Nickelodeon Star Drake Bell Revisits Childhood Trauma, Recreates the Drake & Josh Set in New Music Video

Drake Bell has found a way to cope with his deep-seated trauma.

The former Nickelodeon star — who will detail the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of convicted child sex offender Brian Peck in Monday’s episodes of the heart-wrenching docuseries Quiet on Set (airing on Investigation Discovery and streaming on Max at 9 pm ET) — has released an autobiographical music video that recounts not only his grooming, but his own subsequent legal troubles.

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Bell first revealed himself to be the minor at the center of Peck’s 2004 conviction in the trailer for Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, a four-part series examining Nickelodeon’s sordid behind-the-scenes past while producer Dan Schneider was at the network. Peck — who bears no relation to Bell’s longtime co-star, Josh Peck — appeared in episodes of various Nickelodeon shows and worked as a dialogue coach on The Amanda Show and All That. He was convicted of a lewd act against a child and oral copulation of a person — who we now know was Bell — under 16.

The video for “I Kind of Relate” begins with a young stand-in for Bell being led into a trailer by a much older man, who shuts the door behind them and closes the curtains so no one can see inside. In the accompanying verse, Bell sings of “running away from the abuse and all the shame.”

<cite>Drake Bell/YouTube</cite>
Drake Bell/YouTube

Another verse alludes to “the wrong decisions I have made,” which seem to speak not only to a driving accident at 19, but his myriad struggles with addiction and the law.

In June 2021, Bell pled guilty to a felony charge of attempting to endanger children, and a misdemeanor charge of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles. The charges stemmed from a 2017 incident involving Bell, then 31, and a 15-year-old girl he met online. According to authorities, Bell and the underage girl exchanged social media messages that were “sexual in nature.” He was sentenced to two years’ probation and 200 hours of community service.

The video culminates in Bell picking up his guitar — which looks to be the same guitar he played in the 2005 music video for “Found a Way” — on the set of the Schneider-produced sitcom, Drake & Josh.

<cite>Drake Bell/YouTube</cite>
Drake Bell/YouTube

Bell rose to fame alongside Amanda Bynes and Josh Peck on children’s sketch-comedy series The Amanda Show, which ran for three seasons between 1999 and 2002. Two years later, Bell and Peck reunited on another Dan Schneider production, Drake & Josh, which ran for four seasons, between 2004 and 2007, and spawned the 2008 made-for-TV movie, Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh. Bell also headlined a live-action Fairly OddParents trilogy for the cable network, with three movies produced between 2011 and 2014.

In more recent years, Bell transitioned to animated work, voicing Peter Parker in the Disney XD series Ultimate Spider-ManAvengers Assemble and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.

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