Dan Schneider: What Having A Male Leader Who Brings Toxicity And Abuse To The Workplace Can Do To Children, Women, and Men Alike

I started writing my previous post with mentioning Nickelodeon and the infamous docu-series, ‘Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV’. It just so happened that Jennette McCrudy was part of the Nickelodeon’s Dan Schneider era between 2007 and 2012, and I just couldn’t resist writing about her. McCrudy’s story is an intriguing one; too important not to share in depth. But I wanted to discuss Dan Schneider further. More specifically, I wanted to discuss what his leadership has meant to the subject of women’s issues.

Dan Schneider is the man behind Nickelodeon shows like ‘Zoey 101’, ‘iCarly’, and ‘Victorious’. ‘Zoey 101’ and ‘iCarly’ were rebooted in recent years, but without the leadership of Dan Schneider. Jennette McCrudy didn’t return to ‘iCarly’ to reprise her role as Sam Puckett even though she was asked. She’d retired as an actress to concentrate on her first love, writing. During the time of the reboot’s airing, McCrudy published her first autobiographical book, ‘I’m Glad My Mom Died.’ And although she didn’t appear on the rebooted show, McCrudy had absolutely nothing but praise for her former costars. On her podcast, ‘Empty Inside’, she said, ‘It’s sort of like a family, and you also have peers that you can connect with at some level. Even though you’re all kids trying to be adults, you can still, in that regard, try to connect with one another. I had great friends in Miranda and Nathan [Kress] and even Jerry [Trainor], who was a bit older than us but was wonderful in trying to cultivate that kind of, to your point, the younger environment. It was better in that aspect — having some friends my age was helpful and healthy.’

And Jerry Trainor, who played Carly’s older brother, Spencer, in both shows, had nothing but praise for the now-retired actress, who he still keeps in touch with. He told E! News in 2023, ‘I read it (‘I’m Glad My Mom Died’) immediately. It’s heartbreaking, but it’s also brilliant and funny. I felt a lot of pride for her being able to speak her truth. She’s very strong and very perceptive, and you can see it in the writing how smart she is. It’s stuff she’s going to deal with for her whole life, but she’s amazing. She’s using it, and she’s growing stronger because of it.’

It’s safe to say that the cast of ‘iCarly is very close and supportive of each other’s endeavours, and that McCrudy’s decision to not reprise her role as Sam Puckett had nothing to do with any presumed conflict with the cast. The same couldn’t be said about her relationship with Dan Schneider. In her book McCrudy shed light as to what it was really like working for Schneider, who is referred to as ‘The Creator’ in the 2022 book. In one of the chapters in the book, McCrudy told a tale of how The Creator made her wear a bikini instead of a one-piece swimsuit. With that said, McCrudy felt sexualized and exploited by The Creator. In addition to that, according to McCrudy, The Creator encouraged his underage actors to drink alcohol. She also accused him of giving the younger cast unwanted hugs and massages. Following her stint on ‘Sam & Cat’ with Ariana Grande, McCrudy was offered $300,000 to never speak publicly of her experiences, but she refused.

Fans of Nickelodeon shows, more specifically, fans of ‘iCarly’, started unraveling old interviews of the cast, where they see that Trainor, who was 30 during the show’s run and much older than his cast mates, seemed to be the only one of the adults surrounding the kids who protected them from harm, particularly from Schneider. There were times where Trainor would get in between his younger co-stars in uncomfortable situations, as well as times where he’d talk back to Schneider when he felt whatever said was inappropriate.

McCrudy wasn’t the only person who spoke ill of Schneider and the toxic work environment he brought to the table. Her ‘Sam & Cat co-star, Ariana Grande opened up on the ‘Podcrushed’ podcast telling the host she repressed her relationship with ‘Victorious’, the sitcom that originated her character, Cat Valentine. She said, ‘And the innuendos were … it was, like, the cool differentiation. And I don’t know, I think it just all happened so quickly, and now looking back on some of the clips, I’m like, ‘Damn, really? Oh, s–t’ … and the things that weren’t approved for the network were snuck onto, like, our website or whatever.’ Grande’s ‘Victorious’ co-star, Danielle Monet, who played Trina Vega, previously opened up how her character was sexualized throughout the series, like the time she had to eat a pickle while applying lip gloss. She also supported claims that Schneider forced female actors to wear revealing clothing. To be more specific, Schneider encouraged female actors to wear as revealing clothing as possible.

