Investigation Discovery docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV premiered in March 2024. It revealed a dark part of the industry that many child actors face: sexual abuse. One of the biggest bombshells the series dropped was that actor Drake Bell was the minor that Brian Peck, a dialogue coach for Nickelodeon at the time, was convicted of abusing. Bell told his side of the story for the first time.
Peck served 16 months in prison. He even got work in the entertainment industry after his sentence. Today he still lives in Los Angeles.
In 2004, Peck pleaded no contest to charges of oral copulation with a minor under 16 and performing a lewd act with a 14- or 15-year-old. No contest is legal jargon for not admitting guilt but also not fighting the sentence. The victim was not named at the time.
As a result of this legal proceeding, Peck was sentenced to 16 months in prison. He was required to register as a sex offender. He was released in 2005.
More from LittleThings: Drake Bell Reveals He Was Sexually Assaulted Multiple Times By Nickelodeon Dialogue Coach
According to Variety, in 2006 Peck was hired by the Disney Channel. He did voice-over work on three episodes of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. Once Disney found out about his conviction, he was fired and his voice-overs were replaced.
Surprisingly, Disney was not the only company that hired him after his legal troubles. He has continued to work in the industry according to his IMDb page, although many of his roles or voice-overs are uncredited. In 2008, he played the role of Colton McDonald in the film Forever Strong.
His most recent credit is from 2018. He narrated a show called Animal Showdown, which features creatures facing off against yet other. This was a series created for National Geographic Kids.
Peck got his start in the industry as an actor. One of his breakout roles was in the 1985 film Return of the Living Dead. He would go on to work as Alan Thicke’s body double on the hit sitcom Growing Pains. This explains why Thicke wrote a letter of support for Peck during his sentencing. Thicke died in 2016.
Peck had a strong working relationship with Nickelodeon in the 1990s. He appeared on All That. This led him to being hired as a dialogue coach for the network. This is how Bell met Peck, on the set of The Amanda Show.
These days, Peck still calls Los Angeles home, according to TMZ.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, the National Sexual Assault Hotline provides confidential 24/7 support. Call 800-656-HOPE (4673) or chat online at RAINN.
