Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV is a four-part documentary series that exposes tough working conditions on children’s shows in the 1990s and early 2000s. It caters on shows created by Dan Schneider—the man behind Nickelodeon hits like iCarly and Zoey 101.
The documentary series sheds light on a toxic environment where young actors and crew members face mistreatment, discrimination, and inappropriate behavior.
The documentary features interviews with past actors and crew members from Schneider’s Nickelodeon series such All That and The Amanda Show. They include Giovonnie Samuels, Kyle Sullivan, Bryan Hearne, Katrina Johnson, Virgil Fabian, Jenny Kilgen, Christy Stratton, and Alexa Nikolas. They all will share their experiences from working on these shows.
During one of the interviews, Drake & Josh star Drake Bell, also reveals his own troubling experience. He shares how a dialogue coach s*xually abused him when he was only 15 years old.
Drake Bell’s Harrowing Experience Unmasks Nickelodeon’s Dark Side
Former Nickelodeon star Drake Bell revealed he was victim of s*xual abuse in the upcoming documentary, Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.
The documentary released a clip featuring Bell speaking out about Brian Peck. The press release shared with People by Warner Bros. Discovery reads:
“The clip reveals that former Nickelodeon star Drake Bell will be sharing publicly, for the first time, the story of the abuse he suffered at the hands of Brian Peck, his former dialogue coach who was convicted in 2004 for his crimes against Drake and ordered to register as a s*x offender.”
The 37-year-old came forward to confront how Peck misused his position of power. Peck worked as a dialogue coach on shows like All That and The Amanda Show, where Bell also appeared between 1999 and 2002. Following that, the child actor starred in his own Nickelodeon series, Drake & Josh, in 2004.
As reported by Vulture, the now 63-year-old was arrested on over a dozen charges linked to s*xual abuse allegations involving an unnamed minor in August 2023.
Next year, Peck pleaded no contest to engaging in a lewd act with a 14 or 15-year-old and to oral copulation with a minor under 16. The dialogue coach was sentenced to 16 months in prison and ordered to register as a s*x offender in October the same year.
For more than two decades, the voice actor behind Peter Parker in the Ultimate Spider-Man remained unidentified as the minor in that case. Bell made his first public revelation that he was the anonymous minor in the upcoming documentary.
Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV Also Exposes Dan Schneider’s Inappropriate Behavior
According to the report from 2022, some former child actors and crew members claimed that producer Dan Schneider made the set uncomfortable to work on.
For instance, in 2020, Alexa Nikolas (an actor from Zoey 101 who played Nicole Bristow), called out Schneider as a “creator of childhood trauma” during a protest outside Nickelodeon Studios (per Vanity Fair).
The Independent also reported that Daniella Monet (an actress who played Rebecca Martin on the show), raised concerns to Nickelodeon that she had concerns about a scene, she felt was too s*xualized.
Even former Nickelodeon employees described him as difficult to work with. They claimed he often got angry and sent aggressive emails. He also had a weird “chumminess” with young actors that made some people uncomfortable (via The New York Times).
Nickelodeon separated from the co-president of the production company Schneider’s Bakery in 2018 due to alleged inappropriate behavior that he had been accused of for years.
Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV will air on March 17 and 18 on Investigation Discovery.
