Drake Bell stars on Nickelodeon's "The Drake and Josh SHow" which debuted January 11th, 2004. He and his TV namesake both play a mean guitar, sing up a storm and elicit squeals of delight from teenage girls. Drake, a Beatles buff who segued into his own series from an ensemble spot on Nickelodeon's sketch comedy series "The Amanda Show", composes all of the music his character performs, including the Drake & Josh theme song. In fact, his band performed on "All That," a comedy show compared to "SNL," with special music performances such as Justin Timberlake and Brittany SPears. The Drake Bell Band is the only band in history to perform on this show without a record deal. The crowd went crazy and the reviews were outrageous.
The son of world champion billiards player Robin Dodson, he grew up in Orange County, California and relished the spotlight early on.
"I love to perform and I get a kick out of being recognized," says the 17-year-old who landed his first commercial at age five. Since then, he has amassed an extraordinary array of movies and TV credits. As a preteen, he appeared in the feature films The Neon Bible, Drifting School, and Fresh Pain. Moreover, he had a memorable turn in Jerry Maguire as Jesse Remo, the kid who tells Tom Cruise exactly where to go.
And at 12, he won a co-starring role-and private music lessons-with the Who's Roger Daltrey in the fild Changing Destiny. Having evolded into a musician-composer of rock, pop and ballads, the teenage Bell prizes his extensive collection of vinyle Beatles albums and affirms, "Nother today compares with that music."
Drake appeared opposite John Cusack in HBO's The Jack Bull (as Cusack's character's son) and in the feature High Fidelity playing Cusack's character as a young boy. His TV guest-starring credits invlude such shows asSeinfeld, The Drew Carey SHow, The Pretender, and Home Improvement. He also has appeared several times with Jay Leno on The Tonight Show.
Drake Bell currently resides in Los Angeles
