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Drake Belland Josh Peckskyrocketed to fame after their hit Nickelodeon sitcom Drake & Josh premiered in 2004. Throughout four seasons and two made-for-TV movies, they starred as two completely opposite teens who became stepbrothers who were forced to share a room.
While Bell and Peck were friends during filming, the pair seemed to drift after wrapping the series in 2007. Bell wasn’t invited to Peck’s June 2017 nuptials to Paige O’Brien, and took to X to hint that he was peeved. “True colors have come out today,” he wrote in since-deleted tweet. “Message is loud and clear. Ties are officially cut. I’ll miss you brother.”
A few months later, Bell confirmed to Us that they had worked out their differences and were in a good place.
“It’s interesting, we’re actually closer than we’ve been in a while … It’s totally great. It’s all love. We’re brothers, man,” Bell said in September 2017.
Scroll down to relive the costars’ friendship through the years:
Credit: Gabriel Olsen/Getty Images
Drake Bell and Josh Peck Through the Years: From Nickelodeon Stars to Hunks
Drake Belland Josh Peckskyrocketed to fame after their hit Nickelodeon sitcom Drake & Josh premiered in 2004. Throughout four seasons and two made-for-TV movies, they starred as two completely opposite teens who became stepbrothers who were forced to share a room.
While Bell and Peck were friends during filming, the pair seemed to drift after wrapping the series in 2007. Bell wasn’t invited to Peck’s June 2017 nuptials to Paige O’Brien, and took to X to hint that he was peeved. “True colors have come out today,” he wrote in since-deleted tweet. “Message is loud and clear. Ties are officially cut. I’ll miss you brother.”
A few months later, Bell confirmed to Us that they had worked out their differences and were in a good place.
"It’s interesting, we’re actually closer than we’ve been in a while … It’s totally great. It’s all love. We’re brothers, man," Bell said in September 2017.
Scroll down to relive the costars' friendship through the years:
Credit: SGranitz/WireImage.com
April 2003
Cool kids. Bell and Peck posed back-to-back in all-denim outfits at the Kids’ Choice Awards in Santa Monica.
Credit: SGranitz/WireImage.com
April 2004
Quick pick-me-up! Peck jokingly carried Bell in his arms on the red carpet at the Kids’ Choice Awards in Westwood, California.
Credit: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage.com
April 2005
They’re red carpet pros by now! The costars posed together once again at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion in Westwood.
Credit: Jen Lowery/Startraksphoto.com
April 2006
Hug me, brotha! The duo showed each other some love at the Kids’ Choice Awards in Los Angeles.
Credit: Virginia Sherwood/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
August 2007
Bell and Peck appeared on the Today show in 2007 with Miranda Cosgrove, who played their devious sister Megan on the sitcom.
Credit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
September 2008
The actors suited up to present at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards in L.A.
Credit: Frazer Harrison/KCA2014/Getty Images
March 2014
All grown-up! Peck and Bell had both totally transformed by the time they reunited at the 2014 Kids’ Choice Awards in Los Angeles.
Credit: Jordin Althaus/ABC Studios via Getty Images
February 2016
Giving us hope for a Drake & Josh reboot! Bell made a cameo on Peck’s short-lived comedy Grandfathered.
Credit: Courtesy Josh Peck/Instagram
August 2017
They’ve officially ended their feud! Bell and Peck both shared the same photo of themselves embracing at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles. “Hug me…” they both captioned it.
Credit: Courtesy of Drake Bell/Twitter
September 2017
The former costars once again reunited and shared a photo of the occasion on Tuesday, September 5. Alongside the black and white snap, in which they smile with their arms around each other, Bell wrote: "I freakin love this guy!!"
Credit: Courtesy Josh Peck/Instagram
June 2019
“The boys,” Peck captioned an Instagram upload of Bell and his 5-month-old son, Max.
Credit: Image Press Agency/NurPhoto/Shutterstock; John Salangsang/Shutterstock
July 2021
One month after Bell was arraigned and charged with two criminal counts of attempted endangering children and disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, Peck told Variety, "It's upsetting, and it's an unfortunate situation. It's disappointing."
Bell initially pleaded not guilty but later changed his plea during his pretrial hearing. He was sentenced to two years probation and 200 hours of community service the following month.
Credit: Shutterstock (2)
March 2022
During an appearance on the "BFFs" podcast, Peck elaborated on his reaction to Bell's comments about his wedding.
"I remember we were at the MTV Video Music Awards [in 2017] and I see him there and he sees me. I go up to him, and this might be the most Sopranos thing I have ever done, I looked at him and I go, 'Go apologize to my wife right now,'" the How I Met Your Father star recalled in March 2022. "He made a beeline for my wife and I see him do a whole five-minute performance of an apology."
