Nickelodeon’s Josh Peck reveals how he first found out about costar Drake Bell’s sexual abuse

Josh Peck has shared details about the moment he realized that costar Drake Bell had been abused by producer and director Brian Peck.

The Drake & Josh stars reunited on Monday for the latest episode of the latter’s Good Guys podcast, and spoke about the 2024 documentary Quiet on Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV, which is where Drake went public with his abuse.

The topic came up during a conversation about their friendship back when they were teens and Josh, now 38, admitted that he had ‘a feeling’ at the time that something had happened when Brian was no longer on set.

‘That big break between Drake & Josh and The Amanda Show is when I told my mom what was going on,’ Drake, also 38, explained.

‘We went to the police, there was the investigation and all the stuff that you saw in the documentary, that was when all of that was going on.’

Referring to Drake & Josh, he continued: ‘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.

‘So I had to come back from The Amanda Show – where the dude was, where the abuse was happening… the worst part about it being was having the monster in your safe place.

‘That’s the only place I feel comfortable is when I get to set and hang out with you guys and we goof around and put on our masks and wigs and makeup and make people laugh, and slide around and get dirty.

Josh Peck has shared details about the moment he realized that his costar Drake Bell had been abused by producer and director Brian Peck

Drake was sexually abused as a teenager by producer and director Brian Peck during their time working on The Amanda Show

‘Like that’s where I feel safe, but it sucks because… you know, my house isn’t where I feel safe, at home. I mean, I didn’t have abusive parents or anything, but still, where I felt most comfortable and where I was the happiest was when I was on set with you guys,’ he added.

‘And the worst part was every day I got there, the monster was there… it’s crazy, you know? And then we do the pilot because he hadn’t been arrested.

‘And so now, I’m coming back, he hasn’t been arrested, and I don’t know if you remember but he came and visited during the pilot and that was an issue, but I still had to play like, “oh, hey cool, whatever. Like, you’re about to get arrested, bro and you don’t even know.”

‘I knew that s**t was about to hit the fan and nobody in here knows it, and I’m 14 or 15,’ Drake added.

Josh then said: ‘Something I feel bad about is, 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, “ahhhh he doesn’t want much to do with me.”

‘And thankfully, everyone who did know was galvanizing around you, because God knows you needed the support and deserved every inch of it, I just didn’t know any of this at 14.

‘And then watching the documentary at 38, as a father, as a grownup, so much was revealed to me and of what you had to go through, and I can’t even imagine that,’ he continued.

Later on in the podcast, he said of Brian’s sudden absence: ‘He was gone and I didn’t know anything except I had a feeling something happened.

The two actors are seen here in a promo image for their much-loved TV series Drake & Josh in 2004 when they were teenagers

‘And I remember we were in the car and I said, “Do you still talk to Brian?” and you just looked at me like, “No, Brian’s a really bad guy.”

‘And I remember thinking, “Gotcha,” and it was all that I needed to know, and I didn’t know anything more than that but I was like, “that’s clear, gotcha.”‘

Drake revealed that he didn’t want to tell Josh initially because they were ‘so close.’

‘I think it was months after this I got a text from someone who worked on the show saying, “Brian’s arrested, he’s going to jail.”

‘And I think through my simple teenager mind, I just thought, “oh thank God, he’s going to jail, good.” And it’s only watching the doc that I realized what about you? What about the trauma that you endured?

‘It’s so much deeper, it’s so much more unacceptable than all of that, it’s not this clean “oh he went to jail so everyone’s better now.”‘

Brian was arrested on August 19, 2003, for lewd conduct with a minor, charged with 11 counts.

But it wasn’t until March 2024, on the Investigation Discovery documentary series Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, that Drake was revealed to be his victim.

Brian pled no contest to two charges and was sentenced to 16 months in prison. He was subsequently ordered to register as a sex offender for life.