She’s only 16, but Jennette McCurdy already knows a thing or two about time management.

McCurdy, who plays Sam on Nickelodeon’s “iCarly,” crams in homework while on the set, during commutes and on weekends. And in addition to her many acting gigs (her credits appear in episodes of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Zoey 101″ and “Judging Amy”), McCurdy is also working on launching a music career.

She also sets aside time to mingle with fans: She’ll sign autographs from 6:15 to 8:45 p.m. at the Nov. 28 Rivermen game.

We caught up with McCurdy on a weekday morning while her mom drove her to a rehearsal of “iCarly.”

What made you decide to become an actress?

When I was about 2 years old, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. And she was always in the hospital – she had to have a bone marrow transplant, chemotherapy and radiation. She was in the hospital for months at a time.

I have three older brothers; they tried to sort of keep their mind off of things and get my mind off of things by watching the original “Star Wars” movies, episodes 4, 5 and 6. We’d watch them over and over every day, and a motto that we lived by was, “The Force is with mommy; she can do this; she’ll be OK; the Force is with her.”

She recovered and everything and a couple of years after, (one of the films) came out on the big screen. It was a huge deal for our family since it helped us get through a lot of tough times. We went to go see it as a family, and it touched me so much that I turned to my mom and said, “Mommy, I want to be in the movies, like Han Solo.”

It took my mom several years before she said, “Well, I guess she’s not going to let up; I better take her seriously,” and she started looking for an agent, and little by little, guest spots and things like that just built up.

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