist group based in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and dedicated to waging jihad to eliminate the state of Israel. It was formed by Palestinian Fathi Shaqaqi in the Gaza Strip following the Iranian Revolution which inspired its members. From 1983 onward, it engaged in "a succession of violent, high-profile attacks" on Israeli targets. The Intifada which "it eventually sparked" was quickly taken over by the much larger Palestine Liberation Organization and Hamas. Beginning in September 2000, it started a campaign of suicide bombing attacks against Israeli civilians. The PIJ's armed wing, the Al-Quds brigades, has claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist attacks in Israel, including suicide bombings. The group has been designated as a terrorist organization by several Western countries.


title: Islamic terrorism

text: Popular Resistance Committees is a coalition of a number of armed Palestinian groups opposed to what they regard as the conciliatory approach of the Palestinian Authority and Fatah towards Israel. The PRC is especially active in the Gaza Strip, through its military wing, the Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades. The PRC is said to have an extreme Islamic worldview and operates with Hamas and the Islamic Jihad movement. The PRC has carried out several attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers including hundreds of shooting attacks and other rocket and bombing attacks.


title: Islamic terrorism

text: Other groups linked with Al-Qaeda operate in the Gaza Strip including: Army of Islam, Abdullah Azzam Brigades, Jund Ansar Allah, Jaljalat and Tawhid al-Jihad.


title: Islamic terrorism

text: Hezbollah first emerged in 1982, as a militia during the 1982 Lebanon War. Its leaders were inspired by the Ayatollah Khomeini, and its forces were trained and organized by a contingent of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Hezbollah's 1985 manifesto listed its three main goals as "putting an end to any colonialist entity" in Lebanon, bringing the Phalangists to justice for "the crimes they [had] perpetrated", and the establishment of an Islamic regime in Lebanon. Hezbollah leaders have also made numerous statements calling for the destruction of Israel, which they refer to as a "Zionist entity... built on lands wrested from their owners."


title: Islamic terrorism

text: Hezbollah, which started with only a small militia, has grown to an organization with seats in the Lebanese government, a radio and a satellite television-station, and programs for social development. They maintain strong support among Lebanon's Shi'a population, and gained a surge of support from Lebanon's broader population (Sunni, Christian, Druze) immediately following the 2006 Lebanon War, and are able to mobilize demonstrations of hundreds of thousands. Hezbollah along with some other groups began the 2006–2008 Lebanese political protests in opposition to the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. A later dispute over Hezbollah preservation of its telecoms network led to clashes and Hezbollah-led opposition fighters seized control of several West Beirut neighborhoods from Future Movement militiamen loyal to Fouad Siniora. These areas were then handed over to the Lebanese Army.


title: Islamic terrorism

text: A national unity government was formed in 2008, in Lebanon, giving Hezbollah and its opposition allies control of 11 of 30 cabinets seats; effectively veto power. Hezbollah receives its financial support from the governments of Iran and Syria, as well as donations from Lebanese people and foreign Shi'as. It has also gained significantly in military strength in the 2000s. Despite a June 2008 certification by the United Nations that Israel had withdrawn from all Lebanese territory,<ref name="SC/6878"></ref> in August, Lebanon's new Cabinet unanimously approved a draft policy statement which secures Hezbollah's existence as an armed organization and guarantees its right to "liberate or recover occupied lands". Since 1992, the organization has been headed by Hassan Nasrallah, its Secretary-General. The United States, Canada, Israel, Bahrain, France, Gulf Cooperation Council, and the Netherlands regard Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, while the United Kingdom, the European Union and Australia consider only Hezbollah's military wing or its external security organization to be a terrorist organization. Many consider it, or a part of it, to be a terrorist group responsible for blowing up the American embassy and later its annex, as well as the barracks of American and French peacekeeping troops and dozens of kidnappings of foreigners in Beirut. It is also accused of being the recipient of massive aid from Iran, and of serving "Iranian foreign policy calculations and interests", or serving as a "subcontractor of Iranian initiatives" Hezbollah denies any involvement or dependence on Iran. In the Arab and Muslim worlds, on the other hand, Hezbollah is regarded as a legitimate and successful resistance movement that drove both Western powers and Israel out of Lebanon. In 2005, the Lebanese Prime Minister said of Hezbollah, it "is not a militia. It's a resistance."


title: Islamic terrorism

text: Fatah al-Islam is an Islamist group operating out of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon. It was formed in November 2006, by fighters who broke off from the pro-Syrian Fatah al-Intifada, itself a splinter group of the Palestinian Fatah movement, and is led by a Palestinian fugitive militant named Shaker al-Abssi. The group's members have been described as militant jihadists, and the group itself has been described as a terrorist movement that draws inspiration from al-Qaeda. Its stated goal is to reform the Palestinian refugee camps under Islamic sharia law, and its primary targets are the Lebanese authorities, Israel and the United States.


title: Islamic terrorism

text: According to recent government statements Islamic terrorism is the biggest threat to Canada. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) reported that terrorist radicalization at home is now the chief preoccupation of Canada's spy agency. The most notorious arrest in Canada's fight on terrorism, was the 2006 Ontario terrorism plot in which 18 Al-Qaeda-inspired cell members were arrested for planning a mass bombing, shooting, and hostage taking terror plot throughout Southern Ontario. There have also been other arrests mostly in Ontario involving terror plots.


title: Islamic terrorism

text: Between 1993 and 2001, the major attacks or attempts against U.S. interests stemmed from militant Islamic jihad extremism except for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. On 11 September 2001, nearly 3,000 people were killed in New York City, Washington, DC, and Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, during the September 11 attacks organized by 19 al-Qaeda members and largely perpetrated by Saudi nationals, sparking the War on Terror. Former CIA Director Michael Hayden considers homegrown terrorism to be the most dangerous threat and concern faced by American citizens today. As of July 2011, there have been 52 homegrown jihadist extremist plots or attacks in the United States since the 11 September attacks.


title: Islamic terrorism

text: One of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history was committed by a Muslim against LGBT people. Omar Mateen, in an act motivated by the terrorist group Islamic State, shot and murdered 49 people and wounded more than 50 in a gay nightclub, Pulse, in Orlando, Florida.


title: Islamic terrorism

text: The 1992 attack on Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, was a suicide bombing attack on the building of the Israeli embassy of Argentina, located in Buenos Aires, which was carried out on 17 March 1992. Twenty-nine civilians were killed in the attack and 242 additional civilians were injured. A group called Islamic Jihad Organization, which has been linked to Iran and possibly Hezbollah, claimed responsibility.


title: Islamic terrorism

text: An incident from 1994, known as the AMIA bombing, was an attack on the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (Argentine Israelite Mutual Association) building in Buenos Aires. It occurred on 18 July and killed 85 people and injured hundreds more. A suicide bomber drove a Renault Trafic van bomb loaded with about of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and fuel oil explosive mixture, into the Jewish Community Center building located in a densely constructed commercial area of Buenos Aires. Prosecutors Alberto Nisman and Marcelo Martínez Burgos formally accused the government of Iran of directing the bombing, and the Hezbollah militia of carrying it out. The prosecution claimed that Argentina had been targeted by Iran after Buenos Aires' decision to suspend a nuclear technology transfer contract to Tehran.


title: Islamic terrorism

text: On 18 January 2015, Nisman was found dead at his home in Buenos Aires, one day before he was scheduled to report on his findings, with supposedly incriminating evidence against high-ranking officials of the then-current Argentinian government including former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.


title: Islamic terrorism

text: Al-Qaeda's stated aim is the use of jihad to defend and protect Islam against Zionism, Christianity, the secular West, and Muslim governments such as Saudi Arabia, which it sees as insufficiently Islamic and too closely tied to the United States. Formed by Osama bin Laden and Muhammad Atef in the aftermath of the Soviet–Afghan War in the late 1980s, al-Qaeda called for the use of violence against civilians and military of the United States and any countries that are allied with it.


title: Starboy (album)

text: Starboy is the third studio album by Canadian singer the Weeknd, released on November 25, 2016, through XO and Republic Records. It features guest appearances from Daft Punk, Lana Del Rey, Kendrick Lamar, and Future. As the album's executive producers, the Weeknd and Doc McKinney enlisted a variety of producers such as Diplo, Cashmere Cat, Metro Boomin, Frank Dukes, and Labrinth, among others.


title: Starboy (album)

text: "Starboy" was supported by seven singles, including the US "Billboard" Hot 100 number-one lead single of the same name and the top-five single "I Feel It Coming". It received generally favorable reviews from critics and debuted at number one on the US "Billboard" 200 with 348,000 album-equivalent units (209,000 of which were pure sales), becoming the Weeknd's second consecutive number-one album. It also debuted at number one on "Billboard"s Canadian Albums Chart. "Starboy" won Best Urban Contemporary Album at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards in 2018, marking the Weeknd's second win in that category. As of April 2022, the album is certified four-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).


