Former child star Drake Bell lays bare the ‘unspeakable and brutal’ abuse he suffered at the hands of Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck when he was just 15: ‘It was the worst stuff somebody can do to a person’

Former child star Drake Bell has laid bare the ‘unspeakable’ and ‘brutal’ sexual abuse that he suffered at the hands of his Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck when he was just 15, describing it as ‘the worst stuff somebody could do to a person.’

The Nickelodeon alum, now 37, spoke out about the harrowing trauma that he endured while filming The Amanda Show in the upcoming ID four-part docuseries, Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV.

He explained that his father had hired Brian, now 63, who was a dialogue coach at Nickelodeon and previously worked with Leonardo DiCaprio, to coach his young son after his career began to take off.

But immediately, he said the coach started integrating himself into his life beyond just helping him on set – attending the then-aspiring singer’s concerts and hosting his birthday parties.

He claimed the sexual abuse began during a casting trip that he was on with Brian at age 15, and only got ‘worse and worse and worse’ after that.

He described it as ‘extensive,’ and recalled feeling ‘trapped’ – admitting that he now ‘often looks back at that time and wonders how in the world he survived.’

‘Brian and I became really close because we had a lot of the same interests, which looking back I think was probably a little calculated,’ he shared in the upcoming doc, which will premiere in full on March 17. 

Drake’s father Joe told viewers that he felt like something was amiss pretty early on, but that Brian dove a wedge between him and his son.

‘I was always within eye distance of them… I was very attentive,’ he told the camera.

‘Unfortunately, I started seeing Brian start to just hang around Drake too much and it didn’t sit well with me.’

Joe said that Brian would walk into Drake’s dressing room and ‘put his arm around his waist, put his hand up on his shoulder, or kind of run it down his arm.’

‘This would happen routinely,’ he added.

But Drake was unaware of what was happening. He explained, ‘Everything was fine. I didn’t think anything of anything that was happening. 

‘In hindsight, I should have been able to see but as a kid you have no clue. But my dad saw it a mile away.’ 

While at first Drake just thought Brian was ‘his friend,’ he said ‘everything changed’ one day during a casting trip.

Drake, who was 15 years old at the time, explained that he was sleeping on a couch when he suddenly awoke to Brian ‘sexually assaulting him.’

‘I froze and was in complete shock and had no idea what to do or how to react,’ he recalled in the doc.

‘I had no idea how to get out of this situation. What am I going to do, call my mom and be like, “Hey, this just happened can you come pick me up? I’ll just sit here and wait…” It just became this secret that I had held onto.’

He said that Brian was overly apologetic but the abuse did not stop there. Instead, Drake said it ‘just got worse, and worse, and worse, and worse.’

‘I was just trapped and I had no way out,’ shared the former Drake & Josh star. ‘The abuse was extensive and it got pretty brutal.

‘I really don’t know how to elaborate about that on camera. Think of the worst stuff that someone can do to somebody as a sexual assault and that will answer your question. I don’t know how else to put it.’

Drake said that at the time, he brushed the ‘unspeakable acts’ under the carpet but eventually ‘exploded’ and told his mom everything. 

‘I have no idea what provoked it. I have no idea what happened but I just screamed into the phone everything that had been happening to me,’ he continued. 

Brian was described in the new documentary as ‘very much one of the cogs in the Dan Schneider machine.’

Drake was a supporting actor on The Amanda Show from 1999 to 2002, and Brian worked with the actors during that period. 

The actor went on to become a major star after he appeared in Drake & Josh from 2004 until 2007.

In August of 2003, the vocal coach was arrested and charged with nearly a dozen counts related allegations that he had sexually abused a then-unnamed minor. 

He eventually pleaded no contest to performing a lewd act with a 14- or 15-year-old and to oral copulation with a minor under 16.

He received a 16-month prison sentence after his conviction, and in October 2004, he was ordered to register as a sex offender. 

In 2015, however, DailyMail.com revealed that Brian was still working on Disney show and a high school–set horror film – despite his conviction. 

He was only prohibited from direct contact with children, which allowed him to still be hired in other capacities, even on projects significantly featuring children and teens. 

It’s unclear if the people hiring Brian knew that he was a convicted sex offender, though his IMDb page lists his criminal conviction. 

He has continued to have minor acting credits and worked as a dialogue coach throughout the 2000s and 2010s. His last credited acting appearance was in 2018, according to IMDb.

Quiet On Set will further explore the toxic working environment children and teens were subjected to while working on Nickelodeon shows throughout the 1990s and 2000s.