Drake Bell is opening up about the sexual abuse he endured as a child from Nickelodeon acting coach Brian Peck. The former child star detailed his experience in Quiet on Set — a new docuseries from Investigation Discovery about the alleged toxic environment on some Nickelodeon shows and featuring interviews with Bell and Zoey 101 star Alexa Nikolas — which premieres on Sunday, March 17. In addition to the claims made about Peck, the doc dives into the allegations of an unsafe working environment created by producer Dan Schneider.
Peck was arrested in 2003 on 11 charges that included sodomy, performing a lewd act upon a child 14 or 15 by a person ten years older, and oral copulation by anesthesia or controlled substance. At the time, the child he assaulted was not named, but we now know him to be Bell.
“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 recounted in the docuseries. Per the doc, Bell’s father, Joe, was dismissed when he tried to tell the production team of The Amanda Show about his concerns regarding Peck. Joe was told that Peck was gay, and “Maybe you’re just homophobic and you just don’t understand that he’s a touchy-feely guy.” Joe “backed off” after feeling “ostracized” and eventually was no longer part of Bell’s life.
Peck became Bell’s manager, and the child actor would occasionally spend the night at his house when he had auditions in L.A.; Bell and his mother lived an hour away in Orange County.
“I was sleeping on the couch, where I would usually sleep. I woke up to him — I opened my eyes; I woke up and he was sexually assaulting me. I froze and was in complete shock and had no idea what to do or how to react, and I have no idea how to get out of this situation,” Bell said. He was 15 at the time of the assault.
“Any time 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. I was just trapped. I had no way out,” said Bell. “The abuse was extensive, and it got pretty brutal.”
In 2004, Peck pleaded no contest to two charges of sexual abuse: oral copulation with a minor under 16 and performing a lewd act with a 14- or 15-year-old. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender.
In recent years, Bell himself has had his own legal troubles. In 2021, he was charged with attempted child endangerment and disseminating matter harmful to juveniles. He was ultimately sentenced to two years of probation and 200 hours of community service. Bell addressed the incident in the doc. “I took responsibility for that. I did what was asked of me,” he said. “The media grabbed a hold of so much misinformation and it absolutely destroyed me and I started to spin out of control.”
In a statement to Variety, Nickelodeon said, “Now that Drake Bell has 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.”
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