title: Starboy (album)

text: After the commercial success of his previous album "Beauty Behind the Madness" (2015), the Weeknd hinted at the release of his third studio album on March 12, 2016, with an Instagram post calling it the next "chapter" to his music. On August 24, the executive vice president of Republic Records Wendy Goldstein confirmed during an interview with "Billboard" that the Weeknd would be collaborating with French electronic duo Daft Punk. On September 7, the Weeknd revealed during an interview with "VMan" that the album was in production and was influenced by Prince, the Smiths, Talking Heads and Bad Brains. He later revealed the album's overall theme and additional influences during his own interview with "Billboard":


title: Starboy (album)

text: The Weeknd formally announced his third studio album on September 21, by sharing its title and release date of November 25. The album cover was photographed and designed by Nabil Elderkin, and its CD booklet features eleven portraits of the Weeknd shot by Elderkin.


title: Starboy (album)

text: Primarily a R&B, pop and trap record, "Starboy" incorporates elements of new wave, disco, dance-punk, electro-rock, electropop, electro-dance, 2-step, and disco-house. Lyrical themes include celebrity extravagance, braggadocio, romance and materialism.


title: Starboy (album)

text: On September 21, 2016, the album's lead single, "Starboy", was released digitally on music stores and streaming services. The song features guest appearances from French electronic duo Daft Punk. The music video for the song premiered on September 28. The song peaked at number one on the US "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Starboy (album)

text: "I Feel It Coming" was serviced to British contemporary hit radio on November 24, 2016, and later to rhythmic contemporary radio on December 6, 2016, as the album's second single. The song peaked at number four on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Starboy (album)

text: "Party Monster" was released to urban contemporary radio on December 6, 2016, as the album's third single. The song peaked at number 16 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Starboy (album)

text: "Reminder" was released to rhythmic contemporary radio on May 9, 2017, as the album's fourth single in the United States. The song peaked at number 31 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Starboy (album)

text: "Rockin' was released to contemporary hit radio in France on May 9, 2017, as the album's fifth international single. The song peaked at number 44 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Starboy (album)

text: "Die for You" was released to rhythmic contemporary radio on September 19, 2017, as the album's fifth single in the United States. The song peaked at number 43 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 during its original run and achieved a new peak of number 12 in November 2022.


title: Starboy (album)

text: "Secrets" was released to radio in Italy on November 10, 2017, as the album's seventh and final international single. The song peaked at number 47 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Starboy (album)

text: The Weeknd was a musical guest on the season 42 season premiere of "Saturday Night Live". He promoted the album by performing both "Starboy" and "False Alarm" and starred in a brief cameo on the "Weeknd Update" sketch, where he acknowledged his new haircut. On November 20, 2016, the Weeknd sang "Starboy" at the 2016 American Music Awards. Four days later, the Weeknd appeared on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" to perform both "I Feel It Coming" and "Starboy". On December 6, he performed at the 2016 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show on CBS. On February 12, 2017, the Weeknd and Daft Punk performed at the 2017 Grammy Awards.


title: Starboy (album)

text: On November 25, 2016, all of the album's tracks played throughout the Weeknd's interview with Zane Lowe for Beats 1.


title: Starboy (album)

text: On November 23, 2016, the Weeknd released a 12-minute-long short film in promotion of the album, directed by Grant Singer, who also directed the "Starboy" music video. Named "Mania" (stylized as "M A N I A"), it features the songs such as "All I Know" featuring Future, "Sidewalks" featuring Kendrick Lamar, "Secrets", "Die for You", "Party Monster" and "I Feel It Coming" featuring Daft Punk. It stars French model Anais Mali as the female protagonist.


title: Starboy (album)

text: "Starboy" was met with generally favorable reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 67, based on 25 reviews. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 6.4 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.


title: Starboy (album)

text: Annie Zaleski of "The A.V. Club" praised the album saying, "The record is a few songs too long, and it loses steam as it progresses. But such imperfections are par for the course: He'd rather express everything he's feeling than put forth an airbrushed or idealized version of himself. In that sense, "Starboy" is one of the most confident releases of the year, one bold enough to reveal the cracks in The Weeknd's façade for the sake of resonant art". Michael Madden of "Consequence" said, "It would help if more of the album were idiosyncratic that way, but as is, "Starboy" is still the sound of Tesfaye knowing he has what it takes to be a major figure in pop music for a very long time". Neil McCormick of "The Daily Telegraph" gave the album a positive review stating, "What is surprising is how seamless and integrated the sound is—a really luxurious, supple groove of sparkling electronica and sinuous, melodic vocals". Nolan Feeney of "Entertainment Weekly" wrote: "While musicians writing about coping with newfound celebrity is one of pop's oldest tropes, the Weeknd avoids the usual clichés with observations and anecdotes that feel specific and genuine." Ryan B. Patrick of "Exclaim!" saying "Those wishing for a return to the "Trilogy" days will have to bit a tad longer; across 18 tracks, the Weeknd proves he's ready for primetime here, but there's still a sense of feeling out the new parameters". Mehan Jayasuriya of "Pitchfork" said, ""Starboy", by way of contrast [to "Trilogy"], feels more like an opportunistic compilation of B-sides than an album. Who is the Weeknd? At this point, even the man behind the curtain might not know".


title: Starboy (album)

text: In a mixed review, AllMusic's Andy Kellman stated: "The productions—the majority of which involve Doc McKinney and/or Cirkut, low-lighted by maneater dance-punk dud "False Alarm"—are roughly as variable in style as they are in quality. When pared down to its ten best songs, "Starboy" sounds like Tesfaye's most accomplished work." Alexis Petridis of "The Guardian" said, "There are things worth hearing on "Starboy". It seems to capture an artist in a slightly awkward state of flux, unsure whether to cravenly embrace the kind of pop stardom that gets you on the shortlist for the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice awards or throw caution to the wind and do something more interesting artistically. "Starboy" hedges its bets and tries to do both. You can see why, but it makes for a curiously uneven album". In another mixed review, "Rolling Stone"s Mosi Reeves stated: "Despite an overlong hour-plus runtime and surplus of filler, "Starboy" does have highlights. ... But for longtime fans that believe the Weeknd is one of the major R&B artists of the decade, "Starboy" will ultimately seem like a disappointment."


title: Starboy (album)

text: In the United States, "Starboy" debuted at number one on the "Billboard" 200 with 348,000 album-equivalent units, calculated from 209,000 pure album sales and 175.2 million on-demand streams. It marked the Weeknd's second consecutive number-one album and the third-largest debut sales week of 2016. At the time, "Starboy" had the second-largest streaming week for an album ever behind Drake's "Views". All 18 songs from the album charted on the "Billboard" Hot 100. It marked the second-best total simultaneous Hot 100 entries at the time, after Drake charted 20 songs at the same time in May 2016. "Starboy" was ranked as the third most popular album of 2017 on the "Billboard" 200.


title: Starboy (album)

text: On April 5, 2022, "Starboy" was certified four-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and streams in excess of four million units in the United States.


title: Brookings Institution

text: The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics (and tax policy), metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, global economy, and economic development. Its stated mission is to "provide innovative and practical recommendations that advance three broad goals: strengthen American democracy; foster the economic and social welfare, security and opportunity of all Americans; and secure a more open, safe, prosperous, and cooperative international system."


title: Brookings Institution

text: Brookings has five research programs at its Washington campus: Economic Studies, Foreign Policy, Governance Studies, Global Economy and Development, and Metropolitan Policy. It also established and operated three international centers in Doha, Qatar (Brookings Doha Center); Beijing, China (Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy); and New Delhi, India (Brookings India). In 2020 and 2021, the institution announced it was separating entirely from its centers in Doha and New Delhi, and transitioning its center in Beijing to an informal partnership with Tsinghua University, known as Brookings-Tsinghua China.


title: Brookings Institution

text: The University of Pennsylvania's "Global Go To Think Tank Index Report" has named Brookings "Think Tank of the Year" and "Top Think Tank in the World" every year since 2008. "The Economist" describes Brookings as "perhaps America’s most prestigious think-tank."


title: Brookings Institution

text: Brookings states that its staff "represent diverse points of view" and describes itself as nonpartisan, and various media outlets have alternately described Brookings as centrist, center-left, liberal, or right-wing. An academic analysis of congressional records from 1993 to 2002 found that Brookings was cited by conservative politicians almost as often as by liberal politicians, earning a score of 53 on a 1–100 scale, 100 representing the most liberal score. The same study found Brookings to be the most frequently cited think tank by U.S. media and politicians.


title: Brookings Institution

text: Brookings was founded in 1916 as the Institute for Government Research (IGR), with the mission of becoming "the first private organization devoted to analyzing public policy issues at the national level." The organization was founded on 13 March 1916 and began operations on 1 October 1916.


title: Brookings Institution

text: The Institution's founder, philanthropist Robert S. Brookings (1850–1932), originally created three organizations: the Institute for Government Research, the Institute of Economics (with funds from the Carnegie Corporation), and the Robert Brookings Graduate School affiliated with Washington University in St. Louis. The three were merged into the Brookings Institution on December 8, 1927.


