Nickelodeon Star Matthew Underwood Opens up About Quitting Acting After Being Assaulted by His Agent

Kaila Stang March 31, 2024, 10:23 am

Zoey 101 star Matthew Underwood has shared that he quit acting after being sexually harassed and assaulted by his agent when he was 19 years old.

Following the release of the Investigation Discovery docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV (with another episode coming), which revealed the toxic culture on the set of children’s television shows, Underwood revealed that he was harmed while working in the industry in a post on Instagram.

“I know many folks want me to respond to the quiet on set documentary,” Underwood wrote. “I’m going to share something with you that I never thought I’d have to talk about publicly, as it’s honestly none of your business anyway.”

“When I was 12 years old, I was groomed and molested by my best friends’ stepfather,” Underwood shared. “I lost the best friends I’d ever had because I couldn’t spend any time with them without feeling the personal disgust and betrayal brought on by a man I trusted as a father to me. When I was 19, 1 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. Again, my trust was betrayed and my self image crushed. 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.”

“Why am I telling you this?” the Nickelodeon star asked. “Well, lately, many people have been blowing up my email telling me they hope me and my mom die and that we burn in hell, I’m being called a pedophile defender and all that jazz. I have spent many years rebuilding my self-image and those hateful words have little effect on me today. But, I imagine many of my friends in the business are being equally harassed if they aren’t joining the chorus, 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.”

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Underwood, who played Logan Reese on Zoey 101, went on to write, “I have extreme empathy for anyone who has been taken advantage of by people they trusted. I hope they are all able to grow to love themselves and have great support from their family and friends in their journey of recovery. I also ask you all to take a few moments and consider why someone might not share their experiences publicly and not immediately shame them for reserving their right to privacy.”

The Quiet on Set docuseries alleges that Dan Schneider, the creator and producer of a string of children’s shows on Nickelodeon from 1994 to 2019, cultivated a toxic and abusive environment on set. Among the shows that Schneider was a part of, including hits like Drake and Josh and iCarly, was Zoey 101, the show Underwood starred on from 2005 to 2008. But unlike many of the child stars that have worked with Schneider, Underwood didn’t have anything bad to say about him.

“I never had a bad experience working on set of a Nickelodeon show and I never had a bad experience with Dan,” he said. “I have nothing to add to the conversation that anyone would care to hear. 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. I have no expectation to work with him again, this is just me wanting good for anyone who wants to be better.”

Underwood concluded his Instagram post with, “So please, take a moment and consider that some people might not be making statements because talking about this kind of thing brings up memories and emotions that are difficult to deal with, and they have every right to be silent. I can’t believe I even have to say this, but of course I don’t f**king support pedophiles. Please stop wishing death upon my family and please reconsider harassing other actors who wish to maintain their privacy – you never know who has already been a victim of the hell you’re wishing upon them.” See the full post below.