Drake Bell
Jared Drake Bell | |
|---|---|
| File:Drake Bell 10.jpg | |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, singer-songwriter, musician, guitarist, television director |
| Years active | 1995 — present |
| Website | http://www.drakebell.com/ |
Jared Drake Bell (born June 27, 1986)[1] is an American actor, comedian, guitarist, and singer/songwriter. After beginning his career as a child actor 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. In addition to his acting, Bell has a growing career as a musician and released his debut album, Telegraph, independently in 2005. His second album, It's Only Time, was released in 2006 after signing with Universal/Motown. Bell is commonly associated with his friend Josh Peck, who co-starred with him in both The Amanda Show and Drake And Josh.
Bell has released two albums and is planning to release another in 2008. His upcoming movie roles are Superhero Movie and College.
Acting career
At eight, Drake had his first television role on the US comedy Home Improvement, as Little Pete. At nine years old, he acted in the film Jerry Maguire as Jesse Remo. He also appeared in a small role in the Seinfeld episode "The Frogger" in 1998. In 1999, he acted in a commercial for Barnie, and in 2000, was nominated for the Young Artist Award for "Best Performance in a TV Movie or Pilot" in the "Supporting Young Actor" category for his role as Cage Redding in the made-for-television film The Jack Bull.Also, in 2000, he starred as a younger Rob Gordon in High Fidelity. 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 on the Nickelodeon series Drake & Josh, which began airing in 2004. During the time he made a guest appearance as himself on Nickelodeon's Zoey 101, won a "Blimp Award" at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards in the "Favorite Male TV Actor" category for 'hes tha best and Element comedy College directed by Deb Hagan. This film 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, about an American who returns to his ancestral home in Italy to spread his father's ashes. Bell will also be in another Virtus Entertainment production, this one a mini-series titled Flying Tigers. The film is about a squadron of American pilots who fought the Japanese in Asia right before and during World War II.
Drake & Josh
Filmography
- Drifting School (1995) - Kenny Smith
- The Neon Bible (1995) - David 'Age 10'
- Jerry Maguire (1996) - Jesse Romo
- Seinfeld (1998) - Kenny
- Dill Scallion (1999) - Eugene Bob
- Dragonworld: The Legend Continues (1999) - Johnny
- The Jack Bull (1999) - Cage Redding
- The Amanda Show (1999-2002), (39 episodes) - Himself
- High Fidelity (2000) - Young Rob Gordon
- Perfect Game (2000) - Bobby Jr.
- Chasing Destiny (2001) - Walter
- Drake & Josh (2004-2007),- Drake Parker
- Yours, Mine, and Ours (2005) - Dylan North
- Zoey 101 (2005), (1 episode) - Himself
- Drake & Josh Go Hollywood (2006) - Drake Parker
- Drake & Josh: Really Big Shrimp (2007) - Drake Parker
- College (2008) - Kevin Brewer
- Superhero Movie (2008) - Rick Riker/ The Dragonfly
- Unstable Fables: Tortoise vs. Hare (2008) - Hare's son (voice)[2]
- Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaur (2009) - Chach (Opossom) (voice)
Music career
Drake Bell's original band was known as "Drake 24/7", though his band now is just known as "Drake Bell". Bell's debut album, Telegraph, was released independently on September 27, 2005. His song, "I Found a Way", which can be found on the album, is the theme song for Drake & Josh. In 2005, Bell collaborated with Hawk Nelson in a song called Bring Em' Out which was featured in the movieYours, Mine, and Ours. Drake wrote the theme songs for the show Drake & Josh, and he also co-wrote and sang the theme song to iCarly "Leave It All To Me" with Miranda Cosgrove. Before he sang the theme song for iCarly, he wrote the background music for Zoey 101. He even made a special guest appearance in the show (in the episode "Spring Fling") and performed Highway To Nowhere, which can also be found on the album Telegraph. He recently signed with Universal Records, on which his new single "I Know" was released on October 17, 2006. Shooting for the video of "I Know" took place in October 2006. Drake's second album, entitled It's Only Time, was released on December 5, 2006. Drake performed live on MTV's TRL the day after it was released. On his appearance he stated that "Makes Me Happy" was originally a back round song on Zoey 101. On October 16, 2007 iTunes released a Radio Disney Single Edit Version of his song Makes Me Happy. This makes it the third version of this song. In 2007, Bell went on a Nextfest tour in support of It's Only Time, headlining alongside Aly & AJ and Corbin Bleu. In an interview with Gibson Lifestyle, he expressed that it wasn't the tour of his dreams. Referring to his fellow tour mates, Bell said, "They’re all nice people, and they do what they do well, I guess. This isn’t my scene, though.
Bell's third album is slated for a Spring 2008 release.[3][4]
However, on Drake Central, one of Bell's official websites, in future projects, there is a "Third Album" entry that has a release date of Fall 2008.
If searched "Drake 24/7" on Google or Yahoo! or any search engine, the results show links to websites that have a list of Bell's songs that haven't been put on an album.
Albums
| Cover | Information |
|---|---|
|
Telegraph
|
|
It's Only Time
|
Singles
| Year | Song | Chart positions | Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Hot 100 | U.S. Pop 100 | Hot Digital Tracks | |||
| 2006 | "I Know" (promo) | - | - | - | It's Only Time |
| 2007 | "Makes Me Happy" | 103 | 67 | 45 | |
Car accident
On December 29, 2005, Drake Bell was involved in a car accident on Los Angeles' Pacific Coast Highway. He was in the car with a friend. As his car was a 1966 Ford Mustang, the steering wheel was made of wood and metal, the seatbelts were only around the waist, and there were no airbags. Because of this, his face smashed into the steering wheel, resulting in a fractured neck, six dislodged teeth, a broken jaw, and a deep cut across his chin which went right through to his teeth, leaving a two-and-a-half inch scar. Bell underwent plastic surgery to fix his face. In an interview Drake said that it was scary being hooked up to tubes, fed only liquids and not knowing whether he would be ok, or if he would have a deformed face.
Instrumentation
Bell has been seen with a number of guitars on Drake & Josh. One being a copy of a Fender Stratocaster seen throughout Seasons one and two and two episodes in Season three. Two Squier by Fender Strat copies were seen in the Season two episode, Guitar. There was a black one and a red one. The red one wasn't played, but instead destroyed (and replaced) by Josh. Throughout Seasons three and four, Bell's main instrument were two Gibson Les Paul Classics. In the show, he mostly used wine red in season 4,in season three he is seen with a brown, but in a few episodes in season 4 he was seen with an ebony one. He was also seen with various acoustic guitars and a Rickenbacker 325.
References
- ^ "IMDB: Drake Bell". Retrieved 2008-01-21.
- ^ "Tortoise vs. Hare" Coming This Fall . March 6, 2008
- ^ "Drake Bell: The Gibson Interview". Gibson Lifestyle. 2007-08-28. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
- ^ "Josh Peck and Drake Bell: Drake & Josh Grow Up". Variety. 2007-10-08. Retrieved 2007-10-17.