title: Brookings Institution

text: During the Great Depression, economists at Brookings embarked on a large-scale study commissioned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to understand its underlying causes. Brookings's first president, Harold G. Moulton, and other Brookings scholars later led an effort to oppose Roosevelt's National Recovery Administration because they thought it impeded economic recovery.


title: Brookings Institution

text: With the U.S. entry into World War II in 1941, Brookings researchers turned their attention to aiding the administration with a series of studies on mobilization. In 1948, Brookings was asked to submit a plan for administering the European Recovery Program. The resulting organization scheme assured that the Marshall Plan was run carefully and on a businesslike basis.


title: Brookings Institution

text: In 1952, Robert Calkins succeeded Moulton as president of the Brookings Institution. He secured grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation that put Brookings on a strong financial basis. He reorganized it around the Economic Studies, Government Studies, and Foreign Policy Programs. In 1957, Brookings moved from Jackson Avenue to a new research center near Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C.


title: Brookings Institution

text: Kermit Gordon assumed the presidency of Brookings in 1967. He began a series of studies of program choices for the federal budget in 1969 titled "Setting National Priorities." He also expanded the Foreign Policy Studies Program to include research in national security and defense. After Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968, the relationship between Brookings and the White House deteriorated; at one point Nixon's aide Charles Colson proposed a firebombing of the institution. G. Gordon Liddy and the White House Plumbers actually made a plan to firebomb the headquarters and steal classified files, but it was canceled because the Nixon administration refused to pay for a fire engine as a getaway vehicle. Yet throughout the 1970s, Brookings was offered more federal research contracts than it could handle.


title: Brookings Institution

text: After Gordon died in 1976, Gilbert Y. Steiner, director of the governmental studies program, was appointed the fourth and acting president of the Brookings Institution by the board of trustees. As director of the governmental studies program, Steiner brought in numerous scholars whose research ranges from administrative reform to urban policy, not only enhancing the visibility and influence of the Brookings program in Washington and nationally, but also producing works that have survived as classics in the field of political science.


title: Brookings Institution

text: By the 1980s, Brookings faced an increasingly competitive and ideologically charged intellectual environment. The need to reduce the federal budget deficit became a major research theme, as did problems with national security and government inefficiency. Bruce MacLaury, Brookings's fifth president, also established the Center for Public Policy Education to develop workshop conferences and public forums to broaden the audience for research programs.


title: Brookings Institution

text: In 1995, Michael Armacost became the sixth president of the Brookings Institution and led an effort to refocus its mission heading into the 21st century. Under his direction, Brookings created several interdisciplinary research centers, such as the Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy (now the Metropolitan Policy Program, led by Bruce J. Katz), which brought attention to the strengths of cities and metropolitan areas; and the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies, which brings together specialists from different Asian countries to examine regional problems.


title: Brookings Institution

text: Strobe Talbott became president of Brookings in 2002. Shortly thereafter, Brookings launched the Saban Center for Middle East Policy and the John L. Thornton China Center. In 2006, Brookings announced the establishment of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center in Beijing. In July 2007, Brookings announced the creation of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform to be directed by senior fellow Mark McClellan, and in October 2007 the creation of the Brookings Doha Center directed by fellow Hady Amr in Qatar. During this period the funding of Brookings by foreign governments and corporations came under public scrutiny (see Funding controversies below).


title: Brookings Institution

text: In October 2017, former general John R. Allen became the eighth president of Brookings. Allen resigned on June 12, 2022, amid an FBI foreign lobbying investigation.


title: Brookings Institution

text: Brookings as an institution produces an Annual Report. The Brookings Institution Press publishes books and journals from the institution's own research as well as authors outside the organization. The books and journals it publishes include "Brookings Papers on Economic Activity", "Brookings Review" (1982–2003, ), "America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy", "Globalphobia: Confronting Fears about Open Trade", "India: Emerging Power", "Through Their Eyes", "Taking the High Road", "Masses in Flight", US Public Policy Regarding Sovereign Wealth Fund Investment in the United States and "Stalemate". In addition, books, papers, articles, reports, policy briefs and opinion pieces are produced by Brookings research programs, centers, projects and, for the most part, by experts. Brookings also cooperates with the Lawfare Institute in publishing the "Lawfare" blog.


title: Brookings Institution

text: Brookings traces its history to 1916 and has contributed to the creation of the United Nations, the Marshall Plan, and the Congressional Budget Office, as well as to the development of influential policies for deregulation, broad-based tax reform, welfare reform, and foreign aid. The annual think tank index published by "Foreign Policy" ranks it the number one think tank in the U.S. and the Global Go To Think Tank Index believes it is the number one such tank in the world. Moreover, in spite of an overall decline in the number of times information or opinions developed by think tanks are cited by U.S. media, of the 200 most prominent think tanks in the U.S., the Brookings Institution's research remains the most frequently cited.


title: Brookings Institution

text: In a 1997 survey of congressional staff and journalists, Brookings ranked as the most influential and first in credibility among 27 think tanks considered. Yet "Brookings and its researchers are not so concerned, in their work, in affecting the ideological direction of the nation" and rather tend "to be staffed by researchers with strong academic credentials". Along with the Council on Foreign Relations and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Brookings is generally considered one of the most influential policy institutes in the U.S.


title: Brookings Institution

text: As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Brookings describes itself as independent and nonpartisan. A 2005 UCLA study concluded it was "centrist" because it was referenced as an authority almost equally by both conservative and liberal politicians in congressional records from 1993 to 2002. "The New York Times" has called Brookings liberal, liberal-centrist, and centrist. "The Washington Post" has called Brookings centrist, liberal, and center-left. The "Los Angeles Times" called Brookings liberal-leaning and centrist before opining that it did not believe such labels mattered.


title: Brookings Institution

text: In 1977, "Time" magazine called Brookings the "nation's pre-eminent liberal think tank". "Newsweek" has called it centrist and "Politico" has used the term "center-left".


title: Brookings Institution

text: The media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, which describes itself as "progressive", has called Brookings "centrist", "conservative", "center-right", and right-wing "extremist."


title: Brookings Institution

text: Journalists at "The Atlantic" and "Salon" have argued that Brookings foreign policy scholars were overly supportive of Bush administration policies abroad.


title: Brookings Institution

text: Brookings scholars have served in Republican and Democratic administrations, including Mark McClellan, Ron Haskins and Martin Indyk.


title: Brookings Institution

text: Brookings's board of trustees is composed of 53 trustees and more than three dozen honorary trustees, including Kenneth Duberstein, a former chief of staff to Ronald Reagan. Aside from political figures, the board of trustees includes leaders in business and industry, including Haim Saban, Robert Bass, Hanzade Doğan Boyner, Paul L. Cejas, W. Edmund Clark, Abby Joseph Cohen, Betsy Cohen, Susan Crown, Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., Jason Cummins, Paul Desmarais Jr., Kenneth M. Duberstein, Glenn Hutchins, and Philip H. Knight (chairman emeritus of Nike, Inc).


title: Brookings Institution

text: Starting with the 1990 election cycle, Brookings employees gave $853,017 to Democratic candidates and $26,104 to Republican candidates. In total, since 1990, 96% of its political donations have gone to Democrats.


title: Brookings Institution

text: Since its incorporation as the Brookings Institution in 1927, it has been led by accomplished academics and public servants. Brookings has had eight presidents, including one in acting capacity. The current interim president is Amy Liu, who replaced Ted Gayer, who began serving on an acting basis since June 12, 2022.


title: Brookings Institution

text: Notable current and former Brookings scholars include former Federal Reserve chairs Janet Yellen and Ben Bernanke; former Federal Reserve vice chairs Donald Kohn, Alice Rivlin, and Alan Blinder; former chairs of the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) Jason Furman and Martin Neil Baily; former CEA members Sandra Black, Jay Shambaugh, and James H. Stock; former director of the Congressional Budget Office Douglas Elmendorf; former US secretary of education Arne Duncan; former Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Martin Indyk; dean of the University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy Susan M. Collins; former Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler; "Washington Post" columnist E. J. Dionne; "Wall Street Journal" columnist William Galston; former NSC official Fiona Hill; and Eurasia analyst Igor Danchenko.


title: Brookings Institution

text: In 2002, the Brookings Institution established the Center for Middle East Policy "to promote a better understanding of the policy choices facing American decision-makers in the Middle East".


title: Brookings Institution

text: In 2006, the Brookings Institution established the Brookings-Tsinghua Center (BTC) for Public Policy as a partnership between the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC and Tsinghua University's School of Public Policy and Management in Beijing, China. The Center seeks to produce research in areas of fundamental importance for China's development and for US-China relations. The BTC was directed by Qi Ye until 2019.


title: Brookings Institution

text: The 21st Century Defense Initiative (21CDI) is aimed at producing research, analysis, and outreach that address three core issues: the future of war, the future of U.S. defense needs and priorities, and the future of the US defense system.


title: Brookings Institution

text: The Initiative draws on the knowledge from regional centers, including the Center on the United States and Europe, the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies, the Thornton China Center, and the Center for Middle East Policy, allowing the integration of regional knowledge.


