A former Nickelodeon star came forward about an uncomfortable incident on the set of The Naked Brothers Band.
In light of the shocking allegations made in the Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV docuseries, former child star Allie DiMeco, now 31, gave her account about the time she was forced to perform an onscreen kiss with a grown man.
DiMeco recalled in a nearly four-minute TikTok the time where her character, Rosalina, kissed a French man, played by Jake Hertzog, on a Naked Brothers Band episode called “Naked Idol.” She estimates she was 14 or 15 at the time of filming.
“There was an episode where Rosalina ‘cheated’ on Nat and kind of kissed a French guy,” said DiMeco, per People, confessing that she didn't want to. “He’s a 30-year-old man. I’m sorry, I couldn’t even watch it. It gives me fucking the ick and it honestly gives me PTSD."
The episode aired in March 2009, when DiMeco was 16 and Hertzog would have been about 22-24. (Various outlets have noted over the years that he was the youngest-ever winner of the Montreux Jazz Guitar Competition at age 20 in 2006.)
DiMeco adds that The Naked Brothers Band's young fan base thought it was a “documentary.” Seeing her character be a cheater was enough to make young girls “want to fight” DiMeco.
She continued, “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.' 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. ... I told them many times I didn’t wanna do it. My mom was very against it and they just pretty much made me feel like I was gonna lose my job and be fired if I didn’t do it."
Despite that experience, the actress described the environment at the Naked Brothers Band as the “healthiest” Nickelodeon set based on her understanding.
In a TikTok shared in November, DiMeco detailed another on-set situation that made her leave acting altogether. She explained that due to her busy schedule as a child actor, she hadn’t experienced her first kiss. An episode during the show’s first season involving an onscreen kiss was approaching when she was about “12 or 13,” leaving her “freaked out” because she had never kissed anyone before.
With her mom by her side, the actress told the show’s producers and director that she would not have her first kiss on the show.
“They threatened me that I would get fired, that I would never work again in this industry, that my career was over,” DiMeco said, per the Hollywood Reporter. “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.'”
Many of the allegations on Quiet on Set involved Dan Schneider, one of the minds behind many popular Nickelodeon shows, including The Amanda Show, Zoey 101, iCarly, Victorious, Sam & Cat, and others. Per Complex’s Jaelani Turner-Williams, Nickelodeon parted ways with the television producer in 2018 following allegations of misconduct.
Schneider broke his silence in a video uploaded to YouTube and apologized for his “past behavior.”
