As a part of an upcoming documentary sequence about ’90s youngsters’s tv and the damaging working circumstances many younger actors suffered via on these exhibits, former baby star Drake Bell has spoken publicly about sexual abuse he endured whereas working for youths TV large Nickelodeon.
Bell made the admission as a part of the upcoming tv sequence Quiet on Set: The Darkish Aspect of Children TV, which debuts this weekend on ID. Bell, who began appearing on the age of 5, says that he was repeatedly assaulted by Brian Peck, a dialogue coach who labored for Nickelodeon.
“You realize anytime I had an audition or anytime I wanted to work on dialogue or something, I in some way ended up again at Brian’s home,” Bell says within the sequence. “And it simply received worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and I used to be simply trapped. I had no means out. The abuse was intensive and it received fairly brutal.”
Now 37 years outdated, Bell was certainly one of Nickelodeon’s greatest teen stars on this period. He was a solid member on The Amanda Present, after which he and co-star Josh Peck got their very own Nick sequence, Drake & Josh, which ran for 4 seasons and 56 episodes on the channel. Bell met Peck whereas engaged on the second season of The Amanda Present.
READ MORE: There Is Now an Total Channel Devoted to ’90s Nickelodeon
Though Bell’s personal father apparently voiced issues about Brian Peck (no relation to Bell’s TV co-star), the latter ultimately grew to become Bell’s supervisor. Bell started spending an increasing number of time at Peck’s home, and away from his household. That’s when, he says, the abuse started.
“I used to be sleeping on the sofa the place I normally sleep and I woke as much as him… I opened my eyes and I awoke and he was … he was sexually assaulting me,” says Bell within the sequence. “And I froze, and was in full shock and had no concept what to do or learn how to react.”
Bell says he was 15 years outdated on the time of this incident.
In 2004, Peck finally pled no contest to 2 prices of kid sexual abuse and was sentenced to 16 months in jail and pressured to register as a intercourse offender. Bell’s connection to that case was by no means made public; in an announcement to Folks Journal, a Nickelodeon spokesperson mentioned…
Now that Drake Bell had disclosed his id because the plaintiff within the 2004 case, we’re dismayed and saddened to study of the trauma he has endured, and we commend and help the power required to return ahead.
Bell has his personal run-ins with the legislation in recent times. He has been arrested for driving beneath the affect, and in 2021 he pled responsible in a case involving his sending on-line messages to an underage fan. Final 12 months, Bell briefly went lacking and was thought of “endangered” for a short while. (Bell later blamed the incident on his leaving his telephone in his automobile.)
The primary episode of Quiet on Set: The Darkish Aspect of Children TV premieres on March 17 at 9PM ET on Investigation Discovery. The miniseries consists of 4 episodes, with two episodes on March 17 and the opposite two hours premiering the following evening on the similar time.