title: Brookings Institution

text: P. W. Singer, author of "Wired for War", serves as Director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative, and Michael O'Hanlon serves as Director of Research. Senior Fellow Stephen P. Cohen and Vanda Felbab-Brown are also affiliated with 21CDI.


title: Brookings Institution

text: Under MacLaury's leadership in the 1980s, the Center for Public Policy Education (CPPE) was formed to develop workshop conferences and public forums to broaden the audience for research programs. In 2005, the center was renamed the Brookings Center for Executive Education (BCEE), which was shortened to Brookings Executive Education (BEE) with the launch of a partnership with the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. The academic partnership is now known as "WashU at Brookings".


title: Brookings Institution

text: As of 2017 the Brookings Institution had assets of $524.2 million. Its largest contributors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Hutchins Family Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, the LEGO Foundation, David Rubenstein, State of Qatar, and John L. Thornton.


title: Brookings Institution

text: A 2014 investigation by "The New York Times" found Brookings to be among more than a dozen Washington research groups and think tanks to have received payments from foreign governments while encouraging American government officials to support policies aligned with those foreign governments' agendas. "The Times" published documents showing that Brookings accepted grants from Norway with specific policy requests and helped it gain access to U.S. government officials, as well as other "deliverables". In June 2014, Norway agreed to make an additional $4 million donation to Brookings. Several legal specialists who examined the documents told the paper that the language of the transactions "appeared to necessitate Brookings filing as a foreign agent" under the Foreign Agent Registration Act.


title: Brookings Institution

text: The Qatari government, named by "The New York Times" as "the single biggest foreign donor to Brookings", reportedly made a $14.8 million, four-year contribution in 2013. A former visiting fellow at a Brookings affiliate in Qatar reportedly said that "he had been told during his job interview that he could not take positions critical of the Qatar government in papers". Brookings officials denied any connection between the views of their funders and their scholars' work, citing reports that questioned the Qatari government's education reform efforts and criticized its support of militants in Syria. But Brookings officials reportedly acknowledged that they meet with Qatari government officials regularly.


title: Brookings Institution

text: In 2018, "The Washington Post" reported that Brookings accepted funding from Huawei from 2012 to 2018. A report by the Center for International Policy's Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative of the top 50 think tanks on the University of Pennsylvania's Global Go-To Think Tanks rating index found that between 2014 and 2018, Brookings received the third-highest amount of funding from outside the United States compared to other think tanks, with a total of more than $27 million.


title: Brookings Institution

text: In 2022, Brookings president John R. Allen resigned amid an FBI probe into lobbying on behalf of Qatar.


title: Brookings Institution

text: The main building of the Institution was erected in 1959 on 1775 Massachusetts Avenue. In 2009, Brookings acquired a building across the street, a former mansion built by the Ingalls family in 1922 on a design by Jules Henri de Sibour. This extension now houses the office of the President of the Brookings Institution.


title: Brookings Institution

text: After Islamist militants associated with Al-Qaeda attacked Timbuktu, Mali, in 2012, Manny Ansar, founding director of the Festival au Désert, collaborated with American music producer Chris Shields, Malian social entrepreneur Salif Romano Niang, and former American ambassador Cynthia Schneider to found the Timbuktu Renaissance (TR). The Timbuktu Renaissance launched in June 2014 at the Brookings Institution's US-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar. Artists, scholars, and cultural leaders (including Vieux Farka Touré and Abdel Kader Haidara, the "bad-ass librarian of Timbuktu") met with government leaders (including the newly elected president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta), along with American counterparts, to develop a strategy using Mali's music and cultural heritage to help the city recover from conflict.


title: Brookings Institution

text: The initiative "seeks to boost Mali's creative industries, such as tourism, literature, architecture, music, film and art, as well as mobilize investment for sustainable economic development in areas including education, agriculture, renewable energy and natural resources". Google Arts & Culture has worked with TR and Haidara to digitize the manuscripts the librarians saved. TR's first public concert was given in December 2017, thereafter taking place each month. It also produces albums and runs residencies for musicians.


title: Izzie Stevens

text: Isobel Katherine Stevens, M.D. is a fictional character from the medical drama television series "Grey's Anatomy", which airs on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in the United States. The character was created by series producer Shonda Rhimes, and was portrayed by actress Katherine Heigl from 2005 to 2010. Introduced as a surgical intern at the fictional Seattle Grace Hospital, Izzie worked her way up to resident level, while her relationships with her colleagues Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) and George O'Malley (T. R. Knight) formed a focal point of the series.


title: Izzie Stevens

text: Heigl garnered high critical acclaim for her performance as Izzie and received numerous awards and nominations for her role, winning the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2007. She was critical of the character's development during the show's fourth season, particularly her romance with her on-screen best friend George. She declined to pursue a nomination for the 2008 Emmy Awards, citing insufficient material in the role. After speculation that Izzie would be killed off in the fifth season, the character was diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic melanoma. She married Alex in the series' 100th episode, and afterwards, her tumor was successfully removed. Heigl made her final series regular appearance as Izzie in the sixth season, leaving Seattle after Alex refused to resume their marriage. The actress requested to be released from her contract 18 months early, in order to spend more time with her family. Ten years after her final appearance, the character's fate was revealed in a season 16 episode, where she makes a visual cameo re-appearance.


title: Izzie Stevens

text: Isobel Katherine "Izzie" Stevens (born 1980) is the daughter of a single mother named Robbie (Sharon Lawrence). They lived together in a trailer park, and Stevens was affectionately nicknamed "Cricket" by her mother. A teenage pregnant patient of hers named Cheynne (Regine Nehy) identifies her trailer as being situated behind a church. Her maternal grandmother died of thryoid cancer sometime before her surgical residency. Growing up, Izzie was encouraged to go into the medical field by her high school biology teacher, Dr. Singer (Joel Grey).


title: Izzie Stevens

text: When Izzie was 15, she became pregnant with her first biological child, Hannah Klein (Liv Hutchings) and this caused her to have friction with cheerleaders at her high school. In his Alzheimer's state, Dr. Singer recognizes the father of her child as a fellow high school student. She placed the child for adoption at age 16 after giving birth in 1996. Izzie privately named her daughter Sarah despite her adoptive parents naming her Hannah. Two years later, Stevens departed her hometown of Chehalis, Washington at age 18 and never returned until her third year of residency. After snooping through her file, Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh) also discovers Stevens attended night school for college and consequently took six years to finish her undergraduate degree.


title: Izzie Stevens

text: Izzie is introduced as a 25-year-old former model in the first episode of "Grey's Anatomy", meeting fellow surgical interns Meredith, Cristina, Alex, and George. She and George move in with Meredith and become best friends. Izzie's boyfriend, hockey player Hank (Jonathan Scarfe), struggles to accept her new role as a surgeon, and the two break up. Izzie is hurt when Alex exposes her past as a lingerie model. However, the two later go on to begin a friendship, and then a romance. Alex experiences sexual dysfunction with Izzie and cheats on her with nurse Olivia Harper (Sarah Utterback). When Izzie finds out, she breaks up with him, though they briefly reunite following a bomb incident at the hospital. Izzie falls in love with cardiothoracic patient Denny Duquette (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and the two become engaged. When Denny's condition deteriorates, Izzie deliberately worsens his health further by cutting his LVAD wire to move him up the UNOS donor register. Although Denny receives a new heart, he has a stroke hours later and dies. Izzie is the sole beneficiary of Denny's will, inheriting $8.7 million. She uses the money to open a free clinic at the hospital: the Denny Duquette Memorial Clinic.


title: Izzie Stevens

text: Izzie disapproves of George's relationship with and marriage to orthopedic resident Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez). She and George sleep together, and attempt to keep their liaison a secret. George and resident Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) are the only ones made aware that Izzie gave her child up for adoption at age 16. He supports Izzie when an 11-year-old Hannah, diagnosed with leukemia, arrives at Seattle Grace Hospital in need of a bone marrow transplant from Izzie. Izzie's feelings for George grow, and she reveals that she has fallen in love with him. The fourth season premiere "A Change Is Gonna Come" sees 28-year-old Stevens and her peers, except George, promoted to second-year residents. When Callie discovers George has been unfaithful, the two separate, and George and Izzie embark on a short-lived relationship, only to discover there is no real chemistry between them, and they decide to end their relationship and remain friends. Izzie supports Alex when he discovers his new girlfriend, Rebecca (Elizabeth Reaser) has psychiatric problems, and convinces him to have her committed. She is also handed primary responsibility for the clinic, as Bailey cuts back on her responsibilities.


