Drake & Josh actor Jared ‘Drake’ Bell declared missing in Florida

Jared “Drake” Bell, star of the Nickelodeon TV show Drake & Josh, has been declared “missing and endangered” by Florida authorities who asked the public for help in locating him.

Bell was last seen on Wednesday night near a Daytona Beach high school, the city’s police department said in a statement.

Police spokeswoman Carrie McCallister said on Thursday that the agency could not release any further information since it was part of an active investigation.

Representatives for the 36-year-old actor did not immediately reply to The Associated Press’s requests for comment.

Bell began acting as a child and was catapulted to fame as a teenager with Nickelodeon’s The Amanda Show and later Drake & Josh.

The Nickelodeon show starring Bell and Josh Peck ran from 2004 until 2007, and was accompanied by two movies. Since then, Bell has mostly worked as a voice actor. He also launched a music career.

In 2021, Bell was charged with child endangerment relating to a girl who attended a 2017 concert of his in Cleveland when she was 15 and had met him online years before.

He pleaded guilty to felony attempted child endangerment and a misdemeanor charge of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles and was sentenced to two years’ probation.

He was allowed to serve his probation and 200 hours of community service in California.