Josh Peck Biography

Joshua Michael Peck (born November 10, 1986) is an American actor, voice actor, comedian and YouTube personality. He is best known for playing Josh Nichols in the Nickelodeon live-action sitcom Drake & Josh. He began his career as a child actor in the late 90's and early 2000s, and became known to young audiences after his role on The Amanda Show. He has since acted in films such as Mean Creek, Drillbit Taylor, The Wackness, ATM, and Red Dawn, along with voicing Eddie in the Ice Age franchise. He also starred as Gerald in a lead role with John Stamos in the series Grandfathered. He currently voices Casey Jones in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He also starred in a Netflix comedy, Take the 10, along with Tony Revolori. In 2017, Peck started his own YouTube channel.

Early life

Peck was born in New York City, New York, where he attended P.S. 40 and The Professional Performing Arts School. His parents were unmarried at the time of his birth and he has never met his biological father. He grew up with his Jewish mother, Barbara, who is a career coach, and his maternal grandmother. Peck had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony. He had asthma during his childhood, and often stayed indoors watching old sitcoms. He was inspired to become involved in stand-up comedy when he was eight years old.

Career

Peck subsequently appeared at TADA! Youth Theater and performed stand-up comedy at Caroline's Comedy Club for the Audrey Hepburn foundation. At the age of 13, he was offered a role on Nickelodeon's The Amanda Show and, at his mother's suggestion, accepted the part and moved to Los Angeles to further pursue an acting career.

Peck made his film debut in Snow Day (2000), and appeared regularly on The Amanda Show until the end of its run in 2002. He also starred opposite Alex D. Linz and Zena Grey in the theatrical film, Max Keeble's Big Move, which was released on October 5, 2001. In 2001, he guest starred in an episode of the popular NBC drama ER called "Thy Will Be Done". During this period, Peck appeared in several independent films, including Spun and 2004's Mean Creek, for which he received critical praise. He was cast as Josh Nichols, opposite Drake Bell's Drake Parker, in another Nickelodeon sitcom, Drake & Josh, which began airing in 2004 and gained Peck recognition among young audiences. Peck's character, Josh Nichols, was smart, funny, and organized, but was always being tormented along with Drake by Megan Parker (Miranda Cosgrove), Drake's younger sister. Both characters sing in a remake of the song "Soul Man" by Sam and Dave. In 2006, Bell and Peck starred in their own TV movie called Drake & Josh Go Hollywood, and in 2007, they starred in a sequel called Drake & Josh: Really Big Shrimp. Josh was nominated for Favorite Television Actor at the 2008 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards for his work on Drake & Josh. Peck also made his debut as a director in the Drake & Josh episode, Battle of Panthatar. He also directed his co-star Drake Bell's music video for the theme song to Drake & Josh, "Found a Way". He has also appeared in the series finale of What's New, Scooby-Doo?, an episode of Codename: Kids Next Door called Operation: C.A.K.E.D.-F.I.V.E., and the direct-to-video New Line Cinema film Havoc. Peck returned to the character of Josh Nichols in 2008 for the television film Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh.

In 2006, Peck appeared in the independent film Special, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and voiced Eddie, one of two possum brothers, in the animated sequel, Ice Age: The Meltdown, which was released on March 31 of that year. Peck played a high school bully in 2008's Drillbit Taylor, and starred in the films The Wackness (released July 2008), American Primitive, Safety Glass, and reprised his role as Eddie in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

In 2011, Peck had a cameo role on the hit Nickelodeon show Victorious as an audience member for a play Jade wrote. In 2012, Peck starred in the remake of Red Dawn, and once again reprised his role as Eddie, in Ice Age: Continental Drift. In 2013, he began voicing Casey Jones in Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

In 2014, Peck appeared as Danny Norwood in the pilot of The Rebels, one of Amazon Studios' five adult test pilots released on Amazon Video in early 2014.

In 2015, Peck was cast as a lead in the comedy series, Grandfathered. He starred alongside John Stamos. Grandfathered premiered on September 29 and has gained generally favorable reviews from Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. Both Peck and Stamos are nominated for a 2016 People's Choice Award in the category "Favorite Actor In A New TV Series".

In 2016, Peck was cast as Ross in the FOX series Pitch. He appeared in 2 episodes as a statistics analyst . The series was cancelled after 10 episodes.

Personal life

In the fourth season of Drake & Josh, Peck was noticeably thinner. He said

I made a conscious effort to lose weight because I knew I could be happier as well as being healthier. I started by going on a diet a year and a half ago and I got a personal trainer, but I definitely have a healthier lifestyle now. Also I feel that because I do so much television, I am a better role model. I don't really understand why I should be a role model, but I know that kids do look up to me, so it is my responsibility to motivate people and be inspiring. I hope that I can do that for kids. It doesn't really matter what you look like though.

