'Hug me brother!' was a catchphrase known instantly to children and teens of the 00s. Drake Bell and Josh Peck graced screens from 2004 until 2007, racking up 57 episodes and four seasons of the aptly named Drake & Josh.
The pair played step brothers forced to share a room together after their families blended. As their personalities couldn't be more polar opposite, they struggled to find common ground and often got into scrapes - especially when mischievous little sister Megan was thrown into the mix.
Drake & Josh was so popular the show even got two direct to TV films, including a Christmas special in 2008. Since wrapping, cracks have appeared in the cast relationships, making it unlikely a reunion will ever be on the cards.
Josh Peck
At 13-years-old, the young and talented Josh Peck snapped up a role on Nickelodeon's The Amanda Show which ran for two years and introduced him to future co-star Drake Bell. After the show ended, he appeared in several independent films but came back to Nickelodeon in 2004.
Drake & Josh made Peck a household name and during his time on the show he also made cameo appearances in animated series such as Codename: Kids Next Door and What's New, Scooby-Doo?
He went on to appear in iCarly and Victorious episodes before landing a voice role in animated film series Ice Age as possum brother Eddie. Peck recently starred as Scott Turner on the Disney+ adaptation of Turner and Hooch and Drew on Hulu's How I Met Your Father.
Outside of his acting career, Peck was a popular Vine creator until the platform shutdown and has a YouTube channel.
The now 36-year-old opened up in 2022 about his struggles with alcoholism and drug use while promoting his memoir Happy People Are Annoying.
The actor revealed how he never met his biological father, who died when Peck was 26, as his parents had had an affair. He told Insider: "I was going to prove to everyone, including him, how little I needed anyone or anything. When you have a parent who's absent in your youth, it makes you feel like anything is possible and nothing is secure."
After his dramatic weight loss, Peck entered the party scene in LA and fell into drug use at the age of 18. His health was deteriorating and in February 2008 he got clean and has been sober ever since.
Peck married long term girlfriend Paige O'Brien in 2017, which caused upset with co-star Drake Bell, and the pair have two children.
Drake Bell
Just like his on-screen brother, Drake Bell rose to fame on The Amanda Show before being invited to front Drake & Josh as Drake Parker. Before this Bell also had small roles in films like Jerry Maguire (1996) and High Fidelity (2000) as well as his debut performance at 7 years old in an episode of ABC's Home Improvement.
The now 36-year-old was a musician, just like his character, and performed the theme song for the show, releasing albums while starring on the show. He appeared as Timmy Turner in three live action film versions of The Fairly OddParents and went on multiple tours with his music.
Troubles with Bell came to light in 2014 when the actor filed for bankruptcy, followed by an arrest for driving under the influence the next year. He pleaded not guilty and was bailed but then plead guilty and served just one day in jail.
When co-star Peck got married in 2017, the singer wrote in a since deleted tweet: "True colors have come out today. Message is loud and clear. Ties are officially cut. I’ll miss you brother."
Peck responded by saying: "The dirty little secret was that I knew that Drake and I didn't stay in touch for ten years since we made the show. But no one needed to know that. I was happy to just die with that secret that we made this thing that people really loved but we weren't that close."
Later that year they buried the hatchet, sharing a photo of them together at the MTV VMAS but this feud seems to have been reignited. In his podcast Drake & Janet, with wife Janet Von Schemling, Bell said there was a draft for a reunion episode written by Peck that showed Drake in a less favourable light but the How I Met Your Father star wouldn't agree to changes.
In June 2021, Bell was charged with two criminal counts of attempted endangering of children and disseminating matter harmful to juveniles. Bell was sentenced to two years of probation and 200 hours of community service as well as no contact allowed with his victim.
When the victim turned 19 in July 2021, she came forward and claimed Bell had sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions. She alleged that the pair had exchanged explicit photos online and engaged in sexual conduct while Bell was on tour.
Bell denied the claims and said he was "unaware" of her age and only communicated with her via text messages. He vehemently denied the woman's accusations that he sent her graphic photographs and that they engaged in sexual misconduct in two separate incidents, things he was never charged with.
