Drake Bell SLAMS celebs who wrote letters of support for Brian Peck

Drake Bell has slammed the celebrities who wrote letters of support for sexual abuser Brian Peck as he claimed still nobody has reached out to him personally to apologize – before making a shock defense of ‘abuser’ Dan Schneider. 

The Quiet On Set documentary sparked widespread furor upon its release earlier this month after exposing the hidden underbelly of children’s TV – but it has now aired one final episode filled with yet more shocking claims from former cast and crew.

The original four-part exposé about Nickelodeon promised to ‘pull back the curtain on an empire, built by creator Dan Schneider, that had an undeniable grip on popular culture’ in the 1990s and early 2000s. 

The biggest bombshells to come from the show included allegations that Schneider had ‘degraded’ staff before being sued over accusations of gender discrimination, hostile work environment and harassment.

His reputation was also marred with claims that he wrote ‘uncomfortable sketches’ that ‘sexualized’ child actors – including Ariana Grande – something that he has since denied in an apology interview issued since the documentary’s release.

Elsewhere, viewers were stunned to learn that there were three Nickelodeon employees who were child sex offenders – including dialogue coach Brian Peck who was sentenced to prison after committing sex acts with a male minor.

It was then revealed for the very first time that the minor involved was in fact Drake Bell who came forward to detail his horrific abuse.

The former child star, now 37, has now spoken out again in the latest installment of the docuseries – titled Breaking The Silence – to make yet more shocking claims.

Drake slams the celebs who wrote letters of support for abuser Brian Peck claiming still nobody had reached out to him 

Drake Bell returned in the latest installment of the Quiet On Set docuseries to tell host Soledad O’Brien about what had motivated him to participate in the exposé after so many years.

‘The choice to participate was a tough one. It was a really hard decision to make because I had been approached before and I wasn’t ready and said no,’ he shared.

But he said that staff on the Quiet on Set documentary had reached out and made him ‘feel really comfortable.’

‘I was able to feel like I could open up… I just felt maybe this is the time to tell my story.’

In earlier episodes, he had laid bare the abuse he suffered at the hands of Brian Peck – describing them as ‘unspeakable acts.’

‘The abuse was extensive and it got pretty brutal. I really don’t know how to elaborate about that on camera,’ he explained in an earlier episode. 

‘Why don’t you do this? 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.’

Peck was arrested and charged with nearly a dozen counts related allegations that he had sexually abused a then-unnamed minor in August 2003.

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

Drake had previously said that he was disappointed at seeing so many notable names show up to the courthouse in support of Peck during sentencing – including actors Will Friedle, 47, and Rider Strong, 44 – in addition to a total of 41 others who penned letters to the judge on the abuser’s behalf. 

Following the release of the documentary, Will and Rider, who were cast members on Boy Meets World, discussed the situation on their podcast.

Will said: ‘[Brian] then asked us to support him and go to court with him which a lot of us did and we’re sitting in that courtroom on the wrong side of everything…

‘The victim’s mother turned and said, “look at all the famous people you brought with you and it doesn’t change what you did to my kid.”

‘And I just sat there wanting to die. It was like, “what the hell am I doing here.”

Reflecting on Will’s comments, Drake was asked by Soledad whether the acknowledgment changed the way he thought about that day in court.

He frankly responded: ‘No. I worked with Will on Spiderman and there was a lot of opportunity to apologize or talk about it and never did.

‘But also it’s a very difficult subject to bring up especially in a work environment.’

Drake continued: ‘That’s the thing that’s hard about this is because everyone deals with their trauma in different ways.

‘Everybody comes to different conclusions at different times in their lives and realizations.

‘I really appreciate their perspective now but that day is so engrained in my mind and there’s so many people who… nobody’s reached out to me.

‘Not one person who has written one of those letters has reached out to me.’

Drake said that it ‘boggles his mind’ that the abuse was not a bigger scandal at the time given that there was more than one predator working at Nickelodeon.

Referencing production assistant Jason Handy, who harbored an ‘enormous trove of child pornography’ that included more than 10,000 images of children, he continued: ‘For those two cases to happen so closely together at the same network on the same show, it allowed him to go work on other shows, go work on other kids shows, on other kids networks as a registered sex offender.

‘It was just unbelievable.’

The former child actor defended Dan Schneider despite the ongoing allegations about the writer

The Quiet On Set documentary unraveled a whole host of accusations against Schneider – but Drake was quick to defend his former mentor in the new episode.

He claimed that Schneider had been one of the only people to offer him support through the ordeal with Peck.

Soledad asked how it was for Drake to watch the accusations being levied against the former Nickelodeon writer, to which he responded: ‘It was very hard to watch because I can only speak from my experience and I can’t take away from anyone else’s experience.

‘I can just say that during this time with Brian, Dan was really the only one from the network that even made an effort to help me and make sure I was okay.’ 

Discussing child actors as a whole, particularly in reference to ‘troubled’ Amanda Bynes’ who featured in a ‘disturbing’ hot tub scene with Schneider during her time at the show, Drake shared: ‘We have lost so many that aren’t here anymore. I’ve watched tragedy after tragedy after tragedy in this business and it is just heartbreaking.

‘I went many years not wanting to even talk about it at all. Not in therapy, not with my friends, not with my family. There were a lot of things happening in my personal life that were really difficult and I started to just kind of spiral is the best way to put it.’

Drake said it was not until he went to rehab that he started ‘facing’ his trauma head on.

‘Obviously, things like DUIs and choices that I’ve made in my life they are decisions I’ve made on my own so I do have to take accountability and responsibility for those things.

‘But it is really eye-opening to get down to maybe what’s the root cause. Where is this coming from?’

The new episode in the series then aired a never-before seen clip from Drake’s original interview about how he had been dealing with the trauma.

‘A lot of times my emotions and my inner thoughts and what I had been through would creep up and get in the way but luckily I was writing songs and expressed what I was feeling through music.

‘I think that was my therapy really at that time.’

He added: ‘Music is like my diary or my journal. I have always written about my life and after I did this documentary I just started writing more and more and more – and stuff started pouring out.’

Drake shared that his new song titled I Kind Of Relate – as well as the accompanying music video – had channeled his experience.