Drake Bell felt ‘a lot of uncertainty’ speaking out about childhood sexual abuse during Nickelodeon days, doc directors say

At first, actor Drake Bell wasn’t sure he was ready to publicly reveal that he was the previously unidentified minor who had been sexually assaulted by Nickelodeon dialogue and acting coach Brian Peck, who was convicted of child sexual abuse in 2004.

“I think there was a lot of uncertainty up until very recently,” Emma Schwartz, co-director of Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, tells Yahoo Entertainment.

The four-part Investigation Discovery (ID) docuseries examines the toxicity on the sets of Nickelodeon showrunner Dan Schneider’s kid-themed shows — All That, The Amanda Show, Zoey 101, Sam & Cat, Drake & Josh — in the '90s and '00s. In the show, Bell, now 37, revealed he was the minor John Doe who accused Peck of sexual assault and abuse.

Schwartz and filmmaking partner Mary Robertson were deep into exploring that world — interviewing former cast members, writers and crew members about their experiences — when they connected that there were three different men who worked on Nickelodeon sets in that era who had been arrested and convicted of child abuse.

“We really wanted to understand how that had happened,” Schwartz says, “and in the course of having conversations, you start to have whispers of who some of the victims are.”

Bell was introduced to Peck during Season 2 of The Amanda Show in 2000 when Bell was 14 and Peck was 40. In the doc, Bell details how Peck — who had been talked up as having a hand in Leonardo DiCaprio’s early success — glommed on to him, pushing out Bell’s dad and becoming his manager.

In the series, Bell calls the "extensive" abuse “pretty brutal” and says it was “the worst stuff that someone could do to somebody as a sexual assault.” Bell felt trapped. He later broke down to his mother about the abuse, which continued, and they went to police. Bell secured Peck’s confession in a call recorded by investigators. In 2004, Peck pleaded no contest to performing a lewd act with a 14- or 15-year-old and oral copulation with a minor under 16. He served 16 months in prison.

Bell’s identity was kept a secret, and it stayed that way for over 20 years. The filmmakers of the series say much sensitivity was involved when they approached Bell to see if he wanted to share his story.

“Anyone who's a survivor of child sex abuse, you want to be very, very careful and very, very thoughtful,” Schwartz says. “You don't know if they're ready to speak. You don't know if they want to have any outreach — or that if even by reaching out, you could trigger them in some way. So I wrote a letter, and from that letter we began a conversation. It was not an easy conversation, and there was a lot of back and forth before we finally met. And once we met, I didn't know if he would want to move forward. Even once he got to a point where he was ready to share on camera, I don't know that he went home and said, ‘That was the best decision I made in my life.’”

Some of Bell's uncertainty was lifted after filmmakers screened the final project with him.

“I think he felt it really did reflect his truth,” Schwartz says. “And ultimately, as this has come out, has felt a bit lighter from holding in so much for so many years that he's really still trying to grapple with and move forward from.”

Bell — who went on to star in Drake & Josh from 2004 to 2007 — detailed the horrors of what he went through, including going to court to deliver a victim impact statement and seeing Peck’s side of the courtroom filled with Hollywood supporters.

“That was one of the more shocking … revelations that came from the reporting of this,” says Robertson. “And I think for Drake, it was one of the more devastating aspects of a completely devastating experience.”

The filmmakers went to court to unseal the over 40 letters of support that were sent to the judge on Peck’s behalf, including those written by James Marsden, Saturday Night Live’s Taran Killam, Growing Pains co-stars Joanna Kerns and the late Alan Thicke, X-Men producer Tom DeSanto, Twin Peaks actress Kimmy Robertson and Boy Meets World co-stars Rider Strong and Will Friedle. (Last month, Strong and Friedle talked on their podcast about being “groomed” by Peck, who ingratiated himself into their lives. While they testified on his behalf, they later expressed regret over it.)

The betrayals hit even closer to home. While the doc noted neither Schneider nor any top Nickelodeon executives wrote letters in support of Peck, Drake & Josh director Rich Correll and the show’s stage manager Beth Correll did, telling the judge they’d work with Peck again in a minute. After Peck was released from prison, the Corrells hired him to work on a different kids’ TV show, Disney Channel’s The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, from 2006 to 2007.

“There are many remaining questions about the conditions under which the letters of support were written,” Robertson says. “And it's our hope that we'll learn more about that in the coming weeks and months.”

Bell talked in the doc about how the abuse led to “self-loathing” and “self-destructive behavior.” He “tried to escape” via alcohol and substance abuse. He was arrested twice for DUI in 2009 and 2015. In 2021, Bell pleaded guilty to one count of felony attempted child endangerment and a misdemeanor charge of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles relating to conduct involving a teen girl he met online in 2017 when she was 15. He admitted to making “mistakes” including “irresponsible text messages,” but denied physical contact with the victim. In 2023, Bell was reported missing and underwent a mental health evaluation once authorities found him. His wife, with whom he has a 2-year-old son, filed for divorce soon after.

The docuseries is not trying to be an exposé of Bell’s life after Nickelodeon, however.

“I do think that there are real differences between that [more recent] case and his experiences with Brian Peck,” Schwartz says “Really what we wanted to do with our project was focus on the voices who had been part of these sets and shows, [really] understanding that experience” in that specific period of time.

The doc digs into the work environment Schneider fostered. As Nickelodeon’s “golden boy,” Schneider created hit after hit, and before his 2018 ouster (with a $7M payout), he operated in a way that apparently went unchecked.

There’s a disturbing number of clips of the young child actors — including Ariana Grande and Jamie Lynn Spears — being made to do things that were overtly sexual in nature. He put kids in revealing costumes that made them feel uncomfortable. They were made to perform degrading and scary on-air dares. He got into a hot tub with a baby-faced Amanda Bynes and tried to help her get emancipated from her parents. He created recurring characters named “Penelope Taynt” and Peck’s character, “Pickle Boy,” seemingly just for the sexual innuendo. He blew up at child actors, humiliated female writers and demanded massages from female employees.

Being on a Schneider show wasn’t a 9-to-5 gig, and the kids mixed with behind-the-scenes adults after hours, including at parties, which blurred lines. Along with Peck, Jason Handy, a production assistant on All That and The Amanda Show, whose job was escorting young performers on set, was arrested for child pornography in 2003. Ezel Channel, an animator, was arrested for committing lewd acts on a 14-year-old boy and showing him pornography in 2005.

“We have over a dozen folks who have never really spoken publicly before about these experiences and really help shine a light in a way that I don't think the public has seen before,” Schwartz promises.

Bell says in the doc that Schneider was not aware of Peck’s abuse until he confided in him. He said Schneider offered to support him in any way he could, but Bell just wanted to move on.

A rep for Schneider said this week, “Dan has said himself that he was a tough boss to work for and, if he could do things over again, he would act differently. But let’s be clear, when Dan departed Nickelodeon, a full investigation was done and again, all that was found is that he was a challenging, tough and demanding person to work for and with, nothing else.”

Nickelodeon also released a statement, saying, “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.”

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, help is available. RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline is reachable 24/7 and offers free, anonymous help. 800-656-HOPE (4673) and online.rainn.org.

Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV airs on March 17 and 18, from 9 to 11 p.m. ET/PT on ID. It will also stream on Max.