He is also a prominent personality on the video-sharing services Vine and Snapchat. He now stars in vlogs made by David Dobrik on YouTube. In June 2017, Peck married his longtime girlfriend, Paige O'Brien.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2000	The Newcomers	Slim
2000	Snow Day	Wayne Alworth
2001	Max Keeble's Big Move	Robert "Robe"
2002	Spun	Fat Boy
2004	Mean Creek	George Tooney
2005	Havoc	Josh Rubin
2006	Special	Joey
2006	Ice Age: The Meltdown	Eddie	Voice
2008	The Wackness	Luke Shapiro
2008	Drillbit Taylor	Ronnie
2008	American Primitive	Spoke White
2009	What Goes Up	Jim Lement
2009	Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs	Eddie	Voice
2009	Aliens in the Attic	Sparks	Voice
2012	ATM	Corey
2012	Ice Age: Continental Drift	Eddie	Voice
2012	Red Dawn	Matt Eckert
2013	Battle of the Year	Franklyn
2015	The Wedding Ringer	Bad Best Man
2015	Danny Collins	Nicky Ernst
2015	The Timber	Samuel
2016	Bukowski	Charles Bukowski
2016	The Angry Birds Movie	Minion Pig 2	Voice
2016	Ice Age: Collision Course	Eddie	Voice
2017	Chronically Metropolitan	John	Post-production
2017	Take the 10	Chris	Netflix Original Movie
2017	Gnome Alone		Voice

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000-2005	All That	Himself	2 episodes, Season 6 Episode 4 & 10th Anniversary
2000-01	The Amanda Show	Various characters	Series regular
2000	Double Dare 2000	Himself	With the cast of Snow Day
2001	ER	Nick Stevens	Episode: "Thy Will Be Done"
2001	Family Guy	Charlie (voice), uncredited	Episode: "The Kiss Seen Around the World"
2001	Samurai Jack	S Kid / Pig #3 / Alien Kid (voices)	Episode: "Aku's Fairy Tales"
2002	Whatever Happened to Robot Jones?	Lenny (voice)	5 Episodes: Season 1: 2002 "Electric Boogaloo" "Cube Wars" "Sickness" "Politics" Season 2: 2003 "The Yogmans Strike Back"
2002	MADtv	Jeffrey Lugz	1 episode
2002	Fillmore!	Randall Julian (voice)	Episode: "To Mar a Stall"
2003, 2004	The Guardian	Chris Rapp	2 episodes
2004-07	Drake & Josh	Josh Nichols	Co-lead role, 57 episodes
2006	Codename: Kids Next Door	Numbuh 50 Million B.C. (voice)	Episode: "Operation: C.A.K.E.D.-F.I.V.E."
2006	What's New, Scooby-Doo?	Damian / Kid / Zombie Kid #2 (voices)	Episode: "E-Screen"
2006	Drake & Josh Go Hollywood	Josh Nichols	Nickelodeon television movie
2008	Merry Christmas Drake and Josh	Josh Nichols	Nickelodeon Christmas special movie
2009	iCarly	Jimmy (uncredited) (apparently Josh Nichols)	Episode: "iReunite with Missy"
2011	Victorious	Josh Nichols (uncredited)	Episode: "Wok Star" & "Who did it to Trina?"
	Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas	Eddie (voice)	TV Special
2013-present	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	Casey Jones (voice)	Co-lead role
2013-14	The Mindy Project	Ray Ron	3 episodes
2014	The Big Bang Theory	Jesse	Episode: "The Occupation Recalibration"
2014	The Rebels	Danny Norwood	Episode: "Pilot"
2015-16	Grandfathered	Gerald	Co-lead role
2015	Teen Choice Awards	Himself	Host
2016	Pitch	Ross	2 episodes
2016	Ice Age: The Great Egg-Scapade	Eddie (voice)	TV Special

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	Ice Age 2: The Meltdown	Eddie	Voice role
2009	Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs	Eddie	Voice role
2014	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Danger of the Ooze	Casey Jones	Voice role

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2005	Independent Spirit Awards	Special Distinction Award	Mean Creek (shared with ensemble)
2008	2008 Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite TV Actor	Drake & Josh
	2008 UK Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite Male TV Star	Drake & Josh
2013	Behind the Voice Actors Award	Best Vocal Ensemble in a Feature Film	Ice Age: Continental Drift
2014	Behind the Voice Actors Award	Best Vocal Ensemble in a Television Series - Action/Drama	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
2015	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Web Star: Comedy	Himself
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Viner	Himself
	Behind the Voice Actors Award	Best Vocal Ensemble in a Television Series - Action/Drama	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
2016	People's Choice Awards	Favorite Actor In A New TV Series	Grandfathered
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Viner	Himself