Jared Drake Bell[2] (born June 27, 1986), better known as Drake Bell, is an American actor, comedian, guitarist, singer/songwriter, producer, and occasional television director. Bell is commonly associated with his real-life best friend Josh Peck, who co-starred with him in both The Amanda Show, with Amanda Bynes, and Drake & Josh. After beginning his career as a child star in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he appeared on The Amanda Show and became well-known among young audiences for his role on the series Drake & Josh. As of 2010, Drake Bell remains one of Nickelodeon's most popular stars ever and has won nine Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Awards.
In addition to his acting, Bell has a growing career as a musician, and co-wrote and performed the theme song to Drake & Josh, entitled "Found a Way". In 2005 he independently released his debut album, Telegraph. His second album, It's Only Time, was released in 2006 after signing with Motown.
[edit] Personal life
Bell was born and raised in Santa Ana, California, the son of Robin Dodson, a professional pool player, and Joe Bell. He has three older brothers, Joey, Robert and Travis, and one older sister, Kellie.[2][3] His cousin is San Diego Padres closer Heath Bell.[4] On December 29, 2005, Bell was involved in a car accident on Los Angeles's Pacific Coast Highway. He was driving with a friend when a truck ran a red light and caused a head-on collision. This resulted in a fractured neck, a jaw broken in three places, six missing teeth and several facial lacerations.[5]
[edit] Career
[edit] Acting
Bell appeared in the film Jerry Maguire as Jesse Remo in 1996, and had a small role in the Seinfeld episode "The Frogger" in 1998. In 1999, he acted in a commercial for Pokémon Red and Blue and in the movie Dragon World: The Legend Continues. In 2000, he was nominated for the Young role as Cage Redding in the made-for-television film The Jack Bull. During the early 2000s, Bell was a featured performer on The Amanda Show and made a guest appearance on the series The Nightmare Room, before being cast as Drake Parker alongside real life best friend and former Amanda Show costar Josh Peck on the Nickelodeon series Drake & Josh, which began airing in 2004. During this time period, he made a guest appearance as himself on Nickelodeon's Zoey 101 and won the first of three consecutive "Blimp Awards" at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards in the "Favorite TV Actor" category. In 2005, Bell co-starred alongside fellow Drake & Josh actress Miranda Cosgrove with Dennis Quaid in Yours, Mine and Ours. In the spring of 2008, Bell had a starring role in the comedy spoof film Superhero Movie. In August 2008, he co-starred in the comedy College, which was shot on location in New Orleans. Bell has signed a producing deal with Virtus Entertainment and will star in The Miracle of Santa Rosa. Bell will also be in another Virtus Entertainment production, this one a mini-series titled Flying Tigers. Bell recently starred in Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh alongside Josh Peck, which began production in July 2008, and premiered on December 5, 2008. He recently guest starred in the online webseries titled I Heart Vampires.[6] In 2010, he made a cameo appearance in an iCarly episode entitled "iBloop".
He will star as Timmy Turner in the live-action TV-movie adaptation of its hit animated series The Fairly Odd Parents, A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!, to be released in 2011.[7]
Bell was first professionally associated with music when he was in the 2001 movie Chasing Destiny.[citation needed] In the film, he co-starred with The Who lead singer Roger Daltrey, who gave him his first guitar lessons. Bell performed on television for the first time in 2002 when he performed his first original song, "Lost A Lover", on The Amanda Show. He also performed part of this song on an episode of "The Nightmare Room", and "So Little Time". Another one of his songs, "Found a Way", is featured as the theme song for Drake & Josh. The song is included on Drake & Josh soundtrack, along with two other compositions he wrote and performed, that were on his debut album, Telegraph, which was released independently on September 27, 2005.
In 2005, Bell performed with Hawk Nelson in a video for the Hawk Nelson song called "Bring 'Em Out," which was featured in the movie Yours, Mine and Ours. Bell and then-band-mates Michael Corcoran (Backhouse Mike) and C.J. Abraham (The Super Chris), worked on music for Drake & Josh, Zoey 101, and iCarly. In 2006, Bell signed with Universal Records. He released his first single, "I Know", on October 17, 2006. The video for "I Know" was filmed in October 2006. Bell's second album, entitled It's Only Time, was released on December 5, 2006, reaching Number 81 on Billboard's Top 200.[8] Bell performed live on MTV's TRL the day after it was released. In the summer of 2007, he went on a Nextfest tour in support of It's Only Time, opening up alongside Corbin Bleu for Aly & AJ.
On October 16, 2007, the Radio Disney single edit version of his song "Makes Me Happy", was released on iTunes. This was the second single for Bell's album It's Only Time. He also wrote with band-mates Michael Corcoran (Backhouse Mike), and C.J. Abraham (The Super Chris), and sang the theme song for the show iCarly, "Leave It All to Me," with Miranda Cosgrove. The music video for the song premiered on May 24, 2008. Bell has recorded a theme song featuring Sara Paxton for his movie Superhero Movie called "Superhero! Song". He performed some Christmas songs in the Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh movie.
Bell has described his music as being heavily influenced by The Beatles and The Beach Boys, with the Beatles being his main influence.[9] He says that two of his other influences are Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly.[10]
A DVD entitled "Drake Bell In Concert" was released on December 16, 2008. The video was unable to crack the 2008 or 2009 Top 100.[11] The DVD contains footage of him and his band live on stage while they toured in Mexico, in October 2008. It also features 2 new songs and 5 covers, all of which are exclusive to the DVD.[12]
In late 2007, Bell was working on his third studio album, originally intended for a spring 2008 release.[13] This album will most likely not be produced by his current label Universal Motown, as said by CJ Abraham in an interview. A few new songs have been heard, and in interviews he has explained, "It's kind of a conceptual double album. The first record is kind of like Magical Mystery Tour in the air, like a 1960's Pan Am flight with all this cool orchestral music and if there is turbulence on the flight, there will be a cool rock and roll song or if there's a special thing we're going through then you'll hear like Mr. Kite type music. And the other side is all about the sea. It's a story, kind of like The Princess Bride where a guy leaves his girl in a town and goes off to sea and crashes on an island and all these legends come back about him becoming this great pirate and ruling the seas. She thinks 'oh, man. He left me!' and really he's just on this island trying to get back to her so it's this back and forth love story about love lost and all that. Hopefully we're gonna try and do a movie alongside it".
And in another interview it was described that he says he drew inspiration for an in-the-works conceptual double CD from the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" and "Magical Mystery Tour." He said, "There's a whole movie I'd like to shoot alongside it that we're writing right now," he says. "It's a 'Princess Bride'-'Romeo and Juliet'-type story with monsters and pirates with big beards. It's very Jellyfish and Jon Brion, Harry Nilsson's 'Popeye' soundtrack. That type of music with a Michel Gondry look to it."
"Sea Song", and another called "All Alone at the Disco" can be seen on his "Live In Concert" DVD. In some other concerts he has played "Our Love" and "Yesterday's Fool", which can also be heard on a SayNow message.[citation needed] He announced "Here am I" on another SayNow message.[citation needed][citation needed] He released a minute of a Spanglish edit of "All Alone at the Disco" and one minute thirty seconds of "Unbelievable" on his official MySpace.[10] Another, "Modern Times", appeared in a commercial for Twalking and is available on his MySpace and Facebook.
In 2010, guitarist Backhouse Mike left the band and was replaced by Daniel Kalisher.
[edit] Filmography
