After opening up about his sexual assault by Nickelodeon dialogue and acting coach Brian Peck, Drake Bell called out the stars of “Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide” for joking about the abuse allegations at Nickelodeon.
Devon Werkheiser, Lindsay Shaw and Daniel Curtis Lee, who were child stars on Nickelodeon’s “Ned’s Declassified” in the 2000s and now host a podcast discussing the show, made light of the abuse allegations made by other Nickelodeon stars that were revealed on the recent “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” docuseries.
In “Quiet on Set,” Bell revealed that he had been sexually assaulted by Peck while working on Nickelodeon’s “All That” and “The Amanda Show” in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Peck was arrested in 2003 on more than a dozen charges related to sexual abuse allegations involving an unnamed minor and was forced to register as a sex offender. “Quiet on Set” also revealed allegations of emotional abuse and sexualization of child actors against Nickelodeon executive Dan Schneider, which he has denied.
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On a TikTok live video Monday, Werkheiser, Shaw and Lee briefly joked about the Nickelodeon abuse allegations and said “our set was not like that.”
“Daniel, we told you never to speak about that. Get back in your hole, Daniel, and give me your holes,” Werkheiser says, addressing Lee offscreen, in a video posted on X of the TikTok. “Sorry, we shouldn’t joke about this. We really shouldn’t. Our set was not like that. No, it’s fucking awful. The Drake Bell shit, that’s crazy to hear. That is fucked. And that never came out, which is really wild. Really wild.”
Werkheiser and Shaw walked back the jokes before reading a comment by a TikTok user out loud that said, “So, ya’ll were in on it?”
“I’m not talking about this anymore. Not talking about this anymore,” Werkheiser said while laughing. “Guys, we can’t joke like this, Jesus. Sometimes humor helps us move through things.”
Bell responded on X/Twitter Monday night, writing “Ned’s Declassless…this is wild…laugh it up guys…laugh it up. ‘Give me your h*les!!’ Really?!”
Ned’s Declassless…this is wild…laugh it up guys…laugh it up…”Give me your h*les?!!” Really?! https://t.co/pD2ZYdd2gG
— DrakeBell.ethᵍᵐ (@DrakeBell) March 19, 2024Werkheiser apologized to Bell in a statement on X/Twitter, saying “I was being an idiot today. No way around it. I feel horrible that my dumbass was even speaking about this without seeing it. I watched ‘Quiet on Set’ tonight and am horrified by the gravity of what Drake and others shared. Truly heartbroken about what my fellow actors went through. I can’t believe they weren’t protected. I’m sorry for compounding the hurt.”
Bell also released a new music video Monday night, titled “I Kind of Relate.” In it, he plays guitar in a set that resembles his character’s bedroom in the Nickelodeon show “Drake & Josh,” while addressing the trauma from his past.
“I kind of relate / I found beauty in my pain / I’m running away / From the abuse and all the shame,” he sings in the song. In the caption of the YouTube video, he wrote that “this song was inspired by my past and now that my story is being told I felt the time was right to share it.”
Variety has reached out to Bell, Werkheiser, Shaw and Lee for comment.
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