title: Izzie Stevens

text: Midway through second year, Izzie celebrates her 29th birthday. Around this timeframe, she and Alex have rekindled their intern year relationship but Izzie grows increasingly concerned when she begins hallucinating Denny. Ultimately she discovers she has Stage 4 metastatic melanoma that has already spread to her liver, skin and brain, causing the hallucinations. Her survival chances are estimated at only 5%. She is admitted to Seattle Grace as a patient. Bailey says Dr. Parker, an unseen obstetrician, will harvest healthy eggs before she undergoes any radiation so she has the option of having babies for later. Alex is upset about having to ejaculate into a cup to create embryos as he wanted them to have children naturally. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) successfully removes a tumor from her brain, and Alex informs her he fertilized the eggs. Izzie spends her time in the hospital planning Meredith and Derek's wedding, but when her condition worsens and Derek discovers a second brain tumor, they give the ceremony to Izzie and Alex, who marry in front of all their friends. The procedure to remove the second tumor from Izzie's brain causes her to lose her short-term memory, and although she soon regains it, she flatlines moments later. Her friends ignore her DNR order and attempt to resuscitate her. She dreams herself on an elevator to the afterlife meeting George, who is also flatlining after being hit by a bus. Though George dies, Izzie is resuscitated and recovers enough to return to work.


title: Izzie Stevens

text: Izzie is subsequently cut from the surgical program after making a treatment error that endangers the life of a patient. Believing Alex is to blame for her firing, she writes him a Dear John letter and leaves. After Meredith informs Izzie that Alex is moving on, she returns in a midway to make amends and apologize for her mistake in believing Alex was responsible for her firing. After a scan, she informs Alex that she no longer has cancer. Although he is pleased, Alex officially breaks up with Izzie, telling her that he loves her but deserves better. He then urges her to leave, be happy, and not come back. Thus Izzie leaves Seattle forever to start afresh.


title: Izzie Stevens

text: Seven episodes after Heigl's final appearance as the character, Alex informs Meredith that Izzie sent divorce papers. He signs them another two episodes later in the season 6 episode "How Insensitive". In the sixth-season finale, Alex is shot and asks for Izzie. Imagining that Lexie is Izzie, he apologizes and asks her never to leave him again.


title: Izzie Stevens

text: In the season 12 episode "I Choose You", Alex's later-second wife (Camilla Luddington) finds an invoice from the fertility clinic that housed Izzie and Alex's fertilized embryos from when she had cancer, and ponders the possibility that he has children with Izzie. In the season 12 finale "Family Affair", Alex goes through a relationship break-up ponders if you can only get one soulmate, referring to Izzie. The season 14 episode, "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story" serves as the 300th episode which sees Alex affected by the appearance of an Izzie doppelganger named Liza (Eryn Rea) who repeats a common Izzie catchphrase "Seriously?". He subsequently reveals to his soon-wife Jo—who urges him to call Izzie—that he never found out what happened to his ex-wife. He prefers to envision his own fantasy of a perfect life for her, married with three children and always smiling, now that he has moved on and is happy with his new partner. In the season 16 episode "Leave a Light On", it is revealed that Izzie reconciled with her ex-husband ten years after their divorce. Izzie is discovered to be a surgical oncologist living on a farm in Kansas raising 5-year-old twins named Alexis and Eli, who were born as a result of Izzie moving forward with IVF five to six years earlier. In the 400th episode "You Are the Blood", Meredith imagines Izzie several times in snippets of her fragmented memories of the hospital as she reflects on her story in reverse upon being named chief of surgery.


title: Izzie Stevens

text: Izzie was created by "Grey's Anatomy" producer Shonda Rhimes, with actress Katherine Heigl cast in the role. Heigl originally wanted to play Izzie as a brunette, but was requested to retain her natural blond for the part. For the audition process, she tried to appear smart by wearing a sweater and glasses and putting her hair up in a bun. She even considered dying her hair brunette to "trick" Rhimes and Horton into thinking she could play a doctor.


title: Izzie Stevens

text: Peter Horton stated that while they considered other actresses, "Katie came in and just ... obliterated it." He also noted the difficulty in finding an actress both beautiful and someone "who can really act". Stacy McKee revealed that the reason they dropped Izzie as having worn glasses after the pilot episode was due to the "nightmare" of the glasses reflecting in the lighting when shooting scenes. Heigl's comprehension of medical procedures and terminology is slight; the actress explained that while she has an admiration for doctors, she is not as fascinated by medicine as other cast members. When Kate Walsh's character Addison Montgomery left "Grey's Anatomy" to launch the spin-off show "Private Practice", Heigl disclosed that she had hoped for a spin-off for Izzie.


title: Izzie Stevens

text: Heigl declined to put her name forward for a fourth season episode of "Grey's Anatomy" as consideration at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2008, claiming that she had been given insufficient material on the season to warrant a nomination. Following Heigl's statement, speculation arose that her character would suffer a brain tumor and be killed off "Grey's Anatomy", substantiated by the announcement Jeffrey Dean Morgan would return to the series as Denny, who died at the end of season 2. ABC's entertainment president Steve McPherson denied the rumor, stating: "There is an unbelievable storyline for her this year, which is really central to everything that's going to go on this season". In 2010, Heigl clarified that she clarified she was not "snubbing the Emmys", calling her 2007 win the "highlight of [her] career" and regretted making the statement. She stated that she made it out of fear of a "No comment" answer making her sound uninterested in entering the race. Commenting further, she remarked: "I could have more gracefully said that without going into a private work matter. It was between me and the writers. I ambushed them, and it wasn’t very nice or fair."


title: Izzie Stevens

text: Speculation resumed, however, when Dean Morgan returned to the show for a second time in its fifth season. Cast member James Pickens, Jr. announced that both Heigl and T. R. Knight were set to depart from the show, but he later retracted his comment. During the course of the fifth season, Izzie was diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic melanoma which spread to her liver, skin and brain. Following the show's 100th episode wrap-up party, Heigl revealed she did not know if Izzie would survive, as no one on the production team would disclose her character's fate to her. It was confirmed in June 2009 that Heigl would return as Izzie for the show's sixth season. Heigl's appearances in the season were sporadic, seeing Izzie depart and return twice.


title: Izzie Stevens

text: Beginning in September 2009, Heigl was granted an extended leave for five episodes of the sixth season (from episode six's "I Saw What I Saw" to episode eleven's "Blink") to shoot the romantic comedy film "Life As We Know It" (2010), her first executive producer project as an actress. It was confirmed her exit would coincide with lead actress Ellen Pompeo's own maternity leave, and also shortly following T.R. Knight's departure from the series. Showrunner Shonda Rhimes admitted, "Eventually, everybody is going to leave the show,” admitted the exec, citing T.R. Knight’s exit and the temporary loss of Pompeo. ”So we’re looking at [ways] we can mess with the structure now. Season 6 is about finding the longevity of the show and figuring out if there is a future for this show beyond these characters.”


title: Izzie Stevens

text: Pompeo's titular character, Meredith Grey was given reduced screentime, with scenes filmed in advance for future episodes. Heigl's character, however, was given a purposeful exit storyline. The character is fired in the fifth episode of the season "Invasion" and leaves her husband, Alex with a Dear John note. She is subsequently absent for the following three episodes. Stevens briefly returns for the ninth episode "New History", before departing again. After the release of the eleventh episode "Blink", Heigl wrapped up shooting "Life As We Know It" and returned for the twelfth episode, "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked", set to air in January 2010.


title: Izzie Stevens

text: In November 2009, it was announced, however, Heigl had taken an indefinite, extended maternity leave to care of her adopted daughter, and the twelfth episode would serve as a further phasing out. It was later revealed to be a three-month maternity leave and Rhimes confirmed Heigl would not shoot scenes in advance for her character like Pompeo.


title: Izzie Stevens

text: On March 1, 2010, Katherine Heigl was scheduled to return to the "Grey's" set to shoot the twentieth episode of the sixth season, and the subsequent four episodes. Negotiations had been ongoing "for months" between Heigl and ABC regarding her commitment to the series. In the same week, both sides mutually agreed that the best solution would be to "part ways now as opposed to at the end of the season", which became public news on March 11. Heigl further stated she "spoke again" to Rhimes about leaving before she was due back, and then waited at home in Utah until she was given the "formal okay" notice that she would no longer be a part of the series.


title: Izzie Stevens

text: Heigl requested to be released from her contract 18 months early, and to retroactively make her final appearance be the twelfth episode of the season (her maternity leave departure episode), "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked" which aired on January 21, 2010. In April 2010, she stated that the episode — while not intended to be her final episode — "oddly works as a bookend to Izzie's story". She further commented:


title: Izzie Stevens

text: While a source within the actress’ camp claimed Heigl “was at home and ready to return to work" on March 1, another stated it was "much more complicated than that". Headwriter Krista Vernoff (who later became sole showrunner) revealed in 2020 that she penned one late-season six farewell episode "entirely centered on [Izzie] and the completion of her story arc", as well as her relationship with Alex, describing it as "beautiful"; it was subsequently canned and heavily re-written after the production received a call that "Katie wasn't coming" and "Wasn't going to do it". However, a source within Heigl's camp disputed this claim, responding that she had returned to LA from Utah waiting to be called to set. Heigl had also previously stated in March 2010 that the rumors that she refused to return were untrue. She instead simply waited to be formally approved to be legally released from her contract, which she was subsequently approved for.


