Drake Bell at the iHeartRadio Music Awards in 2019. (Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images)
Three years after Drake Bell was sentenced in a case related to allegations of sexual contact with an underaged girl he met online, the former Nickelodeon star is opening up in a new docu-series about how he was the victim of alleged sexual abuse, back when he was a child actor working for the network.
Bell, best known for his starring role in “Drake and Josh,” claims he was abused by Brian Peck, his former dialogue coach on “The Amanda Show,” according to a promotional clip for the series, “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.”
The series focuses on investigating “the toxic work conditions” behind children’s TV shows in 1990s and early 2000s, specifically those run by Dan Schneider, who created such hit Nickelodeon programs as “Drake & Josh,” “The Amanda Show,” “Zoey 101” and “iCarly,” Variety reported. According to a press release, “Quiet on Set” sheds light on an allegedly “insidious environment rife with allegations of abuse, sexism, racism and inappropriate dynamics with its underage stars and crew.”
The promotional clip brings up Peck with someone asking, “To hear Brian Peck was a sexual predator, it made me wonder immediately about who was being hurt.” In the clip, Bell ultimately emerges into a spotlight as he takes a chair, and the camera focuses on the actor and musician as he seemingly prepares to talk about his experience with Peck. However, the clip ends before Peck begins to share his story.
In 2003, Peck was accused of molesting a child. He was subsequently convicted of a lewd act against a child and oral copulation of a person under 16, and spent 16 months in prison, The Hollywood Reporter said. A press release for the series reveals that Bell was the victim in the case, saying that Peck “was convicted in 2004 for his crimes against Drake and ordered to register as a sex offender,” THR also said.
In opening up about Peck’s abuse, Bell may be trying to provide some kind of context for his own legal issues after his stardom as a teen actor began to wane, though he continued to work in entertainment. Bell was twice convicted for driving under the influence, stemming from his arrests in 2009 in San Diego and in 2015 in Los Angeles. For the latter, Bell took a plea deal, was sentenced to 96 hours in jail, though he ended up only serving one day, E! News reported.
More seriously, as well as detrimental to his reputation and career, Bell pleaded guilty in 2021 to felony child endangerment charges, stemming from a young woman’s allegations that he met her online when she was 12 and he began “grooming” her, according to the Associated Press. Bell was sentenced in Ohio to two years’ probation and to perform 200 hours of community service.
At Bell’s sentencing in 2021, the young woman spoke on Zoom about how she initially felt loved and protected by Bell during online chats but that his messages became “blatantly sexual” after she turned 15, AP reported. She said his remarks made her feel uncomfortable, but she felt trapped because she “idolized” Bell.
“I was definitely one of his biggest fans,” said the woman. “I would have done anything for him.”
The woman said she and Bell exchanged explicit photos online and that he engaged in sexual conduct with her on several occasions, including at a concert venue in Cleveland, Ohio and at a hotel, AP reported. She also called Bell a “pedophile” and a “coward.”
At Bell’s sentencing, his attorney disputed the woman’s claims, AP reported. The attorney, Ian Friedman, said there were no explicit photos or sexual contact between Bell and the victim, and the inappropriate conduct that did occur were addressed in the charges Bell pleaded to. Friedman, however, did not detail the inappropriate conduct Bell was acknowledging.
Following his conviction, Bell took to Instagram to tell his side of the story, THR reported. In a video, he suggested that the woman’s claims were false, given that he otherwise would have been sent to jail or prison. Instead, he was able to return home and be with his wife and son.
“I’m not perfect, and I make mistakes,” Bell said in his video, THR said. He called his behavior “reckless and irresponsible” but denied that he maintained communication with his alleged victim over a sustained period of time or that he knew who she was during in-person encounters.
“I responded to a fan whose age I didn’t know. When I became aware of their age, all conversation and communication stopped,” he continued. “This individual continued to come to shows and pay for meet-and-greets, and although I was unaware that this was the same person I was communicating with online, that’s what I pled guilty to.”
But Bell’s ex-girlfriend wasn’t surprised by his arrest in relation to an underaged girl, according to a 2021 Daily Beast report. The year before Bell’s arrest, Melissa Lingafelt told her own “harrowing tale of abuse” at the hands of the actor when she was a minor, the Daily Beast said.
In a series of TikTok videos posted in 2020, Lingafelt, who dated Bell when she was 16 and he was 20, detailed how he emotionally and physically abused her over the course of their three-year relationship, from 2006 to 2009, the Daily Beast reported.
In an interview with the Daily Beast, Lingafelt described her relationship with Bell as “highly tumultuous” and “really awful.”
“He was extremely physical,” she said. “Multiple times the cops would be called. I would run away; I would leave the house, because he had trained me to protect him. So, if the cops were called, I would just get out of there.”
Lingafelt told The Daily Beast she also witnessed examples of what Bell was arrested for — “having inappropriate conversations online with underage girls.” She said, “I saw really questionable, crazy (expletive) on his computer. The stuff he’d be looking at was (expletive) insane.”
Originally published at Martha Ross