Nickelodeon’s actor, Drake Bell confessed to the sexual abuse he received from a channel worker

For the first time, Drake Bell, the former protagonist of Nickelodeon’s Drake & Josh, spoke publicly about the repeated suffering he suffered from dialogue coach, Brian Peck when he was a child. The announcement comes within Bell’s appearance in the upcoming four-part documentary series Quiet on Set of Investigation Discovery: The Dark Side of Kids TV, which reveals the toxic and dangerous culture behind some of the most iconic children’s series of the late 1990s and early 2000, many of which were produced by Dan Schneider. “Brian and I got very close because we had a lot of common interests, which, looking back, I think was rather a little calculated”, says Bell, 37 years old today, in the series, which he does in a few days. Bell started acting at the age of 5, amid his parents’ divorce. After working mainly on commercials and small television roles, he found a job as an actor on Nickelodeon’s 1999 show The Amanda Show. The following year, the first day of the second season of the series, Bell met Brian Peck, a dialogue coach who made him a friend and invited him to his home for acting lessons. After some time, Bell’s father, Joe Bell, expressed his concerns about production and stated that he was uncomfortable with Peck, who appeared on the screen and as “Pickle Boy”, always being close to his son. The relationship between Peck and his son was still not liked by Joe and when he mentioned it again he claims that he was “shelled” on the set and “backed”. Peck later became Bell’s manager, causing a break between Bell and his father. Peck frequently accompanied Bell to acting hearings in Los Angeles, which were at least an hour away from where Bell lived with his mother. Due to the distance, Bell often spent the night at Peck’s house, but one night everything changed. “I slept on the couch where I usually sleep and woke up from him… I opened my eyes and woke up and he… sexually assaulted me” says Bell, who was then 15 years old. “And I froze and was in complete shock and had no idea what to do or how to react.” “You know, every time I had an audition or every time I needed to work on dialogues or anything else, I somehow ended up back at Brian’s house,” Bell continues. “And it got worse and worse and worse and worse and I was trapped. I had no way out. The abuse was extensive and became quite violent.” In 2004, Peck confessed that he did not question the charge of oral intercourse with a minor under 16, as well as the charge of lewdness with a 14-year-old or 15-year-old. Victim Bell’s identity wasn’t public at the time. Peck spent 16 months in prison and was forced to register as a sexual offender.