On March 24, 2025, actors Drake Bell and Josh Peck sat down for a conversation on the latter’s podcast. As per the video’s description on YouTube, this was the first time they conversed about issues that go back to the days of filming the sitcom Drake & Josh.
In 2024, TV network Investigation Discovery released a docu-series Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV, about actors' experiences in children’s shows. The docu-series also highlight Drake Bell’s alleged experiences of s*xual abuse on the sets of Drake & Josh at the hands of actor and dialogue coach Brian Peck.
According to a Los Angeles Times report from March 21, 2024, Brian Peck was arrested by the Los Angeles police in August 2003 for questionable acts with minors. He was later convicted after he didn't contest two of the eleven child s*xual abuse charges against him in May 2004. In Josh Peck’s Good Guys podcast, Bell shared:
“As that big break between Drake & Josh and Amanda Show is when I told my Mom what was going on. We went to the police, the investigation, all the stuff that you saw in the documentary, that was when all of that was going on and then when we shot the pilot, we were in the middle of the investigation but nobody had known anything because Brian hadn't been arrested.”
Drake Bell described how difficult it was to return to the set of The Amanda Show, knowing that was where the abuse had taken place. However, the reality of what happened there made it a painful experience.
Josh Peck reached out to Drake Bell after watching the documentary
In March 2024, Josh Peck shared an Instagram post writing that he took time to process the documentary after watching it. He mentioned that he reached out to Drake Bell privately but also wanted to publicly support the survivors who spoke about the emotional and physical abuse they experienced on Nickelodeon sets.
Emphasizing that children should always be protected, he acknowledged how difficult it must be for the victims to relive these experiences. However, he hoped that sharing these stories would lead to healing for those affected and bring much-needed change to the industry. In the podcast, Josh Peck said:
“Something I feel bad about is like you mentioned before until and we'll talk about until you sort of shared with me what was happening i was just looking at it through the prism of a 14-year-old's brain going like, ‘Ah he doesn't want much to do with me.’”
Josh Peck continued:
“And thankfully everyone seemed who did know was galvanizing around you because God knows you needed the support and deserved every inch of it just I didn't know any of this at 14 and in watching the documentary at 38 as a father as a grown-up so much was um revealed to me and of what you had to go through I can't even imagine that.”
Even though he didn’t know the details, Josh Peck recalled feeling something had happened. He described a moment in the car when he asked Drake Bell if he still spoke to Brian Peck. Drake Bell’s response was a clear and serious look, followed by saying that Brian was a terrible person.

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