Zoey 101 alum Matthew Underwood shared his sexual assault story within the wake of Investigation Discovery’s four-part docuseries Quiet on Set: The Darkish Aspect of Youngsters TV.
“When I was 19, I was sexually harassed and then assaulted by my agent at the time, who had spent a decent amount of time building trust with me as a friend and mentor,” Underwood wrote in a press release shared by way of Instagram on Friday, March 29. His former agent remained unnamed within the assertion.
“My trust was betrayed and my self image was crushed,” Underwood continued. “I reported him to the agency and he has since been fired — although he is still active in the industry. This experience provoked my move away from LA and ended my pursuit of acting.”
Underwood additionally alleged that he’d been “molested by my best friends’ stepfather” at age 12 and additional defined that he selected to talk up about his historical past of assault and harassment after receiving intense public criticism, saying “many people have been blowing up [his] email” and calling him a “pedophile defender” for remaining silent after the discharge of Quiet on Set.
Quiet on Set: The Darkish Aspect of Youngsters TV aired on March 17 and 18 and examined the poisonous work atmosphere for baby actors at Nickelodeon. The documentary options allegations of abuse towards Dan Schneider, who created standard Nickelodeon exhibits like Zoey 101, Drake & Josh, iCarly, Victorious and Sam & Cat.
“I imagine many of my friends in the business are being equally harassed if they aren’t joining the chorus,” Underwood continued. “So I’m sharing this with hope that some of you can recognize that just because a person doesn’t shout from the rooftops that pedophiles are bad or that people can suck — that does not mean they don’t have their own reasons for staying silent, good reasons, personal reasons.” (Underwood starred as Logan Reese for 4 seasons of Zoey 101 between 2005 and 2008. He reprised the function for the revival movie, Zoey 102, in 2023.)
Whereas actors, writers and crew members who labored on set with Schneider share related tales of office harassment, Underwood stated he “never had a bad experience working on set of a Nickelodeon show” and “never had a bad experience with Dan.”
“I have nothing to add to the conversation that anyone would care to hear,” Underwood stated. “I like to believe people have the capacity to be better humans and Dan appears to recognize that he had been an asshole in his past. I like to believe he is fully capable of being a creator and coworker everyone can enjoy working with.”
After Underwood felt his phrases have been being taken out of context as a protection of Schneider, he redirected followers to a prolonged response he shared by way of Reddit. “I believe people are putting words in my mouth and making assumptions about my intentions with that part of my statement,” he wrote, partially. “I know whatever I say will find a way to be twisted by someone, but my attention was unfortunately brought to this thread and I feel it’s necessary to try and clarify.”
He continued: “I feel I might be able to sum up my intentions in that section with an example; I truly wish that even the men who violated me WANTED to be better humans, and if they truly did want that and they made an effort to try to be a better human, I want to live in a world that could positively reinforce that change by offering them opportunities to be that better human being. In that kind of world, hopefully many more people could find fulfillment in being better humans and we might have less perpetuated s–ty behavior. Obviously I wouldn’t want them around children, but no matter what pain is brought upon me, I will always want the world to be a better place and want humans to have a chance to better themselves.”
Whereas Underwood didn’t have any difficulties with Schneider, different Zoey 101 alumni have described a special expertise with the showrunner. Alexa Nikolas, who starred as Nicole Bristow for 2 seasons of the sequence, has beforehand spoken out about Nickelodeon’s “unsafe” working situations for baby actors. Specifically, she has referred to Schneider because the “creator of childhood trauma,” and accused the community of facilitating baby abuse. (Schneider parted methods with Nickelodeon in 2018.)
“My own personal experience at Nickelodeon … I did not feel protected at Nickelodeon as a child personally,” Nikolas wrote by way of Instagram in August 2022. “And so, I’m demanding that Nickelodeon starts protecting children and not predators.”
Nikolas was amongst many former Nickelodeon stars to be interviewed for Quiet On Set, together with All That solid members Giovonnie Samuels, Kyle Sullivan and Bryan Hearne, in addition to Drake & Josh alum Drake Bell.