title: Izzie Stevens

text: On March 24, 2010, Katherine Heigl announced that the decision to leave was made out of shifted priorities; she no longer desired to work full-time and also needed to establish a stronger bond with her adoptive child. She also did not think it would be respectful to "Grey's Anatomy" viewers to have Izzie return and depart yet again (after doing so twice previously in the same season). She revealed that she had "just finalized [her] agreement" with ABC, and further stated: "Everyone had been working really hard to find an amicable and gracious way of letting go and moving on. It’s sad but it’s what I wanted.” The eighteenth episode "Suicide is Painless" released the following day became Heigl's final credited appearance, despite not appearing in the episode. In the nineteenth episode "Sympathy for the Parents", Heigl's name is removed from the main cast for the first time since the pilot episode, and Kim Raver who previously recurred as Dr. Teddy Altman is added, following a January 2010 announcement of her promotion.


title: Izzie Stevens

text: In August 2010, Rhimes stated that she did not feel Izzie's character arc—specifically her relationship with Alex—had fully concluded, and hoped to give proper closure to their relationship in the seventh season. She later confirmed that she had intended to kill off Izzie off-screen, but opted against this a day later as she felt that it would destroy Alex, rather than give him closure. Instead, she concluded: "I'm open to seeing Izzie again. So if she [Katherine] were to come back, we would be thrilled to [wrap up her story]. But if she doesn't, we'll just move on." In the "How to Save a Life: How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey's Anatomy" (2021) book, former writer Jenna Bans stated that Izzie was kept alive because "Shonda [Rhimes] felt like that was more of an unexpected way to go."


title: Izzie Stevens

text: Heigl also went on to say in October 2010 that a return looked bleak because she could not think of "any way that [Izzie] could come back gracefully that wouldn't just feel manipulative". She stated it was "hard" because she wonders "what she's doing and where she is and what happened, but that is over for me now", and expressed further admiration for her on-screen husband, Chambers and their characters' romantic coupling.


title: Izzie Stevens

text: However, in January 2012, Heigl stated in an interview that she has asked the producers if she could return to the show to give closure to Izzie's storyline: "I've told them I want to [return]," she said. "I really, really, really want to see where [Izzie] is. I just want to know what happened to her and where she went and what she's doing now. My idea is that she actually like figures it out, and finds some success and does really well in a different hospital. She was always floundering you know, and so she was always one step behind the eight ball and I want to see that girl take some power back." She later went on to say that she regrets leaving the show, "Oh yeah, sometimes, yeah. You miss it. I miss my friends. It was a great work environment... and it becomes a family. I spent six years together with these people every day... you grow up together, in a way," and again commented on Izzie's possibly returning to the show, "I always felt that if they wanted me to come back and sort of wrap up that storyline... I want them to know that I'm down with it if they want me to, but I completely understand if it doesn't necessarily work... They've got a lot of story lines going on there." But in March 2012, Shonda Rhimes said that there are no plans at the moment for the character to return, "I think it was really nice to hear her appreciating the show. At the same time we are on a track we have been planning. The idea of changing that track is not something we are interested in right now." 3 years later, Rhimes said she has completely moved on from the idea of Izzie coming back, "I’m done with that story. I’ve turned that idea over in my mind a thousand times and thought about how it would go. And I don’t think so."


title: Izzie Stevens

text: After her exit, Izzie makes uncredited archive footage re-appearances in "Flight", "Leave A Light On" and "You Are the Blood". For the 300th episode, "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story", showrunner Krista Vernoff wanted to incorporate a nostaglia-fuelled storyline. Izzie returned "in spirit" for the episode with a doppelganger character, Liza (portrayed by Eryn Rea), alongside George and Cristina doppelgangers, Greg and Cleo. Initially, Vernoff pitched to Rhimes (who still had executive producer privileges) an original main cast member from the pilot returning as the focal point storyline for the episode after noticing the Izzie lookalike actress, Eryn Rea (who was a Meredith stand-in) through the camera during the early-fourteenth season scenes shot in Seattle. Vernoff observed:


title: Izzie Stevens

text: The original cast member was heavily rumored to be Heigl, and Vernoff further stated she was unable to allow the cast member to return for a "million reasons", remaining tight-lipped about who the series regular was to be. She then pitched a storyline about "doppelgangers" which was approved instead.


title: Izzie Stevens

text: In 2020, showrunner Krista Vernoff discussed the possibility of Chambers and Heigl returning together after the former's off-screen departure stating, "When I left the show in season 7, people asked me if there was any chance of me ever coming back. “I was smart enough to say, ‘Never say never.’ Here I am, so who knows?” In 2021, Heigl herself said she did not know if she would ever re-appear in the series, but also said "never say never".


title: Izzie Stevens

text: Heigl believes that the "Grey's Anatomy" writers incorporate much of the actors' personalities into their roles, and that Izzie is a "super-moral" version of herself. The episode "Bring the Pain", which aired as the fifth episode of the second season, was originally intended to be the final episode of the first season. Rhimes explained that Izzie's character in this episode came "full-circle" from her role in the pilot: "Izzie, so vulnerable and underestimated when we first meet her, is the girl who removes her heart from her sleeve in 'Bring the Pain'." Discussing Izzie's personality in a 2006 "Cosmopolitan" interview, Heigl assessed that she is "immensely kind and patient". When Denny died in the season finale "Losing My Religion", Rhimes discussed the impact it had on Izzie, noting that Izzie is forced to abandon her idealism, which in turn leads to her letting go of medicine. In the aftermath of Denny's death, Heigl came to believe that Izzie was not cut out to be a doctor. Executive producer Betsy Beers explained, however, that Denny's death served to make Izzie more mature, and Heigl affirmed that "At the beginning of the [third] season they were trying to show how lost Izzie was. She lost her optimism. She realizes now that life is difficult, but she still tries very hard to see the best in people." In order to demonstrate Izzie's dislike of George's love-interest Callie, Rhimes penned a scene which she deemed one of her favorite moments on the show, in which Callie urinates in front of a stunned Izzie and Meredith. Rhimes assessed that: "I love that Izzie and Mer respond with all the trauma of having viewed a car-crash ... the point is Callie pees and Izzie tortures her a tiny bit about the hand-washing and that made me overjoyed because that’s the kind of thing people do."


title: Izzie Stevens

text: Discussing Izzie's relationship with Alex in a 2006 "Cosmopolitan" interview, Heigl assessed that "Even when Alex was a complete dirtbag to her [Izzie], she forgave him and gave him another chance. And he really screwed her over. ... To go for a guy like that is to say I want to be damaged.'" Writer Stacy McKee deemed Izzie's moving on from Alex to patient Denny Duquette "karma", as Alex previously treated Izzie badly, yet as he begins to realize his true feelings, he is forced to watch her embark on a romance with "the undeniably-handsome-and-totally-charming" Denny. Series writer Blythe Robe commented on Izzie and Denny: "I love the way Izzie lights up when she's around him. I love their relationship because it's so pure and honest and completely game free." Writer Elizabeth Klaviter noted at this time the way Izzie "seems to be sacrificing her reputation because of her feelings for Denny." When Izzie deliberately worsened Denny's condition to move him up the transplant list, series writer Mark Wilding questioned the morality of the actions, asking: "is Izzie bad for doing it? Is she tremendously irresponsible? She cut the LVAD wire for love, so does that make her action understandable?"


title: Izzie Stevens

text: Rhimes discussed costuming choices in the scene which saw the interns gather around Denny's deathbed, explaining: "Meredith and George and Cristina and Callie and Alex are all dressed, not for a prom, but for a funeral. Everyone in dark colors, everyone dressed sombrely. As if they were in mourning. Only Izzie is in happy pink. Only Izzie looks like she didn’t know this was coming." Following Denny's death, Heigl approached Rhimes to ask when her character would next have a romantic liaison. Rhimes explained that "Izzie doesn't sleep around". Heigl expressed a desire for Izzie to reunite with Alex, explaining: "I believe on some level, there's a connection between Izzie and Alex. He can do honorable things even though he's cutting and sarcastic. I would like to ultimately see them together, if not this season, then next."


title: Izzie Stevens

text: "Yahoo! Voices" wrote that Stevens in the third season "has become more condescending and passive-aggressive herself, more than anyone else." Heigl was critical of her character's development in the show's fourth season, particularly her affair with George, which she deemed "a ratings-ploy". Heigl explained: "They really hurt somebody, and they didn't seem to be taking a lot of responsibility for it. I have a really hard time with that kind of thing. I'm maybe a little too black and white about it. I don't really know Izzie very well right now. She's changed a lot." Attempting to rationalise Izzie's actions, Heigl later assessed that: People who are so infallible, perfect and moral tend to be the first to slip and fall. But I would love to see how she deals with the consequences of what she's done, because what’s interesting is when people make decisions that shake their world, they suddenly have to go, 'Woo, I didn't know I was capable of this.' I'd like to see Izzie take some culpability.


title: Izzie Stevens

text: In June 2010, Heigl spoke of her character after departing amid the sixth season stating, "I felt very protective of Izzie. I really loved her. I felt she was an admirable woman who certainly made mistakes. But I was starting to not like her, and that bothered me."