The sexualization didn’t end there. Lori Beth Denberg, who appeared on ‘All That’s with Amanda Bynes, accused Schneider of inappropriate behaviour, including showing her porn when she was a minor, as well as initiating phone sex. Schneider denied those claims. He told ET in May, ‘Lori Beth’s accusations of me are wildly exaggerated, and, in most cases, false.’ The key 3 words here are, ‘IN MOST CASES.’

The two former Nickelodeon alums that didn’t share these experiences were Emma Roberts and Keke Palmer. Roberts, who’s the nice of Julia Roberts, shared with Variety in July, ‘I watched [Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV], and I was completely horrified and shocked because that was not my experience. It made me really, really, really sad that that was happening to people that I literally saw often and had no idea. My mom was with me 24/7, and even I would be like, ‘You don’t have to be here all the time,’ she was like, ‘I do actually. I’m not letting you out of my sight. You’re not going to a fitting by yourself when you’re 13 years old. It makes me really sad. I just feel like children need to be protected on sets, as do adults, and I feel like we’re working towards a better work environment in that sense.’

Palmer’s mother, Sharon, opened up earlier this month about how she felt Schneider gave her ‘culty vibes’. When appeared on her daughter’s podcast, ‘My honest opinion is I thought the whole atmosphere of the Dan Schneider set was very weird, very cultish. The parents were very secretive, and I honestly thought they all took themselves way too seriously.’ She also shared how she felt a sense of insecurity while being present at the studio while her daughter was working. She said, ‘The whole conversation was, ‘Oh my God! What’s happening next? Did you hear they’re going to cancel this show? What’s coming next?’ It was always so frantic about what was being canceled.’

But Dan Schneider’s problematic behaviour doesn’t just involve the young female actresses, but females behind-the-scenes as well. For one, he had two female writers being paid a salary of one writer. The two women, Jenny Kilgen and Christy Stratton, who were employed by Schneider to write for ‘The Amanda Show’, which starred Amanda Bynes, accused him of discriminatory behaviour and more. Stratton compared working for Schneider to being in an abusive relationship. And of having to share a salary with Stratton, Kilgen said, ‘I never saw that happen with any of the men. At the time, there weren’t a lot of positions for women in sketch comedy. It was very hard to navigate when you knew the opportunities for women were fewer.”

Both women started feeling that something was off when Schneider would make comments like ‘Women can’t write funny’ and challenge them to name a funny female writer. Of the ordeal, Kilgen said, ‘That was my first indication of trouble. In the beginning, I would see an instant message pop up. Dan would send a message for you to say out loud, like, scream ‘hammers!’ and you scream it. And then it would get more degrading. Scream, ‘I’m an idiot,’ or ‘slut’. Christy and I both did things that were uncomfortable. He’d say things like, ‘Could you please give me a massage, I’ll put one of your sketches in the show’. He’d always present it like a joke,” she continues, “But you always felt like disagreeing with Dan or standing up for yourself could result in you getting fired.’

But there was an instant with Schneider that pushed the women over the edge. Kilgen said that while they were in the writers room for ‘The Amanda Show, while Stratton was talking, Schneider said, ‘You know what would be funny? If you leaned over the table and acted like you were being sodomized while you told that story.’ Stratton declined to do so, but eventually gave in. Kilgen continued, ‘She said no at first. She couldn’t get out of it, but she just leaned over the table and did what he asked her to do. It was probably the wrongest thing I’d ever seen happen to a woman in a professional environment. It was upsetting to watch.’ Stratton, on her part, said, ‘I’m not proud of it. just think of that poor girl and what she had to go through.’ That ‘poor girl’ she was referring to was herself. With that said, Kilgen quit working on ‘The Amanda Show’, and sued Schneider and Nickelodeon gender discrimination. She settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount, but her career as a writer ended thereafter.

I know I’m putting so much emphasis on the women who faced such demeaning behaviour from a male leader. It doesn’t mean that men didn’t face scrutiny, however, and not just at the hands of Dan Schneider. Following the release of the docu-series, actor Matthew Underwood, who starred on ‘Zoey 101’, revealed on social media that he was assaulted by an agent. He wrote on Instagram, ‘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. Again, my trust was betrayed and my self image was 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 ending my pursuit of acting. I imagine many of my friends in the business are being equally harassed if they aren’t joining in 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.’

