Decades after reaching child stardom on Nickelodeon shows including Drake & Josh and The Amanda Show, Drake Bell is opening up about traumatic experiences from that time.
A newly released clip from the forthcoming Investigation Discovery docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV features Bell coming forward about abuse he allegedly endured as an adolescent at the hands of Brian Peck, who worked as a Nickelodeon dialogue coach. In 2004, Peck was convicted on sexual abuse charges and ordered to register as a sex offender. (Vanity Fair has reached out to the network, as well as a rep for Bell, for comment.)
According to Business Insider, which produced the series in association with Maxine Productions and Sony Pictures Television—Nonfiction, Peck was arrested in August 2003 on 11 charges related to sexual abuse allegations involving an unnamed minor. In May 2004, Peck pleaded no contest to oral copulation with a minor under 16 and performing a lewd act with a 14- or 15-year-old. As Bell reveals in the docuseries, he was that anonymous child. In October 2004, Peck was sentenced to 16 months in prison and made to register as a sex offender.
Peck made headlines last month when Boy Meets World cast members Rider Strong and Will Friedle, who had recently been asked to provide a statement about Peck, instead shared their impressions of the dialogue coach on their podcast. Friedle claimed that he was groomed by Peck and that Peck had asked Friedle to support him in court during the early-aughts case. “We’re sitting in that courtroom on the wrong side of everything,” Friedle said. “The victim’s mother turned and said, ‘Look at all the famous people you brought with you. And it doesn’t change what you did to my kid.’ I just sat there wanting to die.” (Vanity Fair was unable to reach Peck for comment.)
Like other Nickelodeon stars of the early 2000s, including Jennette McCurdy, Amanda Bynes, and Alexa Nikolas, Bell has faced some personal challenges in adulthood. In 2021, he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of attempting to endanger children and a misdemeanor charge of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, with both stemming from a 2017 incident. Bell was sentenced to two years’ probation and ordered to complete 200 hours of community service. After filing for bankruptcy in 2014, he was arrested for a DUI in 2015. He pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor and spent one day in jail. Last spring, Bell was briefly reported missing in Daytona Beach, Florida, only to be located hours later.
During a podcast appearance last year, Bell spoke of the difficulties he weathered in early acting roles. “There’s been a lot of stuff in my career where I just don’t know how I kept going or how I came back from it,” Bell said during the episode. “There’s things I’ve never talked about that happened on The Amanda Show. Some pretty traumatic and heavy stuff happened. To get back up on the horse and keep going—sometimes I look back and I don’t really know how I did it.”