Drake Bell attends the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards which broadcasted live on FOX at Microsoft Theater on March 14, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. Phot / Getty Images
Drake Bell attends the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards which broadcasted live on FOX at Microsoft Theater on March 14, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. Phot / Getty Images
Warning: mention of sexual abuse
Drake Bell suffered “extensive and brutal” abuse at the hands of Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck.
The former child star, now 37, had major roles on Nickelodeon’s The Amanda Show and Drake and Josh in the 2000s, making him one of the TV channel’s major stars.
But now speaking on upcoming documentary series Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, Bell has now opened up about how he was sexually abused by Peck during his time on The Amanda Show between 1999 and 2000.
In 2004, Peck pleaded no contest to a charge of oral copulation with a minor under 16 as well as a charge of performing a lewd act with a 14 or 15-year-old.
Bell was the plaintiff but his identity as the victim was not made public at the time.
Drake Bell, star of Drake & Josh, has denied allegations of abuse that arose in a video posted to TikTok from his ex-girlfriend, Melissa Lingafelt. Photo / Supplied
Peck spent 16 months in prison and was mandated to register as a sex offender.
Recalling the abuse, Bell said: “Brian and I became really close because we had a lot of the same interests, which looking back, I think that was probably a little calculated.”
Bell landed his first job on the network in 1999, when he joined the cast of The Amanda Show alongside Amanda Bynes and later landed the comedy Drake and Josh alongside Josh Peck (no relation), but Brian Peck quickly became the teen star’s manager, and Bell would often spend the night at his house as he recalled waking up “in shock” one evening to find Peck, now 63, assaulting him.
He said: “I was sleeping on the couch where I usually sleep and I woke up to him... I opened my eyes and I woke up and he was… he was sexually assaulting me.
“And I froze, and was in complete shock and had no idea what to do or how to react.
“You know anytime I had an audition or anytime I needed to work on dialogue or anything, I somehow ended up back at Brian’s house.
“And it just got worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and I was just trapped. I had no way out. The abuse was extensive and it got pretty brutal.”
Drake Bell at Lakeside Golf Club in 2015 in Toluca Lake, California. Brian Peck was convicted for sexually assaulting Bell. Photo / Getty Images
Following the conclusion of Drake and Josh in 2007, the singer/songwriter continued to make several appearances on the Nickelodeon network with roles in iCarly,Sam and Cat and The Fairly Odd Parents movies but has managed to “blur out” the events of his childhood and sometimes wonders how he got through them.
He said: “I often look back at that time and wonder how in the world I survived. I remember all of the abusive events, but everything outside of that is very blurry to me, which is a bummer because I experienced a lot of great things in my life and my career during this time.
“But it was so overshadowed and ruined by what I was dealing with on the inside that it made it really hard for me.”
In the new documentary, Bell claims that former Nickelodeon writer and Drake and Josh creator Dan Schneider was “unaware” of the abuse.
The two-part series will air on March 17 and March 18 and will feature interviews with a number of Nickelodeon stars from that time but executives at the children’s network have now claimed that they are “dismayed and saddened” to learn of the situation now that Bell has disclosed his identity.
In a statement, Nickelodeon said: “Now that Drake Bell had disclosed his identity as the plaintiff in the 2004 case, we are dismayed and saddened to learn of the trauma he has endured, and we commend and support the strength required to come forward.”
