Quiet on Set: Dan Schneider claps back after allegedly “preying” on Nickelodeon star

Two months after the release of Quiet on Set, Dan Schneider has clapped back at allegations that he “preyed on” a former Nickelodeon star. 

Lori Beth Denberg, who appeared on Nickelodeon’s All That between 1994 and 1998, sat down with Business Insider to discuss her experiences with the then-head writer of the show.

In 1995, when she was 19 years old, she claims Schneider held a meeting in which he showed her porn on his computer, the “grand finale” clip involving a woman performing a sex act on a donkey. 

“I feel like that is the first time he preyed on me,” she told the outlet, going on to accuse Schneider of lashing out at her on set, showing her porn numerous times, and once initiating phone sex. 

The Nickelodeon hitmaker responded to the allegations as “wildly exaggerated and, in most cases, false.”

“As I have previously stated, there were times, particularly in the early years of my career, that I made mistakes and exhibited poor judgment as a leader,” Schneider added. 

“If I did that with respect to Lori Beth, I sincerely apologize to her. But I cannot apologize for things I did not do.”

Denberg went on to tell BI that she started spending more time with Schneider in 1996, when All That’s production moved from Orlando to LA, sometimes even staying overnight at his home. 

Although they didn’t have sex, she claims they would massage each other, and it was during these times that he played her explicit material. 

She also recalls an incident winning a bet, but Schneider responded by allegedly touching and putting his mouth on her breasts. 

Although Denberg told herself that she was over the legal age of consent, she was also worried that if she refused him she may jeopardize her position on All That. “I couldn’t have been more vulnerable,” she said. 

Denberg’s school friend Farah Alvin told BI that Denberg confided in her about the alleged phone sex, porn, and Schneider’s requests for massages.

This isn’t the first time Schneider has been accused of showing explicit material to Nickelodeon staff, with Amanda Show writer Jenny Kilgen alleging in Quiet on Set that he did so in the writers’ room. 

By sharing her story, Denberg is hoping others will feel safe to come forward. “There’s right and wrong, and there’s true and false,” she said. 

The news arrives shortly after Schneider filed to sue the producers of Quiet on Set. 

He claims the documentary series was a “hit job” and that he “had no knowledge of” the sexual abuse and misconduct that allegedly occurred on his Nickelodeon shows.

The filing also states that Schneider “was not complicit in the abuse, condemned the abuse once it was discovered, and, critically, was not a child sexual abuser himself…

“Defendants have destroyed Schneider’s reputation and legacy through the false statements and implications that Schneider is exactly that.”