Josh Peck revealed on the “Financial Tea with Mrs. Dow Jones” podcast that he and his “Drake and Josh” castmates earned far less from the Nickelodeon series than fans might assume, with take-home pay landing around $125,000 a 12 months over the show’s four-year run.
Peck told the podcast’s host that the forged started off making $3,000 an episode on “The Amanda Show” before moving to “Drake and Josh,” which ran 60 episodes total. By the point the show wrapped, the common per-episode rate had climbed to about $15,000.
“So over 4 years, we wound up making about $900,000, but I believe we probably, between agent, manager, and taxes, we cleared half of that,” Peck said.
With 4 years of regular work factored in, Peck put the annual take-home figure at roughly $125,000. He noted that the show generated no residuals, a structure he said was standard for youths’ television on the time.
Peck said the forged had little leverage in negotiations because Nickelodeon represented essentially the one outlet for young performers working at that level. The host raised the instance of the “Friends” forged negotiating collectively, contrasting it with the “Gilmore Girls” forged, who she said didn’t negotiate together and were paid less consequently.
“It was a unique time and I believe it was… there was just one kind of place to do it, right?” Peck said. He added that he and his peers accepted the arrangement because there was no alternative network, streaming platform or other avenue to take the work elsewhere as a substitute.
Peck, who grew up with a single mother and described his family as moving between lower-middle-class and broke, said becoming the household’s primary earner as an adolescent shaped an enduring financial anxiety. He said the experience left him fixated on small expenses even after his income grew substantially.
He credited his mother, his accountant and his Big Brothers Big Sisters mentor, Dan, with helping him construct long-term financial habits centered on low-cost index fund investing somewhat than high-risk swings. Peck said he didn’t purchase a house until his mid-30s, opting as a substitute to keep up a financial cushion in case work became inconsistent.
Peck launched his profession as a toddler humorist in Latest York before moving into acting, debuting within the film “Snow Day” in 2000 and joining the Nickelodeon sketch series “The Amanda Show” that very same 12 months, where he first worked alongside Drake Bell. He drew critical notice for the 2004 drama “Mean Creek,” and went on to voice Eddie within the “Ice Age” franchise from 2006 to 2016 and Casey Jones in Nickelodeon’s animated “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” from 2012 to 2017. His other credits include “The Wackness,” “Red Dawn,” the Fox series “Grandfathered” opposite John Stamos, the Disney+ series “Turner & Hooch,” Hulu’s “How I Met Your Father” and a supporting turn in Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.”
Peck currently hosts “Good Guy’s Podcast” and continues to tackle acting and brand deal work, which he said he selectively turns all the way down to remain available for his family.