Peck called Bell out for "creating this narrative that just wasn't true" at the expense of his wife, adding, "It was just unfortunate the way it worked out. It was one of the few times in my life where I went blind and my emotions put me in that place."
Credit: Courtesy of Janet Von Schmeling/Instagram; Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock
March 2022
Bell's then-wife, Janet Von Schmeling, questioned Peck's recollection of the 2017 VMAs conversation.
"Anytime anybody asked about Josh I would say, 'He is so nice. Oh, they are so great.' I am done lying to everyone when Josh Peck is a total piece of s–t," Schmeling said via her Instagram Stories at the time. "I stay quiet until lies happen."
She continued: "The fact that I was there at the VMAs and I was next to Drake. I was the one that told him that Josh was coming up with the camera. I literally was there [and] heard it all. Drake was never threatened by Josh, like ever. That is actually hilarious. He would act like he could be a tough guy. Like bro, you're not tough."
Schmeling pointed out that her ex-husband apologized because Peck had asked him nicely, saying, "We actually hung out after that multiple times. We have talked multiples times since then. You're a f–king liar, Josh."
Credit: Shutterstock (2)
March 2022
Two days after Von Schmeling refuted Peck's recollection of the 2017 VMAs, Bell shared his side of the story during the inaugural episode of the "Drake & Janet" podcast.
"[Josh] goes, 'Hey man, you don't need to say sorry to me, but I really need you to say sorry to Paige.' And I was like, 'Yeah, dude, absolutely.' Like, I want to say sorry to Paige. And that was it," the musician said.
However, it wasn't the conflicting version of events that bothered Bell about his former costar's statement. The songwriter explained: "What bugged me about it was that he's like, 'Oh, we weren't friends.'"
Bell claimed that he and Peck had interacted quite a bit in the years leading up to the latter's 2017 wedding and that he even congratulated Peck.
"But I was bummed [about the situation]," he continued. "I was like, 'Man, that sucks, like I wish I could have been there for you.' ... We've had our ups and downs. We've had times when we wanted to kill each other. We were like brothers. I know Josh and I'm closer to Josh than I am to own brothers."
The Amanda Show alum also claimed that Peck had written a potential Drake & Josh reboot script — titled Josh & Drake — which featured a now-adult Drake Parker as a "failed musician" and his onscreen stepbrother as a real estate agent. "I just asked him to change a couple things," Bell said, referring to the fact that he has a music career in real life. "And he couldn't, and my wife wouldn't let me do it."
Credit: John Salangsang/Shutterstock
April 2023
Bell was revealed to be missing and "endangered" by the Daytona Beach Police Department in April 2023.
“** MISSING ** Officers are looking for Jared Bell, DOB 06/27/1986," read a Facebook post reporting the news. "He should be traveling in a 2022 grey BMW and his last known location is potentially the area of Mainland High School on 4/12/2023 just before 9 p.m. He is considered missing and endangered.”
He was found later that day. “At this time, we can confirm law enforcement officials are in contact and Mr. Bell is safe,” read a Facebook update from the Daytona Beach Police Department.
Credit: Investigation Discovery/YouTube
March 2024
In the Investigation Discovery special Quiet On Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, Bell spoke out for the first time about being sexually assaulted by Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck as a minor.
Brian (who has no relation to Josh) was arrested in August 2003 after he was accused of sexually abusing a then-unnamed child. He pleaded no contest to performing a lewd act with a victim around 14 or 15 years old and to oral copulation with a child under 16 years old. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison.
“I really don’t know how to elaborate on that on camera. … Why don’t you think of the worst stuff someone can do to somebody as a sexual assault and that will answer your question,” Bell said of the abuse during the docuseries. “I don’t know how else to put it. It was not a one-time thing.”
After some social media users speculated that Josh hadn’t done enough to support Bell in the wake of the revelation, Bell defended his former costar.
“I want to clear something up. I’ve noticed a lot of comments on some of Josh’s TikToks and some of his posts and I just want to let you guys know … processing this and going through this is a really emotional time and a lot of it is very difficult,” Bell said via TikTok. “So not everything is put out to the public. But I want you guys to know that he has reached out to me.”
Bell encouraged his followers to “take it a little easy on Peck” who had “been really great” to him.
Josh subsequently issued an Instagram statement noting that it took him “a few days to process” Quiet On Set.
“I reached out to Drake privately, but wanted to give my support for the survivors who were brave enough to share their stories of emotional and physical abuse on Nickelodeon sets with the world,” he continued. “Children should be protected. Reliving this publicly is incredibly difficult, but I hope it can bring healing for the victims and their families as well as necessary change to our industry.”
One month later, Bell said during an appearance on the “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast that appreciated Josh reaching out to him privately before posting online.
"He just knew how sensitive this was for me and after watching the documentary, he learned so much that I had gone through and I think he was just so sensitive and made sure to reach out to me privately rather than just going straight to social media,” he said.
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