Former Nickelodeon child star Alexa Nikolas led a protest outside Nickelodeon’s studio in Burbank, California on Tuesday following the release of a bombshell documentary about child sexual abuse inside the company.
The Zoey 101 star – one of many former Nickelodeon child actors who took part in Investigation Discovery’s Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV documentary this month – livestreamed the protest outside Nickelodeon’s studio gates, where protesters chanted, “Power to survivors!” and, “Protect survivors, not predators!”
Protesters held photographs of former Nickelodeon staffers convicted of sexual abuse, as well as photographs of executives they accused of enabling misconduct at the company. One protester held a balloon which read, “Sickelodeon,” while Nikolas herself held a sign which read, “Nickelodeon didn’t protect us.”
At the beginning of the protest, Nikolas declared, “This is a very monumental moment for child stars everywhere. We were so scared of these networks and the adults that we were working for for such a long time, and now we’re adults and we get to let them know how we feel.”
Quiet on Set documented the child sexual abuse committed by former Nickelodeon assistant Jason Handy, dialogue coach Brian Peck, and studio freelancer Ezell Channel, as well as the alleged abusive and misogynistic behavior of Nickelodeon showrunner Dan Schneider.
The documentary also revealed for the first time publicly that Drake Bell – star of Nickelodeon’s Drake and Josh and The Amanda Show – had been sexually abused by Peck.
“I often look back at that time and wonder how in the world I survived,” said Bell in the documentary, while former child star Kyle Sullivan recalled the time Peck showed him art and letters from his pen pal, the serial killer and child rapist John Wayne Gacy.
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