Drake Bell, who starred in ‘Drake & Josh’ with Josh Peck, as well as ‘The Amanda Show’ with Amanda Bynes, accused his dialogue coach, Brian Peck, of sexually assaulting him when he was 15. And when I say that he accused Brian Peck of sexual assault, it doesn’t mean I don’t believe him. Eventually, Bell told his mother, and Peck was arrested and charged with child sexual abuse. Following Bell’s admission, fellow former Nickelodeon stars Devon Werkheiser, Lindsey Shaw and Daniel Curtis Lee appeared to have made a mockery of Bell on TikTok. During their live, Werkheiser told Lee, ‘Daniel, we told you never to speak about that. Get back in your hole, Daniel, and give me your holes. Sorry, we shouldn’t joke about this. We really shouldn’t. Our set was not like that. No, it’s f**king awful. The Drake Bell s**t, that’s crazy to hear. That is f**ked. And that never came out, which is really wild. Really wild.’

I personally have a lot of opinions about this lame apology. These three are so high on creating content that they’ll literally say anything. Abuse is no joke. There’s nothing funny about it whatsoever. Why even say something you have to apologize for? That’s why you should always think before you speak, especially when you’re posting something on a social media platform. In hindsight, they’re the ones that are enabling abuse. Bell, on his part, certainly made his feelings known. He tweeted, ‘Ned’s Declassless…this is wild…laugh it up guys…laugh it up…’Give me your h*les?!!’ Really?!’

And rightfully so…

Following the release of ‘Quiet On Set’ docu-series, Dan Schneider made his own apology video on YouTube. Alexa Nikolas, who starred in ‘Zoey 101’ as Nicole, and appeared in the docu-series, wasn’t happy with Schneider’s apology. In her own video, she said, ‘When someone doesn’t personally come to you and apologize, it’s not an apology. If you hear about it through other people, it’s not really an apology right? An apology is to the person that you hurt. That’s what an apology is for. I would’ve appreciated if Dan apologized directly to me. He’s a bully, a meanie, and impacted my life, right? … Where’s a phone call of an apology? How come you can do all of this, how can everyone do all of this but not reach out to the person that they hurt? You don’t feel anything, Dan. You’re like every frickin’ privileged white male I’ve honestly ever met on set. You don’t even know what accountability is. You have no idea what it is. You’re searching for it maybe, but you haven’t landed on it. That’s for sure. This is not the way. I don’t wanna have to watch this. I would have so rather gotten a letter from you, for example, apologizing, genuinely, than having to witness the whole world watching whatever the hell this is. I don’t forgive Dan Schneider,” Nikolas said. “Not saying I’ll never, right? But currently, right now, that made me a little more upset, just because that just wasn’t it. That wasn’t proper accountability. That was avoiding a lot of the main discussions here that were mentioned in ‘Quiet on Set’. This was him playing the sympathy card, centering himself, playing the victim.’

She’s right…

Dan Schneider’s way of apologizing is a cowardly one. It’s meaningless. It’s useless. It’s defeating and degrading. He ruined people’s lives. He destroyed their careers. The least he could’ve done was face those he hurt and apologize to them rather than apologize on video for clout. Men like Dan Schneider need to start being better; doing better. Male leaders need to learn to treat women with respect; with dignity; with compassion. Just because we, women, are of different species doesn’t mean we’re less than, and it doesn’t matter the age. That’s something that ‘Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV’ brought to light.

With that said, there was one person who didn’t participate in the docu-series because she had nothing but kind words to say about Schneider, and that’s Amanda Bynes. Of their relationship, Schneider said in his apology video, ‘Amanda was between the ages of 16 and 17 and she wanted to get emancipated from her parents, which was a fairly common thing with successful young actors — at least at the time. She wanted that for herself, so she turned to her team, which included her lawyer, her agent, her manager, her publicist, me — because she included me as part of her team, thought of me that way. We supported her, she tried to get emancipated and it ended up not working out and she didn’t.’

Bynes infamously went through a very troubling time in the 2010’s, and I’m pretty sure she is where she is today thanks to the support and love her family has shown her in the years since, so I’m not sure how applicable Schneider’s words are. As an adult you’re supposed to be a mentor to kids and young adults; not their enabler. But that’s just me.

It seems to me like Dan Schneider hasn’t taken responsibility for his actions, and he never will. I deserved everything he got and more. He deserves to never be able to work. Regardless of that, I hope this will be a learning curve for all other men who undertake a leadership role, especially when they work with young adults and women.