title: Izzie Stevens

text: Heigl was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress in a TV Series award at the 2007 and 2008 Golden Globe Awards for her role as Izzie Stevens. She was named "Favorite Female TV Star" at the 34th People's Choice Awards, and awarded the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series at the 2007 Emmy Awards, becoming the only star-billed cast member of the show to have received a Primetime Emmy Award. Prior to the ceremony, considering Heigl's chances of winning the Emmy, "Variety's" Stuart Levine assessed of her performance: "Heigl has little difficulty reaching Izzie's highest highs and lowest lows. Showrunner Shonda Rhimes puts a lot of pressure on Heigl to carry many intense storylines, and she's up to the challenge." Levine also noted, however: "There are times when Izzie becomes completely irrational during crisis situations, which may bother some." "Fox News" included Izzie in its list of "The Best TV Doctors For Surgeon General". The character was listed in "Wetpaint"s "10 Hottest Female Doctors on TV" and in "BuzzFeed"s "16 Hottest Doctors On Television".


title: Izzie Stevens

text: During the show's third season, the "New York Post" Robert Rorke deemed Izzie to be "the heart-and-soul" of "Grey's Anatomy". He deemed her the show's heroine, and wrote that: "Izzie is a welcome, calming presence, despite the devastation she experienced when she failed to save her patient and fiancé Denny Duquette. ... Besides the formidable Dr. Bailey played by Chandra Wilson, Izzie seems to be the only adult intern at Seattle Grace; the character has achieved a depth lacking in her fellow interns." Eyder Peralta of "The Houston Chronicle" was critical of Izzie's ethics in cutting Denny's LVAD wire, writing that she "should not be practising medicine" and stating: "That's the reason I don't watch "Grey's Anatomy", anymore, because the super-hot blond chick can make an earth-shattering, fatal decision and she doesn't get canned."


title: Izzie Stevens

text: The season 4 romance between Izzie and George proved to be highly unpopular with viewers, and resulted in a fan backlash among Izzie and Alex fans. The return of Izzie's deceased fiancé Denny and the resumption of their romance during the show's fifth season also proved unpopular with fans, and was deemed "the world's worst storyline" by Mary McNamara of the "Los Angeles Times". McNamara was also critical of the fifth season finale episode "Now or Never", which saw Izzie flatline following neurosurgery, opining that Izzie ought to die. The episode in which Izzie married long-term love Alex received 15.3 million viewers, the largest television audience of the night. Their off-screen reunion in the sixteenth season received a polarizing response from fans. "Deadline" remarked "fan-favorite" Alex's ending's similarities to that of "ER"'s Doug and Carol, played by George Clooney and Julianna Margulies respectively, "who also left the show at different times" and there "Carol also had given birth to the couple’s twins unbeknownst to Doug, with the couple eventually reuniting to live happily ever after with their kids".


title: Izzie Stevens

text: Izzie's cancer storyline received a mixed response from the medical community. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society, commented that Izzie's treatment options were unrealistic. Whereas in the show she was offered the drug interleukin-2, in reality the drug is never recommended to patients when melanoma has spread to the brain, as it can cause bleeding and strokes. Brawley explained that such patients would instead be offered radiosurgery. Conversely however, Tim Turnham, executive director of the Melanoma Research Foundation, praised "Grey's Anatomy" for bringing about greater public awareness of melanoma, stating: "We welcome the national spotlight "Grey's Anatomy" has created for melanoma and its efforts to encourage viewers to learn more about the importance of prevention, early detection and research."


title: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist

text: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist is an American musical comedy-drama television series created by Austin Winsberg that premiered on January 7, 2020, on NBC. The series stars Jane Levy as Zoey Clarke, a software developer who discovers she has the ability to hear the innermost thoughts of people as songs. Each episode features multiple song-and-dance numbers that develop the storyline, with each cast member singing their own character's songs. The series also stars Skylar Astin, Alex Newell, John Clarence Stewart, Peter Gallagher, Mary Steenburgen, Lauren Graham, Andrew Leeds, Alice Lee, Michael Thomas Grant and Kapil Talwalkar, and Bernadette Peters. In June 2020, the series was renewed for a second season which premiered on January 5, 2021. In June 2021, the series was canceled by NBC after two seasons.


title: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist

text: In September 2021, it was announced that streaming service The Roku Channel officially commissioned a two-hour holiday film, which if successful, could lead to more episodes. The film was released on December 1, 2021. In addition to songs performed on "Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas", a second original song for this series was composed — "North Star", written by Mary Steenburgen, Caitlyn Smith and Troy Verges and sung by Tori Kelly, and played during the end credit sequence.


title: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist

text: On January 12, 2019, the production officially received a pilot order. The pilot was written by Austin Winsberg who executive produces alongside Richard Shepard, Paul Feig, Kim Tannenbaum, Eric Tannenbaum, David Blackman and Daniel Inkeles. Production companies involved with the pilot include Lionsgate Television and Universal Television. On May 12, 2019, it was announced that the production had been given a series order. A few days later, it was announced that the series would premiere as a mid-season replacement in the mid-season of 2020. The series premiered as a special preview on January 7, and moved to its regular time-slot on February 16, 2020. On June 11, 2020, NBC renewed the series for a second season, following significant gains among digital viewership and strong fan support in "USA Today"'s annual Save Our Shows poll. The second season premiered on January 5, 2021. On June 9, 2021, NBC canceled the series after two seasons, but was expected to shop to other networks. On August 5, 2021, it was announced that streaming service The Roku Channel was nearing a deal for a two-hour wrap-up movie, with potential of leading to more episodes. "TVLine" reported on September 8, 2021, that the movie — "Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas" — was scheduled to begin production in Vancouver within the month. An excerpt of the movie was posted to YouTube on November 1, 2021, promoting a full release of the movie on December 1, 2021.


title: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist

text: In February 2019, it was announced that Jane Levy, Skylar Astin, Alex Newell and Mary Steenburgen had been cast in the pilot's leading roles. The pilot was ordered. In March 2019 it was reported that Peter Gallagher, John Clarence Stewart and Carmen Cusack had joined the cast. On May 23, 2019, Andrew Leeds was cast as David in a recurring role. On August 27, 2019, it was announced that Lauren Graham had replaced Cusack in the role of Joan. On September 6, 2019, Michael Thomas Grant, Kapil Talwalkar and Stephanie Styles were cast in recurring capacities. In September 2020, it was announced that Kapil Talwalkar, Andrew Leeds, Alice Lee, and Michael Thomas Grant had been promoted to series regulars while Harvey Guillén was cast in a recurring role for the second season. On October 29, 2020, Jee Young Han and Felix Mallard were cast in recurring roles for the second season.


title: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist

text: Graham's character was written out in the second season as moving to Singapore, since Graham was busy filming "". On March 18, 2021, Katie Findlay joined the cast in a recurring role for the second season.


title: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist

text: Principal photography for the first season began on September 3, 2019, and ended on January 30, 2020, in Richmond, British Columbia. The closing credits note that the pilot was partially filmed in San Francisco, with a number of open air musical productions shot on the downtown streets of The Embarcadero and North Beach. Mandy Moore serves as a producer and the choreographer for the series. Filming for the second season began on September 21, 2020, and concluded on March 26, 2021. Filming for "Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas" ran from September 15, 2021, to October 8, 2021.


title: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist

text: "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" premiered on Tuesday, January 7, 2020, in the 10:00 p.m. (EDT) hour. The series returned on Sunday, February 16, 2020, at 9:00 p.m. and maintained that timeslot for the remainder of the first season. The second season premiered on Tuesday, January 5, 2021, at 8:00 p.m. EDT. "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" went on hiatus on February 9, 2021, and was replaced by "Young Rock" and "Kenan". The series returned to its original timeslot on Sunday, March 28, 2021.


title: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist

text: In the United Kingdom, the series was picked up by Channel 4 for broadcast on their E4 channel, though after a few episodes of season 2 the show was moved, at short notice, out of primetime to around 2:00am, being replaced by a repeat of "Naked Attraction". In addition to E4, Channel 4 have also re-run season 1 on their 4Music channel.


title: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist

text: In Australia, the series premiered on streaming service Stan on February 17, 2020 with each episode being released the week after its US premiere.


title: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist

text: This is a list of songs that have been performed on the show. The series features "musical performances that explore the innermost feelings of its characters" as they "break out into song and (sometimes) dance". Mae Abdulbaki of "Cinemablend", said the show "cleverly tackles pent-up emotions and storylines through song".


title: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 76% approval rating with an average rating of 7.18/10, based on 34 reviews for the first season. The website's critical consensus states, "Though it hits the occasional sour note, "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" manages to carry a pretty enjoyable tune, thanks in large part to the always charming Jane Levy." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 66 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Mae Abdulbaki of "CinemaBlend", said the show "cleverly tackles pent-up emotions and storylines through song".


title: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the second season has an approval rating of 83% based on 6 critic reviews, with an average rating of 8.37/10.


title: Nathan Kress

text: Nathan Karl Kress (born November 18, 1992) is an American actor and director. Kress began his career at the age of four, notably appearing in several television commercials and providing the voices of Easy and Tough Pup in the comedy-drama film "" (1998).


