Josh Peck was 15 when Drake & Josh made him a star, and he has said more than once that the pay was not what viewers imagined.
In his memoir, Happy People Are Annoying, Peck wrote that he earned roughly $15,000 an episode, about $900,000 across the show’s four seasons. His agent took 20% and managers took further fees, which left him with $450,000, according to Capital FM’s 2022 account. Peck called that “still not bad” but low by Hollywood standards. “Spread that over five years, which is how long it took us to shoot all 60 episodes, and it breaks down to a little less than $100,000 a year.”
The show aired from 2004 to 2007 and still runs. Peck says none of that brings him money. “Because kids’ TV doesn’t have residuals, it’s still on every day,” he said on the BFFs podcast.
A year later, on Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO podcast, Peck put the figure at about $100,000 a year for the four years of production, “which is great money and a lovely middle class lifestyle.” But nobody should assume, he said, that you never have to work again after a show like that. He wanted to explain why he went hunting for more work once it ended in 2007. “I had some people to take care of,” he said.
He also described himself as part of a generation of child actors who “got screwed,” pointing to Kenan & Kel, All That and his own show. “I think now kids have gotten way smarter, and they’re getting that back,” he said. Peck was 35 at the time.
Bartlett told him it was important context. “If you make $100,000 living in California for five years in a row, you do need to go back to work,” he said.
Peck began acting at 13 on The Amanda Show. He has since played in How I Met Your Father and voiced roles in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Ice Age, and he now works as a YouTuber and stand-up comedian.
Sources
- Josh Peck confirms how low his Drake and Josh Nickelodeon salary actually was
- Josh Peck says he was "screwed" over with his Drake & Josh salary
