Zoey 101’s Alexa Nikolas claims Dan Schneider took part in costume fittings when she was 12
Topics: Film and TV
Emma Guinness
Featured Image Credit: @thevulnerablepodcast/TikTok/Matt Sayles/Invision/AP/Shutterstock
Topics: Film and TV
Alexa Nikolas has claimed that Dan Schneider would be present during her costume fittings for Zoey 101 when she was just 12 years old.
The actor, now 30, made the shocking allegation about the TV producer, now 56, on Dear Media's Real Pod on Wednesday (2 November), where she opened up about what life was allegedly like on the set of the hit show.
She claimed: "Whenever I had wardrobe fittings, [Schneider] always had to be in them.
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"Thank God there was a curtain, but he was literally [sitting] on [a] chair right outside of the curtain."
The actor said that her character on the popular children’s show, which ran from 2005 to 2008, would wear 'very short skirts'.
Nikolas added: "I was constantly having to roll down the biker shorts that were underneath."
The Walking Dead star said that the producer would also ask for pictures of her in character.
"[It was] to the point where he would sit in the chair, and I would come out and do a little spin," she said. "[Schneider] would look at the wardrobe artist and say, 'Can I have the Polaroids?'"
Nikolas said that while she did not think that there was anything wrong with the producer's actions at the time, she soon realised that it was problematic after she went on to act in subsequent projects like Mad Men.
She recalled: "I started to realise, 'Oh, so the creator isn’t in the room for the wardrobe fittings.' And I remember them being like, 'Yeah, no. We just send them a photo, and they approve with the producers'."
As reported by Page Six, the former Nickelodeon president of content and production, Russell Hicks, issued a statement about the producer's alleged interactions with children on the show.
It read: "Dan cared about the kids on his shows even when sometimes their own families unfortunately did not.
"He was the shoulder they cried on when something happened to them. He understood what they were going through.
"Dan was like the great high school counsellor you could always turn to for help and guidance. And he was their biggest champion."
The statement asserted that Nickelodeon 'has a talent management department that is keeping tabs on everything that is happening and going to every event these kids go to.'
It added: "Every single thing that Dan ever did on any of his shows was carefully scrutinised and approved by executives at Nickelodeon."
UNILAD has reached out to Dan Schneider’s representatives for comment.