Joshua Michael Peck (born November 10, 1986) is an American actor, comedian, and YouTuber. Peck began his career as a child actor, appearing in the film Snow Day (2000) and the Nickelodeon sketch comedy series The Amanda Show (2000–2002). He had his breakthrough playing Josh Nichols on the Nickelodeon sitcom Drake & Josh (2004–2007) and the television films Drake & Josh Go Hollywood (2006) and Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh (2008). He also voiced Eddie in the Ice Age franchise (2006–2016).
Peck's film roles include Max Keeble's Big Move (2001), Spun (2002), Drillbit Taylor (2008), What Goes Up (2009), Red Dawn (2012), The Timber (2015), Chronically Metropolitan (2016), and Christopher Nolan's biographical epic Oppenheimer (2023). He voiced Casey Jones in the Nickelodeon animated series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012–2017), starred in the Fox comedy series Grandfathered (2015–2016) and the Disney+ series Turner & Hooch (2021). He has run the comedic lifestyle YouTube channel Shua Vlogs since 2017.
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Early life
Peck was born on November 10, 1986, in New York City. He grew up with his mother, Barbara Peck, who is a career coach, and his maternal grandmother. Peck has never publicly identified his father, who was a married co-worker of his mother, and Peck's birth was the result of an extramarital affair. He never met his father, who died in 2013. Peck is Jewish, as are both his parents. He grew up in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, and attended P.S. 40 and The Professional Performing Arts School. He 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 comedy when he was eight years old.
Career
Peck subsequently appeared at TADA! Youth Theater and performed stand-up comedy at Carolines on Broadway for the Audrey Hepburn Foundation. He appeared on The Rosie O'Donnell Show at the age of 10 in 1996. 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 début 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 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.
Peck 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 début 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.
Personal life
In the third season of Drake & Josh, from the episode “The Drake and Josh Inn” and onward, 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." During the same time period, he had substance use issues involving alcohol and drugs.
In June 2017, Peck married his longtime girlfriend, Paige O'Brien. In August 2018, the couple announced they were expecting their first child. Their first son was born December 29 of that year. On October 13, 2022, they welcomed their second son. On July 2, 2025, they announced via Instagram that they had welcomed their third son.
Peck has named Ben Kingsley as his favorite actor, stating "Nobody is as good as him in my opinion".
In 2022, Peck revealed that he had struggled with addictions to alcohol and drugs in the past, stating, "I was always looking for something to fix my insides. But eventually I realized that whether my life was beyond my wildest dreams or a total mess, it didn't change the temperature of what was going on in my mind. I knew that nothing in the outside world would make me feel whole. . . . I used food and drugs to numb my feelings." He has been sober since 2008.
