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Photo: Michael Tran/Getty Images
Drake and JoshDrake Bell is coming forward in a new documentary and alleging that he suffered sexual abuse as a child star by Nickelodeon speech coach Brian Peck. A recent sneak peek confirms that Bell was interviewed for the upcoming Investigation Discovery series. Silence on the set: The dark side of children’s televisionwhich focuses on the conditions of the shows created by Dan Schneider in the ’90s and early 2000s. for a Business Insider report of one of Silence on setAs executive producers, Bell speaks out in the docuseries about Peck allegedly molesting him when he was 15 years old. (That would date the accusations to when Peck was working on Amanda’s showwhich Bell starred in from 1999 to 2002.) In 2003, Peck was arrested and pleaded no contest to performing a lewd act on a 14- or 15-year-old and copulating with a minor under 16. convicted, sentenced to 16 months in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender in 2004.
Bell, who has chosen to remain anonymous as a juvenile in the case until now, has had a tumultuous past few years. He was briefly reported missing to police in 2023. In 2021, a judge ordered him to serve two years of probation and 200 hours of community service after pleading guilty to charges of attempting to endanger a child and sending inappropriate messages to a 15 year old girl. . Bell also previously denied allegations of abuse by her ex-girlfriend Melissa Lingafelt.
Silence on setwhich will be released on March 17 and 18, It will reportedly include interviews with several other former child stars and crew members. The boy knows the world Stars Rider Strong, Will Friedle, and Danielle Fishel recently shared that the docuseries had approached them, but they wanted to address their history with Peck in an episode of their podcast. Peck, who appeared as an adult guest star on The boy knows the worldHe developed close friendships with the young Friedle and Strong.
Fishel suggested that adults on set may have been concerned about questioning relationships because of Peck’s sexuality. “There was probably a part of them that didn’t say it because they were afraid it would be taken as homophobia,” she theorized, “rather than ‘This is a boundary, gay or not.’ This is a boundary between adults and children.’”
Friedle and Strong reflected on their past defense of Peck during his case, which included writing letters of support to a judge and physically appearing before him in court. “We’re sitting in that courtroom on the wrong side of everything… The victim’s mother turned around and said, ‘Look at all the famous people you brought with you. And that doesn’t change what you did to my son,’” Friedle recalled. “I sat there wanting to die. It was like, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’ It was horrible in every way.”