Photo: Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock
This is truly disturbing.
By Bernadette Giacomazzo — Written on Jun 17, 2020
New Jersey native, actor, and comedian Chris D'Elia seemed to be poised to make a great career for himself. In addition to having a successful comedy career, he starred in the hit Netflix show,You, opposite Penn Badgley, oddly in the role of ... a sexual predator.
But, according to a new and explosive allegations, D'Elia's character in You is reportedly a case of art imitating life. On the hit Netflix show, D'Elia plays Joshua Henderson Bunter, a comedian who secretly sexually preys on children.
What we know about Chris D'Elia sexual harassment claims:
They were brought about by a woman named Simone Rossi.
On June 16, 2020, a woman by the name of Simone Rossi took to Twitter to share her experience with the comedian and actor. In her tweets, which you can see below, she details how D'Elia preyed upon her when she was just 16 years old. Rossi alleges that when D'Elia first began preying on her, she was "flattered" by the attention. However, as she got older, she realized that D'Elia's behavior was predatory.
Rossi's claims prompted other women to come forward.
After Rossi made her claims on Twitter, other women began coming forward with their stories. User "Thotsberry Farm" claimed that Rossi was not only telling the truth, but that she was one of many high school girls that D'Elia preyed upon back in 2015. User "CFetkeComedy" also came forward with her story about D'Elia hitting on her when she was only 16 years old, and made clear that she "believed Simone." Abby Grills shared her story of D'Elia hitting on her back in 2011 when she was only 17 years old.
But Tara Fay had the most harrowing story of all. "So glad I'm not the only girl who experienced this. I met him in a hotel bar on Halloween and he got mad I wouldn’t ditch my friends for him. I went to LA and texted him and he told me I was a bitch bc I wouldn’t go upstairs and sleep with him," she said.
Problematic tweets of D'Elia's also started emerging.
Right after Rossi made her claims, other problematic tweets of D'Elia's started emerging. The first tweet, which he wrote in 2010, said that he was playing a pedophile in a new Comedy Central show (it was for the series Workaholic, and the episode "To Friend A Predator"), and he joked that his "career" was over. The second tweet, which was subsequently deleted but caught in a screencap by Jake Taylor, is just too terrible to repeat here. Check it out below.
He's made uncomfortable comments about teenage girls in the past.
On a recent podcast, D'Elia made predatory comments about 14-year-old girls. "You ever see a f**kin' 14-year-old?" he asked, rhetorically. "She looks 30. There's no such thing as a 14-year-old girl anymore." Check out the clip below.
He was previously linked to Kristin Taylor.
Prior to all the claims about his sexual harassment came out, D'Elia's private life was mostly kept under wraps. He was previously linked to Kristin Taylor, an animator who was reportedly pregnant with his child. No other details were made available about Taylor, or whether she'd had the baby, or even if the duo is still together.
D'Elia was previously married to Emily Montague.
Before he was revealed to be in a relationship with Taylor, D'Elia was married to Emily Montague, a sometime-actress, from 2006 to 2010. Today, Montague is married to another actor, Damon Dayoub, who is best known for his role on NCIS. She shares a daughter, Ava James, with the actor, who is the son of businessman Richard Dayoub.
D'Elia denied the claims.
“I know I have said and done things that might have offended people during my career, but I have never knowingly pursued any underage women at any point,” D’Elia said Wednesday in a statement. “All of my relationships have been both legal and consensual and I have never met or exchanged any inappropriate photos with the people who have tweeted about me. That being said, I really am truly sorry. I was a dumb guy who ABSOLUTELY let myself get caught up in my lifestyle. That’s MY fault. I own it. I’ve been reflecting on this for some time now and I promise I will continue to do better.”
It also bears stating that as of this writing, he hasn't been "canceled" — that is, none of his specials have been removed from Comedy Central's website, and his starring role in You is still intact on Netflix.
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, publicist, and photographer whose work has appeared in Teen Vogue, People, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, BET.com, and more.