The tragic fall from fame and grisly death of Nickelodeon star Kianna Underwood

Former Nickelodeon child actress Kianna Underwood, who died in a grisly hit-and-run accident in Brooklyn Friday, was remembered by friends and neighbors as a kind and talented young girl who had fallen on hard times after her years of childhood fame.

“She used to model for me when she was 5 and 6 years old. I had a modeling agency… She was beautiful and I just snapped her up,” said T.C. Jackson, a resident at the Lincoln Houses NYCHA complex in Harlem, where Underwood’s family previously lived for more than 25 years.

“After she did two fashion shows, she went onto television. She did TV commercials. She had real talent. She did Nickelodeon and then we didn’t see her after that.”

Her early success didn’t last.

Underwood, 33, was struck and dragged for two blocks by a black sedan heading west on Pitkin Ave. as she tried to cross the roadway near Mother Gaston Blvd. in Brownsville about 6:50 a.m. on Friday, cops said.

Video recorded by cameras at Rainbow 2 Laundry, located on Pitkin Ave. near Osborn St., shows Underwood’s body rolling out from under the wheels of the sedan more than two blocks away from where she was initially hit. Medics pronounced her dead at the scene.

Underwood’s family friend, who lives in their old Lincoln Houses apartment, said she wants to see her killer brought to justice.

“She was a very good person. A very smart woman. She would give you the clothes off her back. She went through some stuff. But she was still a good person,” the friend, who declined to share their name, said. “Honestly I want them to get whoever did this to her. I want her to get justice.”

A New York City-native, Underwood had film and TV credits from the late ’90s and early 2000s. She was only 6 years old when she made her first film appearance with the 1999 theatrical release of “The 24 Hour Woman,” according to her IMDB.

She appeared in seven episodes of the Nickelodeon sketch comedy show “All That”, alongside Amanda Bynes and Kenan Thompson. She also joined the first national tour of “Hairspray” as little Inez, and had a minor role in “Death of a Dynasty,” a comedy about the hip-hop industry starring Kevin Hart.

Her first starring role was in “Little Bill,” an animated children’s series created by Bill Cosby for Nick Jr., in which she voiced the titular character’s cousin, Fuchsia Glover.

Another old neighbor remembered overhearing Underwood’s “beautiful” singing voice.

“Her mother and father would have her practicing in the apartment all the time. Her high-pitched voice would hit the ceiling,” said a former neighbor who gave her name as Toya D. “She grew up here. We all grew up together. She was a wonderful girl.”

Underwood’s parents acted as her managers, neighbors said. When the pair split up, roughly 10 to 15 years ago, the family moved out of the Harlem apartment.

“[Kianna] would come back to the Lincoln Houses about once a year. She didn’t stay long, but she always came back to Lincoln,” said Toya D., 49.

Neighbors said it wasn’t clear what Underwood had been up to in the years following their move. They thought she was doing well, but that assumption proved incorrect.

“Her cousin told me she was living in a shelter in Brooklyn,” Jackson, 69, said. That surprised me. I thought she was in LA. I thought she had it made.”

A 34-year-old Brownsville woman, who said she had been friends with Underwood for two years, described her as an upbeat person despite struggling with substance abuse and homelessness.

“She was a happy person,” said the woman, who declined to share her name. “She loved to sing. She loved to dance. She’s loud. She liked to be noticed. She was just full of fun,” she said. “She talked about her TV shows, that she wanted to go back to her career, but life is hard so…”

“I tried to ask her [how she ended up on the streets.] She wouldn’t tell me how did she manage to get out here into this. I couldn’t find out,” she said.

The woman said Underwood, “loved her family to death,” but avoided going home because she didn’t want them to know of her hardships.

“There needs to be an arrest. It’s sad. She was my friend. It hurts,” she said, breaking down in tears.

Other locals, who knew her as a former child star, were heartbroken to hear the news.

“I’m very devastated, you know, I see her all the time. She always had good spirits, happy, good energy, even though she was going through a lot of stuff,” said a man who worked nearby the scene and declined to give his name. “It was very sad to hear that it was her.”

Another woman in the neighborhood, who declined to share her name, said Underwood had told her and some friends that she used to be on TV.

“She was saying she’s homeless,” the woman said. “She was so nice to people and it wasn’t because she needed money. It was because it was who she was.”