Matthew Underwood arrives at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards 2023 held at Microsoft Theater on March 4, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Mark Von Holden/Variety via Getty Images)
Over the weekend, actor Matthew Underwood unveiled a dark history with his former agent. The ‘Zoey 101’ star alleged the agent had sexually assaulted him at age 19. He shared the sensitive information in a lengthy social media post.
Editor’s Note: Anyone affected by sexual assault, whether it happened to you or someone you care about, can find support from online.rainn.org. You can also call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673) to be connected with someone over the phone who can help.
Underwood started his post by revealing that folks online have been tapping him for a reaction to the ‘Quiet on Set.’ The docuseries highlights the “toxic” culture of several children’s shows from the late 1990s until the early 2000s.
In it, Drake Bell revealed his dialogue coach Brian Peck repeatedly sexually assaulted him while working with the network. He was 15 when it first began.
In his social media reveal, Matthew Underwood detailed a similar experience both as a pre-teen and established child star. When he was 12, Underwood alleges his best friends’ stepfather “groomed and molested” him. He stopped being friends with the kids because he felt “personal disgust and betrayal” by a man he had trusted like a father.
Then, at 19, something similar went down. This time a former agent “sexually harassed and then assaulted” him. Matthew Underwood admitted that the violating experience drove him away from acting.
“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.”
Matthew clarified that he’s sharing his experience because he and other “friends in the business” have been getting harassed if they haven’t spoken on the ‘Quiet On Set’ docuseries. He alleges people have suggested he and his mother can “die” or “burn in hell.” He also claims he’s been called a “pedophile defender.”
“…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.”
Matthew shared that he has “extreme empathy” for anyone “taken advantage of by the people they trusted.”
Underwood accompanied his statement about the assault with comments about his experience working with Dan Schneider and Nickelodeon.
“I never had a bad experience working on set of a Nickelodeon show and I never had a bad experience with Dan. I have nothing to add to the conversation that anyone would care to hear. I like to believe that people have the capacity to be better humans and Dan appears to recognize that he had been an a**hole in his past.”
Matthew closed his statement by clarifying that he does NOT support pedophiles and requesting that people stop wishing death on his family.
Swipe below to read his full statement.
As previously reported, Dan shared a public apology following the release of ‘Quiet on Set.’ He called the allegations in the docuseries “difficult” to watch. He also spoke about being on Drake Bell’s side immediately after finding out about the alleged sexual abuse from Brian Peck.
But not all the former Nickelodeon stars were feeling Dan’s public apology. In fact, Alexa Nikolas, Matthew Underwood’s ‘Zoey 101’ co-star, didn’t hold her tongue about the apology falling short.
