Nickelodeon Alum Allie DiMeco Claims She Was Forced to Kiss 30-Year-Old Man on 'Naked Brothers Band' as a Teen
"It gives me f---ing the ick and it honestly gives me PTSD," DiMeco said, admitting she couldn't watch the scene as an adult
Allie DiMeco is coming forward with her own harrowing experience as a child star on Nickelodeon's The Naked Brother's Band.
Upon the release of Investigation Discovery's docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, DiMeco spoke out about an onscreen kiss she performed on the Nickelodeon series when her teenager character, Rosalina, kissed a French man (Jake Hertzog) in an episode titled "Naked Idol."
In a video posted to TikTok, the former child actor admitted she felt "stressed" while watching Quiet on Set and revealed that she "went through trauma" like so many other Nickelodeon stars who came forward for the series.
“There was an episode where Rosalina ‘cheated’ on Nat and kind of kissed a French guy,” she recalled, sharing how she didn't want to kiss the man. “He’s a 30-year-old man. I’m sorry, I couldn’t even watch it. It gives me f---ing the ick and it honestly gives me PTSD."
“I’m watching this Quiet on Set documentary and it’s talking about how integral and vital it is to create — especially when it’s a kids cast — to create an environment where kids feel comfortable to say ‘No’ or ‘I don’t feel comfortable with this,'" DiMeco continued. "And I’m like, ‘Yeah, maybe they do express that though, it’s also more important to create an environment that listens to the kids and actually does not make them do things when they don’t want to do them.'"
Despite allegedly telling producers "many times that I didn't want to do it" and her mother's protests, she claimed that they "made me kiss this 30 plus-year-old man when I was like, what, 14, 15?" and "pretty much made me feel like I was going to lose my job, that I might be fired if I didn’t do it.”
Reps for former Naked Brothers Band showrunner Polly Draper and Naked Brothers Band executive producer Albie Hecht did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment. PEOPLE has also reached out to reps at Nickelodeon for comment.
In another instance, DiMeco also alleged that producers pressured her into having her first kiss on camera.
In the series' first season, the show featured an episode that centered around Nat (Nat Wolff) and Rosalina's kiss. Because she was only "12 or 13" at the time, she and her mother refused to have the moment unfold for the first time on camera.
“They threatened me that I would get fired, that I would never work again in this industry, that my career was over,” she said in a TikTok video posted in November, adding, “There was a female producer who was very upset and looked at me and said, ‘You haven’t had your first kiss yet?’ and grabbed me and kissed me. And then she said, ‘There, your first kiss is over. You had your first kiss, now go film.'”
Related: Drake Bell's Dad Recalls Finding Out About Son's Sex Abuse by Brian Peck: 'I'm Not the Same Today'
Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV premiered earlier this month, exploring some of the toxic culture of children’s television shows that young actors and others endured in the 1990s and 2000s, including many series produced by Dan Schneider. It also featured interviews with former actors, writers and crew members from hit Nickelodeon shows All That, The Amanda Show and Zoey 101 as they detailed the alleged disturbing environment behind the scenes.
Former child actor Drake Bell also came forward in the doc for the first time and revealed he was sexually assaulted by a Nickelodeon dialogue coach.
Schneider left the network in 2018 after an internal investigation into his allegedly verbally abusive and demanding behavior on set. Schneider has denied allegations of misconduct.
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Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV is streaming on Max.
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