Matthew Underwood, who starred within the hit Nickelodeon show “Zoey 101,” claims that he quit acting after his agent on the time sexually assaulted him when he was 19.
Underwood, who played Logan Reese in all 4 seasons of the aughts teen sitcom, issued a press release Friday via Instagram after fans “harassed” him to answer the allegations of abuse and toxicity at Nickelodeon that were lodged within the recent “Quiet on Set” docuseries.
“I do know many of us want me to answer the ‘quiet on set’ documentary,” Underwood, 33, began his lengthy post. “I’m going to share with you something I never thought I’d need to speak about publicly, because it’s truthfully none of what you are promoting anyway.”
“Once I was 12 years old, I used to be groomed and molested by my best friend’s stepfather,” he wrote. “I lost the perfect friends I ever had because I couldn’t spend any more time with them without feeling a private disgust and betrayal brought on by a person I trusted as a father to me.”
“Once I was 19, I used to be sexually harassed after which assaulted by my agent on the time, who had spent an honest period of time constructing trust with me as a friend and mentor,” he continued. “My trust was betrayed and my self-image was crushed. I reported him to the agency and he has since been fired — although he continues to be lively within the industry. This experience provoked my move away from L.A. and ended my pursuit of acting.”
The Post reached out to Underwood for comment. He didn’t name the agent in his statement.
“Zoey 101” aired from 2005 to 2008.
Underwood said people have currently been “blowing up” his email and calling him a “pedophile defender” for not immediately speaking out against “Zoey 101” creator Dan Schneider and other Nickelodeon employees.
Underwood further stated that he has “spent a few years rebuilding my self-image and people hateful words have little effect on me today.”
“I imagine lots of my friends within the business are being equally harassed in the event that they aren’t joining within the chorus,” Underwood wrote. “So I’m sharing this with hope that a few of you may recognize that simply because an individual doesn’t shout from the rooftops that pedophiles are bad or that individuals can suck — that doesn’t mean they don’t have their very own reasons for staying silent, good reasons, personal reasons.”
“I never had a foul experience working on set of a Nickelodeon show, and I never had a foul experience with Dan,” Underwood added. “I actually have nothing so as to add to the conversation that anyone would care to listen to.”
“I can’t consider I even need to say this, but after all I don’t f–king support pedophiles,” he concluded. “Please stop wishing death upon my family, and please reconsider harassing other actors who wish to take care of their privacy — you never know who has already been a victim of the hell you’re wishing upon them.”
“Quiet on Set” — which may be streamed on Max — shared personal accounts from several former child stars, including Drake Bell, who accused Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck of sexual assault. Peck was sentenced to 16 months in prison in 2004 after pleading no contest to 2 counts of kid sex abuse.
The highlight was also focused on Schneider, who parted ways with the cable channel in 2018.
Shortly after the docuseries premiered in mid-March, he apologized for his behavior after being accused of “sexualizing” child stars on various Nickelodeon shows.
“Every little thing that happened on the shows Dan ran was fastidiously scrutinized by dozens of involved adults, and approved by the network,” a rep for Schneider, 58, also told Variety earlier this month.
“If there was an actual problem with the scenes that some people, now years later are ‘sexualizing,’ they might be taken down, but they usually are not, they’re aired always all around the world today still, enjoyed by each kids and oldsters,” the statement continued.
“As well as, day by day on every set, there have been at all times parents and caregivers and their friends watching filming and rehearsals,” the rep said, adding that had there been any issues, “they might have been flagged and blocked by this multilayered scrutiny.”