title: Nathan Kress

text: He resumed acting seven years later on the talk show "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" (2005), and thereafter had regular appearances on several Nickelodeon productions, including Toplin on the sitcom "Drake & Josh" (2007).


title: Nathan Kress

text: Kress rose to prominence for portraying Freddie Benson on the Nickelodeon sitcom "iCarly" (2007–2012), which earned him five Young Artist Award nominations and reprised his role in the revival series of the same name (2021–present).


title: Nathan Kress

text: He also subsequently voiced Wedge Antilles in the Disney XD animated series "Star Wars Rebels" (2016–2017).


title: Nathan Kress

text: Kress was born on November 18, 1992 in Glendale, California. He has two brothers, Andrew and Kevin, neither of whom are involved in show business. He began his professional career at the age of four when he displayed a natural talent for memorizing and re-enacting the shows he saw on television, prompting his mother to take him to an open "cattle call" showcase where he was quickly signed with a talent agent.


title: Nathan Kress

text: Throughout the 1990s, Kress modeled for various print advertisements, as well as performing in numerous commercials and voice-over roles; the most notable of which was his dual role as the voices of "Easy" and "Tough Pup" in the 1998 feature film "". At the age of six, he decided to take a break from acting and return to regular school, where he led a relatively "normal" life for the next five years until deciding to return to acting professionally at the age of eleven.


title: Nathan Kress

text: At the age of 11, Kress was cast in the lead role as "The Emperor" in a school production of "The Emperor's New Clothes". The role rekindled his interest in performing, and at the end of his fifth grade school year, he asked his parents if he could be home-schooled so he could return to acting. A mutual friend of Kress from school put him in touch with an agent, and after attending a summer acting "boot camp", Kress was soon going on real professional auditions once again.


title: Nathan Kress

text: In April 2005, Kress made his first live television appearance since returning to acting in a comedy sketch on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" where he played a young Simon Cowell of "American Idol", and would continue to appear in various comedy sketches on the show a total of 5 times over the next year. Kress continued to land steady work over the next two years, appearing in guest-starring roles on dramatic series such as "House", "Standoff", and "Without a Trace" as well as the Disney Channel comedy series "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody". Kress also appeared in several short films including "Pickled", "Magnus, Inc.", and "Bag", for which he was awarded a 168 Film Festival Jury Award for his portrayal of a small-fry drug dealer with a conscience. In addition to live-action roles, Kress continued to work as a voice-actor, lending his voice to various characters in the animated feature film "Chicken Little" and on the Nickelodeon animated series "Shuriken School".


title: Nathan Kress

text: In February 2006, Kress landed a small role on the popular Nickelodeon family series "Drake & Josh". He played the role of Toplin, a "geeky" kid at a birthday party with a crush on Drake and Josh's younger sister Megan Parker (played by Miranda Cosgrove) in the episode "Battle of Panthatar". Kress did not know it at the time, but this small role would lead to an opportunity that would catapult him to stardom. While filming his scenes for "Drake & Josh", television show creator and executive producer Dan Schneider took an interest in him and called him over to talk with him and to introduce him to some network executives. At the time, Schneider was developing a new series for Nickelodeon, and was on the lookout for someone to play one of the lead roles in the untitled project, which would later become known as "iCarly".


title: Nathan Kress

text: The role of Toplin was similar to a character named Freddie that Schneider was looking to cast on "iCarly". Schneider had been so impressed with Kress' performance that he remembered him, and about 6 months after filming his small role on "Drake & Josh", Kress was called in to audition for the role of "Freddie" shortly after his fourteenth birthday. After several rounds of auditions, Kress was invited back for a screen test with Miranda Cosgrove and Jennette McCurdy and a couple of days later he was notified that he had landed the role of "Freddie". Although "iCarly" would not premiere until the fall of 2007, the decision was made to cut Kress' scenes with Miranda Cosgrove out of the "Drake & Josh" episode that had started it all, in order to avoid any potential confusion among the young Nickelodeon viewing audience.


title: Nathan Kress

text: On September 8, 2007, "iCarly" debuted on Nickelodeon and quickly became a fan favorite. On the show, Kress plays Fredward "Freddie" Benson, the technical producer for the fictional web-show "iCarly", which stars his character's two best friends, Carly Shay (Cosgrove) and Samantha "Sam" Puckett (McCurdy). His character has a crush on the main character Carly, and a feuding, bitter-sweet, love/hate relationship with Carly's best friend and web-show co-star, Sam. The show became Nickelodeon's most-watched show aimed at tweens, and catapulted Kress to international fame among adolescents. Kress' performance on the show has been characterized by one reviewer for "Variety" as "sweetly nerdy".


title: Nathan Kress

text: In 2008, Kress starred in the Nickelodeon television movie "". In the movie, Kress played "Roland", a decidedly uncoordinated student who transfers to a new school and must be whipped into shape by his ambitious gym teacher, Dave Stewie (Christopher Meloni). Later that same year, he starred as Freddie Benson in the television movie "", the show's first TV movie. Throughout 2009, Kress continued to play the role of Freddie on "iCarly", but was unable to take on other projects due to the network's decision to film both seasons two and three of the show back-to-back without the usual hiatus between filming seasons, in order to make up for the time lost during the 2008 writers strike.


title: Nathan Kress

text: In March 2010, Kress guest-starred in the CBS television series "" in season 10: episode 15 titled "Neverland". Kress played Mason Ward, one of two best friends of a fourteen-year-old victim with traces of blood of an inmate under his fingernails. Kress told Fanlala.com of his "" role "It was a great opportunity to try my hand at something different. I had done scenes in dramas in the past, but other than a few semi-serious scenes on "iCarly", it had been a long time since I've had the opportunity to do anything other than comedy." Later that same year, Kress returned to comedic roles, guest-starring as Prince Gabriel on the Nickelodeon comedy series "True Jackson, VP", and as the voice of Ronald on the Nickelodeon animated series "The Penguins of Madagascar".


title: Nathan Kress

text: In 2011, Kress continued to appear in the role of Freddie Benson on the fourth season of "iCarly", and in January 2011, Miranda Cosgrove began telling news sources that she was looking forward to returning to Hollywood to begin filming the fifth season of the main character of the Nickelodeon show. On January 27, 2011, Cosgrove told Cleveland Live News "We're getting ready to start the next season, right after the (Dancing Crazy) tour. I would be willing to do the show as long as people like it and as long as it works." On January 29, 2011, Reuters also reported that Cosgrove was preparing to begin filming season 5, and on February 3, 2011 Cosgrove told The Middletown Press, when speaking of the show and her co-stars, Kress and Jennette McCurdy: "I've known them since I was little. I can't wait to get back. I'm really comfortable doing ["iCarly"]. It's like my home away from home." The show was later renewed for a sixth and final season, with the series finale "iGoodbye" airing on November 23, 2012.


title: Nathan Kress

text: Kress would eventually reprise the role of Freddie Benson in one episode of the show's spin-off series "Sam & Cat" which aired in January 2014. Also in 2014, Kress co-starred in his first major film, "Into the Storm", and had a major role in the web show "Video Game High School" as "The New Law". In 2015, he debuted as a director on "Henry Danger". In 2019, Kress started a podcast called "RadioActive Dads" with Brett Davern. In March 2021, it was announced that iCarly was being revived. The series premiered on Paramount+ on June 17, 2021, with Kress reprising his role as Freddie Benson.


title: Nathan Kress

text: While filming "iCarly", Kress was tutored on the set with his co-stars Miranda Cosgrove and Jennette McCurdy, and was home-schooled on the weekends or when on hiatus from the shooting of the show. , Kress was finishing his senior year of high school and hoped to attend UCLA, his father's alma mater.


title: Nathan Kress

text: On May 29, 2015, Kress became engaged to his girlfriend, actress, stunt performer, and "Into the Storm" castmate London Elise Moore. They married on November 15, 2015, in Los Angeles. Their first child, a daughter, was born on December 21, 2017. On October 21, 2020, Kress announced that he is expecting his second child with his wife. On March 22, 2021, Kress announced the birth of his second daughter.


title: Nathan Kress

text: Kress works with various charitable causes including The Big Green Help, the Make-A-Wish Foundation and The Starlight Children's Foundation. In the summer of 2003, before returning to his acting career, Kress and his family traveled to Lithuania with the Christian missionary organization, YWAM (Youth With A Mission).


title: Ten Lost Tribes

text: The ten lost tribes were the ten of the Twelve Tribes of Israel that were said to have been exiled from the Kingdom of Israel after its conquest by the Neo-Assyrian Empire BCE. These are the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Manasseh, and Ephraim; all but Judah and Benjamin (as well as some members of Levi, the priestly tribe, which did not have its own territory). The Jewish historian Josephus (37–100 CE) wrote that "there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers".


title: Ten Lost Tribes

text: In the 7th and 8th centuries CE, the return of the lost tribes was associated with the concept of the coming of the messiah. Claims of descent from the "lost tribes" have been proposed in relation to many groups, and some religions espouse a messianic view that the tribes will return.