Matthew Underwood, who starred in the hit Nickelodeon show “Zoey 101,” claims that he quit acting after his agent at the time sexually assaulted him when he was 19.
Underwood, who played Logan Reese in all four seasons of the aughts teen sitcom, issued a statement Friday via Instagram after fans “harassed” him to respond to the allegations of abuse and toxicity at Nickelodeon that were lodged in the recent “Quiet on Set” docuseries.
“I know many folks want me to respond to the ‘quiet on set’ documentary,” Underwood, 33, began his lengthy post. “I’m going to share with you something I never thought I would 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 friend’s stepfather,” he wrote. “I lost the best friends I ever had because I couldn’t spend any more time with them without feeling a personal disgust and betrayal brought on by a man I trusted as a father to me.”
“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,” 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 is still active in 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 did not name the agent in his statement.
“Zoey 101” aired from 2005 to 2008.
Underwood said people have lately 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 many years rebuilding my self-image and those hateful words have little effect on me today.”
“I imagine many of my friends in the business are being equally harassed if they aren’t joining in the chorus,” Underwood wrote. “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.”
“I never had a bad experience working on set of a Nickelodeon show, and I never had a bad experience with Dan,” Underwood added. “I have nothing to add to the conversation that anyone would care to hear.”
“I can’t believe I even have to say this, but of course 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 maintain their privacy — you never know who has already been a victim of the hell you’re wishing upon them.”
“Quiet on Set” — which can 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 two counts of child sex abuse.
The spotlight 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.
“Everything that happened on the shows Dan ran was carefully 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 would be taken down, but they are not, they are aired constantly all over the world today still, enjoyed by both kids and parents,” the statement continued.
“In addition, every day on every set, there were always parents and caregivers and their friends watching filming and rehearsals,” the rep said, adding that had there been any issues, “they would have been flagged and blocked by this multilayered scrutiny.”