At the time Bell said via Zoom: "I accept this plea because my conduct was wrong. I’m sorry the victim was harmed. It was not my intention."
His guilty plea related only to exchanging messages of a sexual nature with a minor.
Bell's ex girlfriend Melissa Lingafelt also accused him of verbal and physical abuse during their three-year relationship which took place in the late 2000s. Bell has denied the allegations.
Around the same time, Bell revealed he had secretly been married to Von Schemling since 2018 and the couple had a child together. The singer also changed his name to Drake Campana and reportedly moved to Mexico in late 2020, he was reportedly more popular in the country and began tweeting only in Spanish.
Miranda Cosgrove
Drake and Josh was not Miranda Cosgrove's first breakout role, she gave a standout performance in School of Rock (2003) and had been acting since the age of seven in various commercials and minor television roles.
She portrayed Drake's little sister Megan on the show and constantly terrorised her older brother and step brother. Memes from the show tend to centre around Cosgrove, particularly a scene in which she sits at a computer with a can of cola in hand and says "Interesting".
After her stint on the show, Cosgrove landed her own show on the network called iCarly, which ran from 2007 to 2012. She returned to iCarly in 2021 with the Paramount+ reboot, once again taking on the titular character, Carly Shay.
The now 29-year-old is still best known for her role as Carly but has also done voice work for the popular Despicable Me franchise - in which she voices Margo.
Jerry Trainor
Crazy Steve was a memorable recurring character who worked with Josh at the Premiere movie theatre. Played by Jerry Trainor, Steven William Upshaw was an eccentric and mentally unstable member of the team who often acted out in bizarre and irrational ways.
Trainor studied acting and appeared in minor roles in Donnie Darko and Bring It On Again before this breakout role. Steve quits his job in an early episode but comes back in later seasons, canonically he is never scheduled on Mondays because that is one of his "bad days".
After Drake & Josh, Trainor joined co-star Cosgrove on iCarly, which is still his best known work. Although the character of Crazy Steve appears in spin off Sam and Cat, still voiced by the 45-year-old.
Outside of acting, Trainor also played bass in his band Nice Enough People, which featured co-star Allison Scagliotti on guitar until 2018.
Allison Scagliotti
On initial introduction Allison Scagliotti's character Mindy Crenshaw was the unlikeable know-it-all, competing with Josh at every turn. The pair end up dating and she appeared in seven episodes and the movie Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh.
During her time on Drake & Josh she also appeared in shows like Zoey 101, One Tree Hill and the tv film Read It and Weep on Disney Channel.
After the show ended the 32-year-old went on to take a lead role in sci-fi show Warehouse 13, which had a cult following and ran from 2009 to 2014. She has a variety of credits under her belt including short films, a recurring role in The Vampire Diaries and a lead role in Stitchers.
Scagliotti has released music over the years with her first album, Absolute Horror, released on May 1, 2020, and the second, VAMPYR, on October 22, 2021.
Yvette Nicole Brown
Helen Dubois, the manager from Premiere Theater, adored Drake but hated Josh despite his hard work. Portrayed by Yvette Nicole Brown, the recurring character claimed to have been a childhood star on Happy Times - a parody of Happy Days.
Before Drake & Josh, Brown was already appearing in shows like The Office US, That's So Raven and Malcolm in the Middle but her stint as Helen was her breakthrough role.
In 2009, Brown joined the cast of cult classic sitcom Community as Shirley Bennett and remained a core cast member until 2014 when she stepped back to care for her ailing father. She said at the time: "My dad needs daily care and he needs me. The idea of being away 16 hours a day for five months, I couldn't do it. It was a difficult decision for me to make, but I had to choose my dad."
She regularly guest starred and temporarily hosted AMC's Talking Dead, a live after show for The Walking Dead. More recently the 51-year-old has appeared in Disenchanted, the sequel to Disney's Enchanted, as well as Broken Diamonds, Avengers: Endgame and the animated film DC League of Super-Pets.
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