Nickelodeon Actor Matthew Underwood Comes Forward as Sexual Abuse Victim in Light of 'Quiet on Set' Documentary
The former child actor says he's a victim too.
Quiet On Seet: The Dark Side of Kids TV exposed the dangers child actors faced while working at Nickelodeon. Now, Matthew Underwood, who starred in Zoey 101, is accusing a former agent of sexual abuse.
Without naming the actor, he says that the abuse happened when he was 19 and came after he built trust with the agent, who he also considered to be a mentor. Underwood says he has since reported the agent to the agency he was signed with, and the agent has since been fired, but he remains active in the industry. The revelation came in a lengthy Instagram post.
He says he was bullied into coming forward with his story to combat hate mail he's received as a result of the documentary. Millions are calling for former Nickelodeon employees and actors to come forward and speak out about things they may have experienced or witnessed. Underwood says victims shouldn't be forced to relive their trauma on a public stage.
As alleged in Quiet on the Set, some adult employees of the network, most notably under the direction of now disgraced producer and screenwriter Dan Schnieder, were impacted by a toxic work environment and faced sexual harassment and gender discrimination. In the docuseries, some parents shared stories of their children being put in inappropriate situations, with one production assistant emailing a nude picture of himself to a 9-year-old child actor, and was later arrested on charges related to child pornography. Drake Bell, who starred on The Amanda Show before getting his own sitcom Drake & Josh, came forward for the first time to publicly reveal that he was sexually abused by vocal coach, Brian Peck.
Underwood says he has empathy for those mentioned in the documentary and others who are choosing to remain silent and deal with things privately. But, he says he has mostly fond memories of working with Nickelodeon and didn't have any bad experiences working on the show or with Schneider. On the latter, he says Schneider seemingly realizes the error of his ways.