Culture

Trigger warning: the following story contains descriptions of sexual assault.
Former Drake & Josh star Drake Bell details his alleged sexual abuse at the hands of his former childhood dialogue coach Brian Peck in the new Investigation Discovery docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the four-part show dives into the toxic work environment at Nickelodeon on sets run by Dan Schneider, who created such hit programs as Drake & Josh, The Amanda Show, Zoey 101, iCarly, Victorious and Sam & Cat, iconic kids’ programs that launched the careers of such superstars as Ariana Grande, Amanda Bynes, Kenan Thompson, Victoria Justice and more.

In the series, Bell shares the details of his alleged abuse by Peck — who was convicted of sexually assaulting a Nickelodeon child actor in 2004 — for the first time, including allegations of abuse, sexism, racism and inappropriate behavior involving underage stars and crew and alleged predatory behavior at the network. The series will premiere over two nights on ID on March 17 and 18.

In the third episode, Bell graphically recounts the alleged grooming and sexual abuse he suffered at Peck’s hands when he was 14- and 15-years-old. The series reveals that when Peck was accused of molesting a child in 2003 and later convicted of a lewd act against a child and oral copulation of a person under 16 — resulting in a 16-month sentence and registration as a sex offender — it was then-15-year-old All That and The Amanda Show star Bell who was at the center of the criminal case and conviction.

Bell describes waking up on Peck’s couch one morning to the dialogue coach “sexually assaulting me. I froze and was in complete shock,” he says. “I had no idea what to do or how to react.” The series reportedly claims that Peck manipulated Bell’s mother and other adults to allow him “free rein” with the minor,” with Bell describing the abuse getting “worse and worse and worse and… worse, and I was just trapped and I had no way out.”

According to People, Bell, now 37, says he became close to Peck because they had “a lot of the same interests,” which he now realizes was “a bit calculated” on the part of his adult coach, who would often invite Bell to his house for acting lessons.

The abuse stopped after the mother of Bell’s then girlfriend asked why Peck wouldn’t stop calling the young actor that Bell began therapy, though at the time he was not yet ready to share his secret. “Then I realized it was so calculated. You (Peck) moved all the pieces into place. The whole thing was mental manipulation,” Bell said of the behavior by the dialogue coach, who appeared on screen as the character “Pickle Boy.”

People reported that Peck later became Bell’s manager, which caused a rift between the actor and his father, who was concerned about Peck accompanying Bell on auditions an hour away from where the young actor lived with his mother, sometimes necessitating overnight stays at Peck’s home.

Bell finally went to the police in 2003 and told his mother about the abuse, which included a “brutal” interview with two detectives in which Bell had to call Peck to get the coach to admit his guilt on a tapped phone line.

Soon after, Bell says, Schneider phoned him asking if the case was tied to the young actor. Feeling close to the boss, Bell says he confirmed the case was about him, at which point Schneider allegedly responded, “‘You don’t need to talk anymore about it. That’s all I needed to hear. Are you okay? Do you need anything from me? Anything you need.” Bell, who would then go on to topline his Drake & Josh series, says he doesn’t recall any other Nickelodeon executive reaching out to him at the time. Bell, who says his life was upended by the abuse, says in the series he began drinking and using drugs in the aftermath and in 2021 pleaded guilty to two charges tied to his online interactions with an underage fan; he was sentenced to two years’ probation and community service.

“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,” Nickelodeon said in a statement to THR.

The series claims that kid actors were made to wear suggestive costumes and take part in inappropriate sketches with pornographic undertones. All That actor Leon Frierson recalls playing a superhero character called Captain Big Nose in tights and underwear, with a prosthetic nose and matching noses on his shoulders.

“You can’t help but notice that it looks like penises and testicles on my shoulders,” he says, noting that one sketch included Captain Big Nose unleashing a giant sneeze caused by his allergy to asteroids, resulting in a messy goo on the face of a young woman. “The joke in that sketch is effectively a cum shot joke. It’s a cum shot joke for children,” culture writer Schaachi Koul says in the first episode. “Looking back, it’s very strange. Frankly, it was just uncomfortable. In the moment, I thought this is what we got to do to stay on the show, to stay in the cast and stay in the good graces of people that were higher up,” says Frierson, who also discusses that being close to “kingmaker” Schneider could mean an extra level of success for the young actors. “It was important to be on his good side, and he made it known who was on his good side,” he says.

The Amanda Show actress Raquel Lee Bolleau — who appeared on the show when she was 12-years-old — says that “you wanted Dan to like you, because otherwise he was mean to you,” describing the time Schneider allegedly “flipped out” when he thought a birthday cake on set for Bolleau was too big. “Dan yelled a lot. Dan was like a tornado. He’d show up and you’d say, what just happened? Dan showed up. The set wouldn’t feel the same when he’d leave, because everyone was on their toes, scared,” Bolleau says of the showrunner who others describe as tormenting, humiliating and yelling on set.

That theme is a recurring one in the series, in which the young actors say they feared that if they spoke up for themselves, or their parents did, they would never work again.

“Working for Dan was like being in an abusive relationship,” Christy Stratton, one of only two women writers on The Amanda Show, says in the docuseries. Stratton and the other female writer on the show, Jenny Kilgen, reportedly had to split a normal staff writer salary to get hired, with Stratton recalling that Schneider told her, “he didn’t think women were funny” and Kilgen adding, “He [Schneider] challenged us to name a funny female writer, and he said this to the writers in the writers room.”

Kilgen also says that Schneider allegedly had pornography on his computer screen and told her he’d put one of her sketches in the show in return for a massage. “He always presented it like a joke, and he’d be laughing while he said it. But you always felt like disagreeing with Dan, or standing up for yourself, could get you fired,” Kilgen says, recalling that one day in the writer’s room Schneider asked her to lean across her desk and simulate being sodomized.

The series claims that Schneider’s alleged abusive on-set behavior didn’t stop until after the rise of the #MeToo movement, with Nickelodeon eventually splitting with Schneider after “years of whispers and rumors.” That move came after a 2014 internal investigation about toxic conditions on the set of the Grande/Jennette McCurdy show Sam & Kat resulted in hands-on boss Schneider no longer interacting with the series cast while being sequestered in his office. Schneider — whose shows were moneymakers for the network — created two more series, Game Shakers and Henry Danger before being the subject of a second internal investigation by Nickelodeon, which cleared him of any “hint of sexual misconduct,” but which paved the way for his leave-taking in 2018.

“Everything that happened on the shows I ran was carefully scrutinized by dozens of involved adults. All stories, dialogue, costumes, and makeup were fully approved by network executives on two coasts,” Schneider said in a statement to THR about the series. “A standards and practices group read and ultimately approved every script, and programming executives reviewed and approved all episodes. In addition, every day on set, there were always parents and caregivers and their friends watching us rehearse and film.”

In a statement about the series’ allegations of misconduct, Nickelodeon said, “Though we cannot corroborate or negate allegations of behaviors from productions decades ago, Nickelodeon as a matter of policy investigates all formal complaints as part of our commitment to fostering a safe and professional workplace environment free of harassment or other kinds of inappropriate conduct. Our highest priorities are the well-being and best interests not just of our employees, casts and crew, but of all children, and we have adopted numerous safeguards over the years to help ensure we are living up to our own high standards and the expectations of our audience.”

Stories about sexual assault allegations can be traumatizing for survivors of sexual assault. If you or anyone you know needs support, you can reach out to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). The organization provides free, confidential support to sexual assault victims. Call RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.HOPE) or visit the anti-sexual violence organization’s website for more information.